February 12, 2011

Georgia caught in pickle between jobs, crackdown on illegal immigration
By Jeremy Redmon
Sat Feb 12, 2011, 11:57 PM EST

Bill Brim is worried about the extra costs he said his fruit and vegetable farm in Tifton would have to absorb if state lawmakers pass tough Arizona-style laws aimed at illegal immigration in Georgia.

Charles Shafer Jr., meanwhile, says the proposed laws could be a step in the right direction, so long as they are enforced here. The Lawrenceville resident said he was forced to shut down his home construction business years ago because he could not compete with others he suspected were hiring illegal immigrants.

Such different views have put state lawmakers in a pickle. While they want to curb illegal immigration in Georgia, the lawmakers also are trying to protect the state’s bruised economy. The problem is that the two issues are closely intertwined.

Illegal immigrants come to Georgia mainly to find work. There were an estimated 325,000 of them working in Georgia last year, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report released this month. That represents 7 percent of Georgia’s work force, according to the Washington-based nonpartisan research group, which uses U.S. census data for its estimates. Only six other states — including Texas and California — have higher percentages.

If all illegal immigrants were to leave Georgia, the state would lose $21.3 billion in economic activity, according to a 2008 study done for Americans for Immigration Reform, a Houston-based, business-sponsored group that supports changes to current immigration law.

At the same time, critics argue illegal immigrants are crowding local jails in Georgia and sapping the state’s taxpayer-funded resources, including its public schools.

Both bills now moving through the state Legislature — House Bill 87 and Senate Bill 40 — would require many private businesses to use a federal program called E-Verify to confirm whether their employees are eligible to work in the United States. SB 40 includes an exemption for farmers and other employers who participate in federal guest worker programs, which allow noncitizens to legally work in the United States.

Brim, the Tifton farmer, said he participates in one of those guest worker program called H-2A. He said that program helps him bring more than 450 workers from Mexico and El Salvador to work on his vegetable farm. He said his farm covers about 4,500 acres in Tifton and raises cucumbers, squash, eggplant, watermelon, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables, some of which are sold in Atlanta area grocery stores.

Brim said the H-2A visa program is cumbersome and is costing his business “hundreds of thousands of dollars,â€