http://sun.yumasun.com/artman/publish/a ... _21175.php

Most agree cash payment attracts the undocumented
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER
Dec 18, 2005

A daily cash advance pay system offered by some Yuma-area growers and labor contractors could attract undocumented or falsely documented workers, opponents say.

The system, known as “la tira,� gives those undocumented workers the security of cash in hand at the end of the day, when the possibility of deportation makes it undesirable to wait around for weekly or biweekly paychecks.

"If authorities stop a bus and check ID, and a worker gets deported, they've got that money in their pocket," said area grower Mike Antle.

The system also raises questions about I-9 labor law loopholes that may allow workers to get cash in hand at the end of the day without having provided any documentation of legal status in the United States.

Each day, farm workers climb onto the buses of farm labor contractors and area growers, many for their first day of work with the company.

Though many workers have legal documentation, others may not. Many give false documentation, and others don't give any documentation at all, said area grower Antonio Oseguera.

Then, at the end of the day, workers will get their tiras, a daily cash advance of $20 to $50, some without having provided any documentation, said Oseguera and Janine Duron, a supervisor at the state Department of Economic Security's Job Services department in Yuma.

Oseguera and Duron say that labor laws allow three business days for workers to provide documentation, referring to Section 2 of the I-9 form, which was created nearly two decades ago.

But Section 2 of the form also says that if employers hire individuals for a duration of less than three business days, the form must be completed, and documentation must be presented at the time of hire.

The problem that la tira creates is that with more than 30 grower companies and farm labor contractors in the Yuma Valley alone, workers can just switch companies each week, getting paid with la tira, working for the entire harvest season without having given proper documentation, said Hector Lopez, a Job Services employee in Yuma.

Some farm workers that come into Job Services in Yuma have worked at as many as a dozen companies in a season, Lopez said.

Oseguera said he gives new employees three days to provide documentation. But with la tira in their pockets, many are gone before he sees the documentation.

"They say, ‘I'll bring that tomorrow, I'll bring that tomorrow,’ and you know right away that guy is going to leave," Oseguera said, adding that amid a shortage of workers, he has few other options than to take those workers.

"If you have a crew of 25 people that don't have their IDs the first day, what are you going to do? Are you going to let them go and try to work the fields with five workers?" he said.

Duron, also chairwoman of the Yuma County Farmworker Services Coalition, said the case is that some farm workers are getting on buses with no identification.

Customs and Immigration Services spokesperson Marie Sebrechts said that the I-9 form is not vague and does not give employers a reason to not check documentation.

She said the fact that employers are giving workers an advance cash payment means they should be getting verification of documentation at the time employment begins.

She said if that is not happening, it is a matter of enforcement.

But agricultural industry leaders have said U.S. enforcement efforts are what caused the labor shortage in the first place.

About a year ago, Western Growers Association publicly pointed a finger at Border Patrol for setting up checkpoints that WGA said deterred farm workers during the harvest season.

Border Patrol continues to set up the checkpoints during the harvest season.

Many labor buses that fill up on the border in San Luis, Ariz., must drive through Border Patrol checkpoints on the way to harvest crops around Yuma County.

Last week, Border Patrol set up a temporary checkpoint in Dome Valley to stop cars and labor buses that try to take back-road routes to circumvent the Interstate 8 checkpoint.

The temporary checkpoint stopped 25 labor buses. Fifty-six of the 66 illegal aliens apprehended at the checkpoint were from labor buses.

This month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the federal government will be proposing regulations that would allow stronger fines or even jail terms to be imposed when companies knowingly hire undocumented immigrants.

But in the wake of the terrorist attacks, enforcing federal immigration laws at the worksite level has remained a low priority on the agency's to-do list.

"We're painfully aware that there are people employing illegal aliens," said Russell Ahr, ICE spokesman in Phoenix.

Ahr said that the 5,500-agent agency is preoccupied with the worksite enforcement of businesses that are tied to national security, like defense contractors, and businesses involved with critical infrastructure, such as airports and communication.

Thus regulating the Yuma agricultural industry is not a top priority, Ahr said.

Employers are supposed to retain the completed I-9 forms, but ICE rarely comes to check them, said Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association President C.R. Waters.

There is no scientific data on the number of undocumented workers in the agricultural industry, but estimates from growers, the Department of Economic Security and farm worker advocates put the percentage of the agricultural workforce in Yuma County working illegally between 40 and 70 percent.

But farm workers like Ramon Parra, 30, say there are many farm workers and farmers who work within the law. Parra, a Mexican with a work visa who commutes to the U.S. each day to work the fields, said he prefers a weekly check to a daily cash advance.

"I prefer a check, because with la tira, I spend all of my money too fast," he said.

---
Blake Schmidt can be reached at bschmidt@yumasun.com or 539-6852.