Thread: Grower's dilemma: Use only legal workers, risk losing money

http://www.mercurynews.com

Posted on Fri, Jun. 30, 2006

Grower's dilemma: Use only legal workers, risk losing money

ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press

OCEANSIDE, Calif. - It isn't surprising that flower grower Michael Mellano employs illegal immigrants. What's unusual is he freely admits it.

"How can you hide it?" he said. "Who are you trying to kid?"

Mellano, a slender, affable man who moves easily between English and Spanish, estimates 60 percent of workers in the nation's farms are illegal immigrants. He figures that same percentage applies to his 250 employees.

Mellano's cut-flower business, founded by his Italian immigrant father in 1925, is part of a vanishing breed in the United States. Foreign competition, spurred by relaxed trade barriers and improved shipping methods, has driven many U.S. flower growers out of business.

He's watching closely as Congress considers the most sweeping overhaul to immigration laws in decades. A public hearing by the U.S. House International Relations Committee is scheduled for Wednesday in San Diego, about 60 miles south of Mellano's fields.

Mellano is wary of what lawmakers may do. Anything that makes it harder for him to find or keep workers threatens his business.

"If all of a sudden we didn't have 60 percent of our guys, we couldn't operate," he said.

Mellano (pronounced mah-LAH-no) follows the law - he requires job applicants show proof they are allowed to work in the United States and says he rejects obvious forgeries. But a 1986 law doesn't require that he verify the authenticity of work documents.

"I'm assuming that a good number of our people are lying," said Mellano, 67, who farms lilies, irises and sunflowers on 375 acres of rolling hills. "We are required by law to hire people that have documents, which is what we do, but we know a significant number are forgeries. Everyone knows that."

Agriculture is one of the top employers of illegal immigrants, though candor like Mellano's is rare among farmers. Like the vast majority, Mellano has declined to participate in a voluntary program to verify employees' Social Security numbers and check them against other federal databases. Bills passed by the House and Senate would require him to participate.

There is pressure on the federal government to step up enforcement in the workplace. Only 46 people were convicted in 2004 for hiring illegal immigrants, a number that has changed little over the last decade.

Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which enforces immigration laws at workplaces, said a new strategy involves prosecuting employers for other violations that may be easier to prove, such as tax evasion or money laundering.

The immigration debate comes at a time of swift change in the flower business, a $9 billion-a-year industry in the United States. The number of U.S. cut flower growers was 498 last year, down from 829 in 1997 and 932 in 1992, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Colombia is the largest importer by far but China, New Zealand and Kenya also have become players. Imports accounted for 65.6 percent of cut flowers sold in the United States last year, up from 42.7 percent in 1990.

With its ideal growing climate, Colombia emerged as a flower power in the 1970s and flourished as the U.S. government encouraged farmers there to wean themselves from cocoa plants, which are used to make cocaine.

The competitive disadvantage Mellano faces is evident from the wage scale: His workers start at $6.75 an hour, or roughly $1,100 per month. A worker in Colombia makes $150 to $200 a month.

John Keeley, spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., has no sympathy for Mellano's plight. Illegal immigrants have been an "unending labor subsidy" for farmers, stifling innovation and mechanization, he said. If Mellano can't attract enough legal workers, then he should close his business, Keeley said.

"If Colombia gets a bigger piece of the pie, all the power to them," said Kelley, whose organization advocates tighter immigration controls. "We're not turning our backs on globalization."

A visit to the Mellano farm illustrates the extent to which flower growers depend on manual labor.

One crew swats eucalyptus branches and loads them onto trucks to the tune of Mexican ranchero music. Other crews are picking bulbs and pulling weeds.

A loading dock houses a crude machine for chopping off iris stems, one of the few machines on the farm, which is sandwiched between homes and a golf course on one end and hills of avocado and macadamia trees on the other.

Boxes of carnations are piled in a 13,000-square-foot refrigerator. Mellano began importing them from Colombia about 15 years ago. It is rare to find a U.S. grower who harvests roses, carnations or chrysanthemums.

Mellano also grows unusual flowers like Asiatic lilies, reflecting a trend among domestic growers to ward off foreign competition.

Migrant advocacy groups, accustomed to hearing about employers refusing to pay workers, say Mellano & Co. doesn't generate complaints. Employees earn vacation time after six months, and the company charges workers only $130 a month to live in a 50-person dorm that has a big television and a large kitchen.

Mellano's Italian mother was an illegal immigrant herself when she cleaned homes in France before moving to the United States in the 1930s. The family bought land in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, and moved to the San Diego area in the 1960s.

Mellano has watched Congress debate an immigration overhaul with a mix of hope and dismay. A self-proclaimed conservative Republican, he said the GOP risks alienating Hispanic voters with its hard stance against illegal immigration.

He doesn't offer answers himself, though he speaks fondly of the temporary farmworker program between the United States and Mexico that lasted from 1942 to 1964. He is emphatic on one point: The status quo doesn't work.

"For an ethical person, it's a real dilemma because the system is crazy," he said. "I want to be above board."

Mellano is wary of what lawmakers may do. Anything that makes it harder for him to find or keep workers threatens his business

"I'm assuming that a good number of our people are lying," said Mellano, 67, who farms lilies, irises and sunflowers on 375 acres of rolling hills. "We are required by law to hire people that have documents, which is what we do, but we know a significant number are forgeries. Everyone knows that."

NOW WAIT JUST A DARN MINUTE, MR. MELLANO. If you own 375 acres of rolling hills MAYBE JUST MAYBE you need to CUT BACK ON YOUR OWN LIFESTYLE before you growl and howl at American people for wanting to stop illegal immigration which CUTS AMERICAN'S WAGES TERRIBLY, MOST OF WHOM DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO OWN EVEN ONE ACRE OF LAND, YOU SORRY BIG BUSINESS REPUBLICAN.

LET'S SEE WHAT YOUR HOUSE LOOKS LIKE "MR. I CAN'T AFFORD TO PAY AN AMERICAN".

It's people like you who will ruin the Republican Party. Go out and buy yourself a few violins. Maybe the soft music will soften your hard head.

I'm reporting this guy and his company to WeHireAliens.com right now.

This guy refuses to use the SAVE program even though he knows about it.

W

Greedy, greedy, greedy, I support my LOCAL farmers.

"If Colombia gets a bigger piece of the pie, all the power to them," said Kelley, whose organization advocates tighter immigration controls. "We're not turning our backs on globalization."

And therein lies the problem! I for one see nothing wrong with trade barriers! Controlled trade agreements plus ENFORCEMENT of strict immigration quotas would have gone a long way toward the prevention of the dismantling of this nation. However.... that option was gone a long time ago. They had an opportunity in 1986 and deliberately avoided taking it. One has to ask why. The only logical answer is that there was then and is now a plan to weaken and in fact erase this nation.

The number of U.S. cut flower growers was 498 last year, down from 829 in 1997 and 932 in 1992, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And another American industry folds its tent because we cannot compete against slave labor rates paid by other countries. Is he greedy? OR is he trying to survive the deliberate attempt to bring the U.S. down to the economic level of the rest of the world?

Here's an idea LONG Over due. Bring the rest of the world up to our level by sending those who are here illegally home including their scholars and let the scholars solve the problems within their own countries.

A self-proclaimed conservative Republican, he said the GOP risks alienating Hispanic voters with its hard stance against illegal immigration.

Illegal immigration is killing this nation! A HARD STAND is exactly what is needed! Skit canning the world trade bs (only beneficial to the big players) combined with what should now be nearly zero immigration due to the extraordinary number here would force 3rd world countries to deal with their problems (lack of job creation and over population) as opposed to counting on the U.S. to take them in.

But it is easier just to dump them on the prosperous United States. Where they gonna go when the U.S. is no more because of over population?

I support my LOCAL farmers.

And that is exactly what needs to happen. This nation was built on small businesses SUPPORT THEM! and boycott all foreign products. Yep I know it is tough now since many U.S. firms are out of business but they would come back if they knew there was a market for them. Having said that... where is the logic in destroying U.S. businesses and the U.S. workforce, who have provided the majority of the purchasing power for the world for decades? Do these big companies expect to sell their products to an entire world of poverty stricken people?

I keep looking for logic and sadly the only logic that applies is a few people are grabbing the bucks while they can and to hell with tomorrow.
There is the REAL Greed. Not the small time flower growing trying to stay alive in this precarious world.

This nation needs to start talking isolationist. Even if we close the borders and take care of the illegal alien problem globalism will kill this country.

is he trying to survive the deliberate attempt to bring the U.S. down to the economic level of the rest of the world?

Exactly. We have a higher standard of living than most countries. We cannot compete with low wages of other nations. Manufacturing in this country has all but been destroyed. We import most everything and outsource as much as possible. How long can our economy survive?

They do not care, they are making money hand over fist and they do not care about the burden on taxpayers for social services, educations and the rest as they do not pay for it. Prosecute them all as they are and will be the downfall of this country. Enforce our laws which do apply to them as well.

"If all of a sudden we didn't have 60 percent of our guys, we couldn't operate," he said.

You have a bad business model. If the only way you can make money is using slave labor then you shouldn't be in business anyway.

"We are required by law to hire people that have documents, which is what we do, but we know a significant number are forgeries. Everyone knows that."

Then you are aiding and abetting and should be arrested.

Hmmmmmm.....by his own admission, in a public newspaper article, this guy has admitted to FLOUTNG the law...where is ICE and the federal government, why is he not being investigated this very second? HE admits as many as 150 of his workers are illegal...that is SERIOUS ABUSE of the law.