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.