Thread: AZ: Employer sanctions closer; farmers uneasy

Employer sanctions closer; farmers uneasy
By Eric Graf
The Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.23.2007

PHOENIX — Farmers will have a tougher time hiring legal workers from Mexico and consumers will face higher prices for produce when Arizona's employer sanctions law, intended to punish businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants, takes effect Jan. 1, groups representing Arizona's agriculture industry say.

Farmers who rely on Mexican workers entering the country legally to provide seasonal help worry that additional background checks at the border will cause many of those workers to stay home, said Joe Sigg, director of government relations for the Arizona Farm Bureau.
In Yuma County, where most of the nation's winter lettuce is grown, buses bring in more than 20,000 documented workers from Mexico, Sigg said.

"We already see workers who are authorized that get discouraged waiting in line to come over and choose not to," Sigg said.
"If any of those workers are new to the payroll, their documents have to pass through the new system, and how the system responds to that remains to be seen," Sigg said.

As of Jan. 1, all Arizona employers will have to use a federal program that matches new employees with their Social Security numbers to determine their eligibility to work in the United States. The law states that if a business knowingly hires illegal workers twice, the state can permanently revoke the company's licenses.

Even without the new law, farmers are having trouble finding help, representatives of farm groups said.

"Last year, in my opinion, was the first year a shortage in labor drove up price," said John Boelts, president of the Yuma County Farm Bureau. "Was it an anomaly? It's a sign of things to come."

The Arizona Farm Bureau, a non-governmental organization of farmers, is among the groups suing in federal court to block the law.

While farmers generally are reluctant to discuss the use of undocumented labor, it is part of farming, said Steve Husman, the director of campus agricultural centers at the University of Arizona's Cooperative Extension.
"There's no question that a portion of the agriculture work force in Arizona and California are undocumented," Husman said.

Husman said undocumented workers play a bigger role in Yuma County because that area requires more individuals to pick crops, as opposed to more mechanized processes for harvesting a crop such as cotton.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/212960

I believe farmers have always had a problem finding cheap labor. Wasn't that the reason for slavery in this country? Farmers are always looking for cheap labor.
Slavery was a problem and so is illegal immigration.

If this bill does not cover contract labor - then this story is a non-story.

These farm workers work as contract laborers - many times paid in cash. If the law covers only 'on the books' regular employees - what is this story.

A plant? An attempted scare tactic? A fabrication?

it's a scare tactic.

Farmers started having trouble finding workers about 2-3 years ago. The illegals were being drawn away by construction jobs and what not. We've also seen more illegal immigrants crossing the border each year following the year prior. We all know there's been no shortage of Illegals to work the fields during that time, they're all in the cities taking jobs from citizens at lower wages.

We already see workers who are authorized that get discouraged waiting in line to come over and choose not to," Sigg said.









Oh, I see. Conditions are so terrible in Mexico that we're supposed to tolerate and finance millions of their <cough> poverty stricken who are "only doing what is necessary to provide for their families". Yet here we are being told that authorized workers are choosing not to come here to work because they are inconvenienced by a wait while their documents are verified.

Am I the only one seeing the contradiction here?

When you apply just a little common sense to to all this rhetoric, it falls apart, doesn't it?

Originally Posted by nntrixie

When you apply just a little common sense to to all this rhetoric, it falls apart, doesn't it?

Yep....quicker than cheap imports from China