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  1. #1
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    migrant crab pickers delay Senate action

    Last updated: April 15. 2005 12:00AM

    Crab picker shortage ties up Iraq funding bill

    By Suzanne Gamboa
    Associated Press

    WASHINGTON - A shortage of migrant oyster shuckers and crab pickers is threatening to delay Senate action on an $80.6 billion emergency bill to pay for continuing U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Crab season opened April 1 in Maryland, but several businesses in the Chesapeake Bay seafood industry are without pickers and shuckers because the ceiling of 66,000 visas for foreign workers under the government’s H2B program was reached Jan. 3. Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski is trying to amend the Iraq bill to do something about it.

    Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was feverishly trying to keep the bill free of immigration issues after the House last month included measures to deny driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and tighten political asylum laws.

    Senators on both sides of a number of divisive immigration issues – among them President Bush’s desire to let illegal immigrants remain in the country under a work program – said bringing up any one of them would open the floodgates to them all.

    "It will open a long and complicated debate on the floor of the Senate," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "We should not do that, please."

    Despite pleas from Mr. Frist, Ms. Feinstein and the White House, Ms. Mikulski, D-Md., refused to back off her attempt to amend the bill to provide Maryland seafood businesses more low-wage immigrant workers. Ms. Mikulski’s proposal would exempt from the quota seasonal workers who were hired in previous years.

    "It would be wonderful if we could have comprehensive reform," Ms. Mikulski said. "But for now we have to look at those states that are facing a crisis because of a flawed immigration system."

    Ms. Mikulski decided to proceed with her measure after Mr. Frist wouldn’t promise to oppose the House immigration provisions when negotiators meet to blend the Senate and House versions into a final bill, said a Democratic source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Four Maryland seafood processors got H2B workers this season. But 13 others in the state and a cannery that account for about 75 percent of the production did not, said Jack Brooks, owner of JM Clayton, a seafood wholesaler in Cambridge, Md.

    A cool spring has delayed the beginning of crab harvesting and provided a temporary reprieve, but without more workers, some businesses could close, Mr. Brooks said Wednesday.

    "If we lose our production capability for a year, our markets are going to be gone to cheaper imports," he said. "Don’t penalize us because we’re trying to do it legally. A lot of people are out there hiring illegally. We don’t want to do that."

    Jay Newcomb, owner of A.E. Phillips, a Fishing Creek, Md., crab processing operation, is one of the unlucky ones. He sought 50 workers and got none, even though he’s been using the program since 1990. "I have two American crab pickers, that’s all I have," he said.


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  2. #2

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    They can't have their Maryland crab cakes and eat them too!

    I remember visiting oysters "bars" with my father when I was a little tyke in New Orleans. The oyster shuckers certainly weren't illegal immigrants and they were an institution in some of the restaurants having worked there for years ... they knew their customers by name .. and they seemed proud of their work.

    Of course, in our fast-paced society nothing is ever as it was .. and then you have the institutionalization of seafoods. Heck .. I'm so old <g> .. I remember when it was hard to buy seafood except fresh ... certainly not canned or frozen in the supermarkets.

    Oy veigh!!!! .... this news just gets worse and more ridiculous each day!
    "This country has lost control of its borders. And no country can sustain that kind of position." .... Ronald Reagan

  3. #3
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    Been using the program since 1990....hmmm...only two American crabpickers...hmmm...can't get immigrant workers...hmmmm

    Methinks that most likely they'd refused to hire Americans at a decent wage for so long that now Americans don't even think of that as a part time subsistence. There are plenty of Americans willing to work if they're not shut out of the market.

    Altogether now...a-one, a-two...poooor maryland crabbers..poor crabberspoor pitiful crabbers....oooooo...meemeeemeeeooooo

    RR
    The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. " - Lloyd Jones

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    I live and work on/near the water know some crabers and a crab picking plant owner. No immigrants to be found on the water or in that plant in my area. When I do see any I'll stop eating crab. Have a guy who gets me a bushel or so of oysters when I want them and he is 100% NC high tider.
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    Yes, but this brouhaha is about MaryLand....

    I feel the same way...don't want illegals messin wif my food!

    RR
    The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. " - Lloyd Jones

  6. #6
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    Thats Ok we'll let yall (you all) from MaryLand come on down and have some fine seafood. Heck we might even fix up some shrimp and grits for you.
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    Yeah, I loved Louisiana...sitting in a cafe right on the water, eating delicious seafood practically as soon as it was hoisted from the water...mmmm...boiled crab......mmmm crawfish...delish

    RR
    The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. " - Lloyd Jones

  8. #8
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    sounds good except the ditch lobster(crawfish). Also the big thing for the tourist here is the alligator jumbo.
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    Quote Originally Posted by RoadRunner
    Yes, but this brouhaha is about MaryLand....

    I feel the same way...don't want illegals messin wif my food!

    RR
    I live in Md. Barbara Mikulski, well, I don't know how she was voted into office in the first place. She's a mouthy woman, who doesn't represent the majority, but cuddles up with minority outcasts.
    I stopped going to fast-food dives because "I don't want illegals messin wif my food!"
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  10. #10
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    Now why would we not want illegals handling our food ?

    "many illegal aliens harbor fatal diseases that American medicine fought and vanquished long ago, such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, plague, polio, dengue, and Chagas disease."

    http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.a ... E_ID=43275
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