Thread: Farm run by governor's in-laws employs undocumented workers

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Farm run by governor's in-laws employs undocumented workers

By Sam Hemingway
Free Press Staff Writer

February 18, 2007
A Middlebury dairy farm owned by relatives of Gov. Jim Douglas is among the hundreds of Vermont farms employing illegal Mexican immigrants, one of the co-owners of the farm confirmed last week.

"Yes, we do," said Ted Foster, who oversees daily operations of the sprawling 1,537-acre Foster Brothers Farm on Lower Foote Street in Middlebury. "I've been very happy with the work they've done."

Among the Foster family members who own the farm is Robert Foster, a member of the Agri-Mark board of directors and brother of Dorothy Douglas, the governor's wife. Ted Foster, vice president of the Vermont Farm Bureau, is a cousin.

Ted Foster said the farm began employing Mexican workers four years ago after it was unable to find enough qualified local people willing to do milking and other chores at the 380-cow dairy farm. Four Mexicans are employed at Foster Brothers Farm, he said.

Migrant farm advocates estimate that at least 2,000 Mexicans, most in the country illegally, are employed on dairy farms across the state. State agriculture officials have said that without the Mexican help, many Vermont dairy farms would go out of business.

Foster said he and other family members have discussed with Douglas their decision to hire Mexican workers but recognize that addressing the illegal status of most Mexican farm workers in Vermont is a federal, not a state, matter.

"We've talked about the issue," Foster said. "He can't do a lot."

Douglas, in an interview, acknowledged he has known for some time that Foster Brothers Farm employs Mexican workers. He said he has no financial interest in the farm but visits it occasionally.

"I'm certainly aware they have Mexican workers, but I've never run into any of them when I was there," he said.

Douglas said he was not in a position to judge whether it is right or wrong for farmers to hire workers who are illegal immigrants.

"Farm business people feel it's appropriate to do this to be successful," Douglas said. "I don't have any particular advice, other than to write your congressional members and tell them we need immigration reform."

Douglas said he supports federal legislation to create a "guest worker" program to allow foreign workers into the country to work on dairy farms.

Foster said he has spoken in the past to Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., about the issue. Leahy recently co-sponsored such guest worker legislation; Sanders supports the measure.

Congressman Peter Welch, D-Vt., is scheduled to stop by Foster Family Farm on Wednesday, and Foster said he hopes to talk with Welch about the need for federal legislation to legalize the presence of the Mexicans in Vermont. Andrew Savage, Welch's spokesman, said Welch also favors the guest worker proposal.

Forming friendships


The days when farms could count on the local labor pool for people interested in being hired hands is long gone, Foster said.

"It's odd hours. You get dirty and can get kicked by a cow," he said, repeating a story other farmers have told about the struggles to find and retain local workers. "A lot of people don't like working around animals.

"We had one guy who walked out in the middle of milking. We thought he had gone to get a drink but he never came back. Stories like that happened over and over again."

Foster said the Mexican workers, by contrast, are "on a mission" to work as much as they can in order to earn as much money as they can, most of which they send to their families in Mexico to pay for the construction of a home or to start a business.

"They work like crazy," he said. "I try to give them a day off and they come back a little later and say they're bored and want to work some more."

Foster said his farm still employs some Vermont workers, and that they and the Mexicans work well together. He said the Mexicans are fun-loving and easy to be around, despite the language barrier.

"I've been down in the dumps about something, and I'll go into the barn," he said. "They're in there, working and playing their Mexican songs, singing and whistling. In a couple of minutes, I'm on Cloud Nine."

Foster said concerns that the Mexicans are availing themselves of health care and other services funded by Vermont taxpayers are unfounded. He said most farms, including Foster Brothers Farm, pay the bills for Mexicans needing medical services.

"You take a look around," he said. "The unemployment rate in our area has not risen a bit. The school population is going down, not up. And health care has not risen a bit based on the Mexican workers' being here."

Foster said his farm also is making worker's compensation, unemployment insurance and Social Security payments on behalf of the Mexican workers, even though they are not American citizens and might never have access to the money.

Foster acknowledged that life in Vermont for Mexicans who entered the country illegally can be lonely. The workers, most of them men in their 20s, stick close to the farm out of fear they will be caught and deported. They are a long way from home, miss their families and have little social life here, he said.

"I served in Vietnam for a year, and I know the guys in Iraq are gone for 18 months," Foster said. "It's sort of like that for the Mexicans, except they're away from home much longer. I can't imagine doing that."

He said his family provides transportation for its Mexican workers and has not lost any to deportation. He said he has worked to learn Spanish and that tutors have visited the farm to help the Mexicans learn English.

The farm's deepening relationship with the Mexicans over the last four years prompted one Foster family member to travel to an area in southern Mexico that is home to most of the workers the farm has employed.

"It was really depressing," Foster said. "There would be a house with electricity, and electrical cords running on the ground to other houses." He said having a Foster family member see what their workers' lives are like back in Mexico made him understand why they work so hard here.

"It's a great foreign aid program when you think about it," he said of his farm's employment of the Mexican workers. "The money they earn is going from the American private sector to the Mexican private sector, and it upgrades their standard of living."

Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress

"Farm business people feel it's appropriate to do this to be successful," Douglas said. "I don't have any particular advice, other than to write your congressional members and tell them we need immigration reform."

Wow, the Governor admits to having knowledge of an illegal activity, yet he does nothing about it. This is absolutely ludicrous! What's this country coming to?

Douglas said he was not in a position to judge whether it is right or wrong for farmers to hire workers who are illegal immigrants.

We're not asking him to "judge" anything, just to ensure the laws are enforced.

"I've been down in the dumps about something, and I'll go into the barn," he said. "They're in there, working and playing their Mexican songs, singing and whistling. In a couple of minutes, I'm on Cloud Nine."

I'm fairly certain it's the money the criminal aliens are making that's sending you to Cloud Nine, not their whistling.

Among the Foster family members who own the farm is Robert Foster, a member of the Agri-Mark board of directors and brother of Dorothy Douglas, the governor's wife. Ted Foster, vice president of the Vermont Farm Bureau, is a cousin.

Must be nice to have the a governor in your hip pocket, especially when it comes to preventing the feds from sniffing around. IMHO, there should be a congressional instigated investigation on this immediately.

Has anyone sent this to Lou Dobbs yet? Perhaps we all should because this is a squeaky wheel that needs some serious grease.