http://www.11alive.com/news/news_articl ... ryid=76507

Provided By: The Associated Press
Last Modified: 2/22/2006 4:53:57 PM

By RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press Writer

LYONS, Ga. (AP) -- Every spring, farmer Paul Gore hires about 175 workers to harvest his Vidalia onion crop. Almost all of them are migrants, most from Mexico -- but how many are in the U.S. legally, Gore admits he's not really sure.

"A guy comes to your office and brings his Social Security and his Green Card, it figures he's legal," Gore said Wednesday. "But I don't know if it's real or not."

As Georgia lawmakers consider proposals to crack down on illegal immigration, and tougher federal standards loom, growers of Georgia's prized Vidalia onion and other crops worry that tougher enforcement could dry up their labor pools.

About 55 farmers and other agricultural employers gathered Wednesday for a U.S. Department of Labor seminar on migrant worker issues. They said they're making extra effort to follow the letter of the law.

The problem is illegal workers easily slip through the cracks using fake Green Cards and other forged documents -- and the farmers need those migrants to stay in business.

"The bottom line is if we don't have migrant labor available to us, we won't be able to harvest our crops," said Ronnie Mcleod, who grows Vidalias, corn and soybean on 1,000 acres in Tattnall County. "We'd be out of business without the migrant help."

Like his fellow farmers, Mcleod says he asks each of his workers for documentation to show they can legally work in the U.S. The federal government requires employers to fill out a form for each employee showing they checked.

But chances are, even when migrants show employers their documentation, those workers are still illegal, said Scott McCormack, senior special agent for U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement in Savannah.

"Most of the documents are going to be false," McCormack said.

Still, the government doesn't expect farmers and other employers to play detective in snooping out fake Green Cards and other IDs. As long as they file the proper paperwork, they're not penalized for getting duped.

"Immigration does not expect you to pull out a magnifying glass and quiz people," McCormack told the seminar group Wednesday. "We just want you to fill out the form."

But the current system, in which employers can essentially hire illegal immigrants while following the letter of the law, may soon hit a snag.

In 2007, resident aliens seeking work will be required to have Green Cards adopted in the late 1990s that are practically impossible to fake -- on the back, each has tiny images of every U.S. president from George Washington to Bill Clinton.

"If they start requiring us to send them a register of the Green Cards, we're in trouble," Mcleod said. "I'd have to go out of business."

Meanwhile, state lawmakers are debating a sweeping immigration bill that, among other things, seeks to punish employers of illegal aliens through the tax code. Employers would be prohibited from claiming tax deductions for wages migrant workers without proof of their legal status.

R.T. Stanley, who hires almost all migrants to harvest his 1,000 acre Vidalia onion crop, said he's afraid tougher immigration laws will scare away as many legal migrants as illegal ones.

Anticipating a crackdown, a number of farmers said they're considering enrollment in a government program where workers in Mexico get a special visa to work for a single employer, with a strict contract guaranteeing their wages and limiting how long they can work in the U.S.

It's more costly, requiring employers have to pay higher wages than the $5.15-an-hour minimum wage. Alex Cornelius, a blueberry farmer from Maynor, said he's looking into the visa program to avoid any potential trouble with illegal workers. But that would also mean raising the price of his crop.

"You need a higher return -- that's the bottom line," he said. "You're going to have to sell your produce for more money."