NY Apple growers nervous about immigration crackdown
Reported by: Jenny Chu
Wednesday, Sep 26, 2007 @06:15pm EST

New York is the second largest apple growing state in the country, but it's at risk of losing that title because of an immigration crackdown. Last month, the Bush Administration announced new measures to punish employers of undocumented immigrants.

Apple growers in New York State depend on as many as 8,000 seasonal workers to pick the fruit each year. But with the U.S. Government breathing down their necks, billions of apples could end up on the ground.

There are 45,000 acres of apple orchards in New York State. And farm workers pick as many as 30 million bushels of apples a year. But all of that could be threatened by a new immigration rule pushed by President Bush in August. If a farm worker is found using a fake social security number, the employer would have to fire the worker or face a $10,000 fine.

"We don't have a dependable and reliable labor force to harvest our crops,â€