Thread: GA-Caught in pickle between jobs, crackdown on illegals

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€

let me put it this way if all the Illegal immigrant would get the hell Out Of Our country & go back home . they have job In Mexico & don't say you don't you do you have just about every thing American has . then we all would Have jobs you are Our country illegal & you have Our jobs we have family also just like you do we don't have Money to Mail home so all the rest can come Over . you think for one min that we American don't know what going on think again . w e did No just Get off the boat . so get the Hell back to mexico . no more free Bee
Donlad Trump Hurry up & get the hell
No Amnesty

Originally Posted by FedUpinFarmersBranch

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.

The problem is that the federal governmet is not doing its job. If our immigration laws were actually enforced nationwide, all growers would be on the same footing. All of them could take advantage of those temporary permits.

States are stepping up, because 'Bama & Co. refuses to protect American workers. That situation will continue as long as 'Bama sits in the Oval Office. As 'Bama himself said, "That's what elections are for."
************************************************** ********************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

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

Big farmers have federal subsidies and huge profits which they use to pay lobbyists to lobby against the taxpayers best interest.

This is a ridiculous argument that he has to provide for his workers. He fails to mention that they come alone without their wives to produce children we have to provide for - school, healthcare and benefits.

We have no one to lobby for our interests - and we continually get the shaft.

If GA doesn't pass strict legislation aainst illegals, we will be moving to a more compatible area, maybe SC which does have mandatory E-verify and much lower numbers of illegals. The only illegal houses in my area that look halfway decent are the empty ones left to foreclosure - its really an improvement. What they have done to our neighborhoods is nothing short of sickening.

There is only one view, not 2. Illegals are destroying American lives. You have one man using illegals to keep their costs low and profits up to create an unfair advantage and another who's lost their business for obeying the law and not hiring illegals. Same arguement except one is abusing the system and the other is punished by it for following the law.