Thread: Farmers face immigration dilemma

Farmers face immigration dilemma
Growers can either fire illegal immigrants or watch their crops rot
By Juliana Barbassa
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.contracostatimes.com/bayandstate/ci_6725190
Article Launched: 08/26/2007 03:05:58 AM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO -- Fruit rotting in fields, unmilked cows suffering in barns, shuttered farmhouses -- growers are painting a bleak picture of their industry under new federal regulations that pressure employers to fire illegal immigrants.
Although other industries hire workers without proper authorization, growers acknowledge they make up a majority of farmhands in any field. After the Bush administration announced that employers who knowingly keep undocumented workers will be held liable, many growers said their businesses would be hard hit.

Particularly vulnerable would be fruit operations that are now hiring thousands of seasonal workers in preparation for the peak harvest months of July through September, they said. The measure is to take effect in mid-September.

Andy Casado is a California farm labor contractor with nearly 800 workers. He also grows and packs fruit himself.

"I'm guessing 80, 90 percent of the (agricultural) workforce is illegal," he said. "Implementing this rule will be catastrophic."

The pronouncement doesn't change the law, it just adds a promise of enforcement that alters the odds of the gamble farmers take whenever they hire a new worker, said Howard Rosenberg, a farm labor management and policy specialist at UC Berkeley's Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

It has long been illegal to hire and retain anyone who is not authorized to work in the United States. Farmers take their chances that documents presented by the 1.6 million farmworkers hired across the country are valid or won't be closely examined, Rosenberg said.

Until now, employers who received one of the approximately 130,000 letters sent by the Social Security Administration telling them a worker's identification number didn't match government records didn't fire the employee, as the discrepancy could result from a misprint or a woman's failure to inform the government of her new married name.

Now these so-called "no-match" letters will be accompanied by a letter from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reminding employers of their obligations under immigration law.

Farmers will now ask the employee to fix the discrepancy. If the difference isn't explained in three months, the employer must fire the worker or face criminal liability.

Think tanks that oppose illegal immigration praised the move, hoping it will turn off the job magnet that has attracted new immigrants. Other vocal opponents of illegal immigration, such as Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, said his optimism was tempered by a wait-and-see attitude.

"It's not that we don't trust them, it's just that, well, we don't trust them," he said of the Bush administration. "It seems to me that many of these tough-on-illegal-alien programs have existed for some time, and this may simply be cover for the White House to bring back their amnesty push next year."

Farm labor experts such as Rosenberg believe much of the provision's impact hangs on the vigor and resources the government allocates to its implementation. But farmers' concerns are justified, he said.

"The risks (of hiring illegal immigrants) have been getting higher, and if the pronouncements that accompanied this rule bear out, then they become higher yet," Rosenberg said.

To farmworkers, it's just another effort by the government to look good at the expense of the people who hold down the hardest and lowest-paid jobs in the country.

"There's always more pressure on the immigrant community," said farmworker Gerardo Reyes of Immokalee, Fla. "We're making sure food gets to everyone's tables."

Farmers and farmworkers agreed raising the stakes could hurt everyone.

"We're going to face firing employees whether the documents are wrong or right with no one to fill those positions," said Allen Carnes, president of Winter Garden Produce in Uvalde, Texas.

Carnes said he's already suffered worker shortages during the past few years because of tightened border security.

Steve Pringle, legislative director for the Texas Farm Bureau, said the administration's move forces employers into an impossible position.

"Either you obey the law and you watch your crop rot in the fields or you attempt to try to get the crop out and run the risk of being hit by the federal government," he said.

Because tighter enforcement could hurt agriculture, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the Labor Department would work to streamline the existing temporary-worker program, which allows farmers to apply for foreign workers.

But farmers were skeptical of what could be achieved under a program they consider bureaucratic and expensive.

Casado, the California contractor, recently took a seminar on the program.

"I learned a lot, but one of the things I learned is that I can't do it myself," he said.

About 70 growers gathered this week in Fresno, deep in California's agricultural Central Valley, to discuss options, share doomsday scenarios and shake their heads in frustration.

The state picks, packs and ships about half of the vegetables, nuts and fruits grown in the United States every year. Growers rely on 225,000 year-round employees and twice that many in summer.

are maybe use their brain to find other ways to get the job done...just as Americans have done since day one?

Throwing cheap bodies at a problem is the 18th (and previous) century way of solving problems. Is it true that some other countries are farther ahead of us in terms of agricultural practice because they don't have migrant workers to depend upon?

Wow! Just think how much money farmers could make if they reduced their work force! And how much the government could reduce subsidies to farmers because they are solvent and able to operate just like a...er..uh...business! yeah, that's it a business.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Fruit rotting in fields, unmilked cows suffering in barns, shuttered farmhouses -- growers are painting a bleak picture of their industry under new federal regulations that pressure employers to fire illegal immigrants

Let me get this right....We all are going to starve to death because we don't have illegals....


BTW only 2% of the illegals pick crops...

Looks like we need to invest all our money in the company that makes Kleenexes!! That is if there are enough illegals to allow manufacturers to continue to product them. We know that they will have to shut down their operations too (even though all manufacturing probably takes place in China) if we don't pass immigration reform.

I little info on Juliana Barbassa.....


National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ)

Emerging Journalist of the Year Award – Juliana Barbassa – Reporter – Associated Press – Fresno, California

Juliana Barbassa has proven to be an accomplished journalist, despite her young career. From covering farm worker stories to breaking news in California’s central valley, this Fresno-based journalist has provided fresh perspectives on Hispanics and health care, illegal immigrants and drivers licenses, and the consequences of pesticide use for farm workers. She has already set a high standard for herself and the public will be the benefactor of this young journalist’s work and career.

http://www.nahj.org/events/2005/noche/2 ... recipients

Sob story alert.

Originally Posted by Populist

Sob story alert.

Another Immigration Sob Story

Lets put a stack of invader's sob stories up against a stack of Amreican citizens' sob stories and see who has been wronged!!!