Is Immigration Enforcement Affecting Farmers?

POSTED: 8:34 pm PDT October 13, 2006
UPDATED: 8:50 pm PDT October 13, 2006

SAN DIEGO -- Have you noticed prices increasing on your fruits and vegetables?

Many have said it might be one of the trickle-down effects of immigration enforcement.

California farmers said they are suffering from a labor shortage and are forced to pass their losses on to you.

The farmers come from all over Mexico and various countries throughout South America.

“If we don’t have access to farm labor, that entire industry is at state,” said Eric Larson of the San Diego County Farm Bureau.

The industry is California’s agriculture, and the problem is a labor shortage. According to the California Farm Bureau, immigration enforcements since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have put a serious dent in the workforce.

“You're seeing a labor shortening of about 50 percent, at least. In some areas, it's higher than that,” said Luawanna Hallstrom of Harry Singh and Sons.

Hallstrom is the CEO of one of the largest vine-ripe tomato producers in the country. Immediately after 9/11, a federal crackdown found many of her employees were illegal. The company lost three quarters of its workforce right at the beginning of harvest season.

“We lost about $2.5 million in crops and when our workers did come, it took us about two weeks for all of us to go in and clean out the rotted fruit and try and figure out what we had left to salvage,” said Hallstrom.

Federal investigators have the expertise to spot fraudulent paperwork. That is not the case for the farmers, as they can only assume the workers’ documents are the real deal.

The California Farm Bureau strongly supports a guest worker program where laborers can cross the border back and forth with ease. For now, the workforce is said to be dwindling because of problems entering the U.S.

Earlier this month, millions of pears in Northern California were lost because of that shortage.

“We live here, too. We want a secure country, but the reality is we rely on a foreign-born workforce,” said Hallstrom.

Many people ask why an American-born workforce is not used. Over the last few years, the California Farm Bureau claimed it advertised for 137,000 laborers. Nearly 500 applicants sought the jobs, but only three reported to work.

The San Diego County Farm Bureau has done studies and claimed that for the loss of every laborer, at least three other jobs are lost.

If the harvest can’t be picked, there is no need for the packers, truckers or distributors.

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