11alive.com
Written by
Matt Pearl
10:56 PM, Jan 2, 2012


Migrant workers pick cucumbers in Sumter County


Georgia's largest industry is its 69-billion-dollar agriculture industry. Tomorrow the Agriculture Department will present a report on whether that industry has been hurt by the illegal immigration reform passed last year, better known as H.B. 87.

We already have some idea of the answer.

A few months ago, the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association estimated a 40% labor shortage this past spring, after the bill was passed. On Monday, the association's executive director, Charles Hall, said much of that labor actually returned in the fall. But, he said, growers are still bracing for hard times in the year ahead.

"I know many growers are looking at alternate crops," Hall said, "like cotton and corn. Some growers are looking at reducing their acreage. I think we definitely will see some cutbacks this year because of the lack of harvest labor."

Hall also doesn't think tomorrow's report will lead to any changes to H.B. 87 in the coming legislative session.

"I don't think our legislature right now is willing at looking at making any tweaks to that," he said. "I think the legislators that supported it feel it's been successful in doing what they wanted it to do."

This comes on the heels of the new E-Verify policy that took effect January 1st. That part of H.B. 87 requires every private employer in Georgia with more than 500 employees to use a federal work authorization program to determine the eligibility of its employees.

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