Thread: Local farmers feel effects of immigration problem

Local farmers feel effects of immigration problem


Official offers unpopular solution to immigration problem.
September 2, 2007
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By G. Jeffrey Aaron
jaaron@stargazette.com
Star-Gazett


http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbc ... /709020305

Ashur Terwilliger has a solution for the labor shortage and the immigration issue: fill vacant jobs with American-born workers who receive welfare benefits.

Terwilliger, president of Chemung County's New York State Farm Bureau chapter, admits his solution is about as politically incorrect as they come.

"Remember the WPA and the CCC camps? Programs like those would help the people keep their dignity," Terwilliger said.

His suggestion also would help overcome what is quickly becoming a serious obstacle confronting the region's fruit and vegetable farmers: finding enough field hands willing to accept between $8 and $20 an hour to pick crops.

The farm labor shortage has created a demand for immigrant work crews -- an underground network of illegal alien workers and the criminal enterprises that provide them with false documents needed to get work.

Farmers try to work within federal system
While Congress continues to struggle with how to implement a national immigration policy that would balance the concerns of the farming industry with the need for secure borders, local growers have come to rely on a federal labor certification program called H2-A.

It establishes a legal means for agricultural employers to bring foreign workers into the country to perform temporary work or seasonal agricultural labor.

But delays in processing the applications are hurting the farmers who won't hire workers whose legal status is questionable.

In Chemung County, the issues surrounding the use of immigrant workers is a relatively small problem, when compared with the fruit and vegetable-growing operations in the Finger Lakes and Great Lakes regions.

I'm sure you could find enough homeless, unemployed, welfare recipents, students or retirees in the whole state of New York to staff your agricultural needs.

I believe there are 7 guest workers programs in effect in this country now. The problem is that they do not come back year after year. They make a few dollars doing farm work and go into the inner cities and take other jobs. Guest workers will tell you that they do not want to do the hot, dirty and low paying work on farm either and they are free to go into the cities and get better paying jobs..Many by-pass the farms and go straight to the cities. There is no reason, with 6 million illegal workers in this country for farmers to have a shortage of workers. Farmers want an ever flowing of immigrants to do the work. Yes, there are plenty of americans that will do the farm work and they do.

And who will help them pick the crops?
Lack of resolution on guest workers leaves 29th District farms in limbo.

September 2, 2007
http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbc ... /709020330 Post Comment

Remember the plight of the fabled Little Red Hen who found a seed, planted it, harvested it and turned it into bread, but couldn't get anyone to help her until the bread was ready to eat? That's what some agribusiness owners feel like in the 29th Congressional District as they try to get Congress to help them hire immigrants with guest worker privileges.

Their pleas seem to fall on deaf ears, and that is leaving them wondering, as the Litte Red Hen did, who will help them pick the crops. The issue is more acute in the northern part of the 29th now as the swath of apple orchards in that region near the fall harvest.

But as today's Guest View indicates, there is no shortage of opposition to such programs, ranging from organized labor to conservative Republicans who see guest worker waivers as little more than a back-door amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Both sides are missing a point. From the perspective of conscientious farmers, they want to stay on the right side of the law, treat their help fairly but also have a pool of inexpensive yet adequate help.

A guest worker program would be a major step toward that. Consider the plight of vineyard owners who worry about crossing the law by hiring illegals or who simply cannot find enough help to pick grapes. Two of them on Seneca Lake's east side had to split the cost of an expensive mechanical picker because they weren't certain that there would be enough migrant workers.

Guest worker programs get tricky. There's no question about it. In effect, they could put illegal immigrants on the government's radar screen for as long as the guest privileges last -- up to six years in some proponents' proposals. Upon expiration, the immigrants are expected to go back home, but there's no safeguard against them going underground and avoiding the law as an estimated 12 million illegals now do.

U.S. Rep. John R. Kuhl, R-Hammondsport, who was once lukewarm about guest workers, now has bought into the arguments by his agricultural constituency that such a program offers economic rewards. Many of his Republican colleagues, though, still have problems with guest worker status, a position that President Bush has pushed as part of his immigration policy.

Stalled in Congress now for more than two years, immigration reform is unlikely this year, which spells doom for guest worker help for farmers. Sadly, as another Labor Day goes by, farm interests in the 29th still feel like the Little Red Hen, but in their case the problem is not in a barnyard of lazy animals but in Congress.

If all the 20 million illegal left, farmers would not need more workers. They would not have to produce more food (which means more money) to feed the 20 million illegal that are here and the millions that are crossing each year.
More workers are only needed to prodece more food when there is a increase in population.

They need visa's that keep the ag workers on the farms, when the job is done they go home not into construction and other jobs are they so dumb and blind they don't see this



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If all the 20 million illegal left, farmers would not need more workers. They would not have to produce more food (which means more money) to feed the 20 million illegal that are here and the millions that are crossing each year.
More workers are only needed to prodece more food when there is a increase in population.

Good point. The production of all goods and services could be reduced in relation to the percentage of illegals that leave the country. That would also allow us to reduce imports by the same percentage. It's a good start.

Yes, indeed. Our artificially swollen population is putting a strain on everything, calling for cries to rebuild or expand this and that. Will this lead to another round of excessive government spending, burdensome welfare programs, deficits, overcrowding? Well, duh!!!

Originally Posted by Captainron

I'm sure you could find enough homeless, unemployed, welfare recipents, students or retirees in the whole state of New York to staff your agricultural needs.

Add in non-violent prisoners like some states are doing. If you still don't have enough people( unlikely), call for volunteers! I'll pick corn for a few weeks if it will help keep illegals out of our country.

Originally Posted by camilleinchicago

Originally Posted by Captainron

I'm sure you could find enough homeless, unemployed, welfare recipents, students or retirees in the whole state of New York to staff your agricultural needs.

Add in non-violent prisoners like some states are doing. If you still don't have enough people( unlikely), call for volunteers! I'll pick corn for a few weeks if it will help keep illegals out of our country.

Two americans can do the work of five criminal immigrents...
Just pay the American right.