Thread: Anti-illegal immigration bill stokes backlash in Alabama fie

Anti-illegal immigration bill stokes backlash in Alabama fields
Farmers in states like Alabama that have passed strong anti-illegal immigration laws are fighting back, saying they are losing labor and that US workers are unwilling to take up farm work.

csmonitor.com
By Mark Guarino, Staff writer
October 22, 2011

Farmers fearing a labor shortage are protesting recent immigration laws they say are too harsh, forcing undocumented workers to flee to prevent deportation. They say US workers are unwilling to endure the rigorous conditions of farm work and that state legislators need to come up with solutions to prevent local agribusiness from going under.

More than 100 farmers and three state representatives in Alabama responded to the recent enactment of a slate of anti-illegal immigration laws by holding a public hearing this week in Oneonta, about 35 miles northeast of Birmingham. The farmers complained that they were already seeing laborers pack up and leave the state.

The new immigration laws will result in a $40 million hit to the state’s economy, with 10,000 illegal workers, each making about $5,000 a year, set to leave, according to a report released this week by the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research.

Farmers are routinely the first to criticize immigration-reform efforts that target illegal workers, says Leo Chavez, a labor and immigration expert at the University of California, Irvine.

“If you get tough on undocumented immigrants, they lose their main labor force,â€

good
now may be the farmes will hire the american for the right pay
hello would the farmes work for 5.hr I don;t think so
No amnesty

No pity party from me!! If you can't find citizens, then use one of the already existing programs to get your foreign labor. At least then citizens will know who's coming into the country.

I hope Alabama is making a list of those farmers that complain, so they can check and double check their employment records.

As soon as those unemployment checks run out, they'll be out there pickin' they're butts off!

12$ an hour to pick Blackberries "Com' on" how many Americans know it pays like that, I was getting 10$ an hour to load Tobacco!

And 12$ an hr. for hanging it.

They are just complaining that they can't take advantage of paying them low wages.

US Rep. Lamar Smith (R) of Texas is proposing a similar measure at the federal level, which would allow as many as 500,000 seasonal workers into the country each year. Yet many agribusiness leaders say guest-worker programs like these are costly, because they often require farmers to foot the bill for housing and other costs.

With an average yearly earning of $5,000 , as stated in the article , looks to me like the Citizens of Alabama are subsidizing these farmers to begin with. All it requires is to possess a green card. In Colorado my family used Migrant labor for years. An old farm house with running water and electricity was all that was needed. Not a lot of cost in housing 20 or more migrants for a couple of months. They did the work and went back to Mexico till the next year. There is a solution , they are just too lazy and cheap to see it.

Why can we not have machines doing this?

dsprtt wrote:

[quote:1271km1o]US Rep. Lamar Smith (R) of Texas is proposing a similar measure at the federal level, which would allow as many as 500,000 seasonal workers into the country each year. Yet many agribusiness leaders say guest-worker programs like these are costly, because they often require farmers to foot the bill for housing and other costs.

With an average yearly earning of $5,000 , as stated in the article , looks to me like the Citizens of Alabama are subsidizing these farmers to begin with. All it requires is to possess a green card. In Colorado my family used Migrant labor for years. An old farm house with running water and electricity was all that was needed. Not a lot of cost in housing 20 or more migrants for a couple of months. They did the work and went back to Mexico till the next year. There is a solution , they are just too lazy and cheap to see it.[/quote:1271km1o]

The farmers don't wannt to pay the freight for their workers, they have gotten accustomed to their neighbors paying it for them.

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

Why can we not have machines doing this?

Well if robots are smart enough to do surgery, I dont see why the hell they cant pick a head of cabbage.

Originally Posted by pattyk

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

Why can we not have machines doing this?

Well if robots are smart enough to do surgery, I dont see why the hell they cant pick a head of cabbage.

Exactly. I don't get why we are not using more machines for this. The cost up front might be super expensive, but the money saved in slave wages and OUR tax dollars would make up for it pretty quick I would think!