Thread: State immigration laws do unintended damage

State immigration laws do unintended damage

Published: November 16, 2011

It's a lot easier to denounce a group of people when there's no faces to consider or thought to how it affects everyone.

That's the case with migrant workers who pick our fruit and do most of the agricultural work in our country.

But there are people out there who believe that running these people off is our highest priority, and it wreaks havoc on people's lives, as well as our agricultural production.

Agricultural leaders they will tell it to you straight: Our nation needs immigration reform. There needs to be a way to decrease illegal immigration and provide a way for people yearning to lead a better life to come here legally.

It's what our country was based upon.

This is an issue that needs to remain a federal issue. When states take it on, they usually do it wrong, and the unintended consequences can be devastating. We're seeing that in Alabama and Georgia.

A judge has thrown out part of a harsh law passed in Alabama that forces everyone from employers to police to teachers to crack the whip on anyone they think might be illegal immigrants.

The agricultural world isn't wanting to fight with people who have strong views about illegal immigration. No one advocates illegal immigrants pouring into our country, and everyone wants to find a reasonable answer.

What agricultural people want everyone to know is that they need people who will harvest their crops at a price that consumers will pay. The alternative is that all the produce, beef, fruit and everything else will be harvested in other countries, with much lower environmental requirements and food safety protections.

The fact is, as much as people want to make the claim, these are not jobs that are being taken from citizens already here. Ag producers want reliable, good workers. They also want legal workers and do what they can to find them.

We must not ruin our ag economy with knee-jerk reactions and enacting laws that do no one any good. It will take patience to figure this out. Alabama and Georgia have jumped the gun, and the results are obvious to everyone.

http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/ ... nded-dama/

That's the case with migrant workers who pick our fruit and do most of the agricultural work in our country.

Definition of MIGRANT
: one that migrates: as a : a person who moves regularly in order to find work especially in harvesting crops
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/migrant

How can they think we are so stupid as not to know these people are no longer 'migrants' when they stay year round.

Migrant workers don't bring their families and establish permanent residency.