Thread: Poultry Industry, Others Wary Of New Federal Immigration Pol

Updated Friday, August 17 at 6:46 AM

Poultry industry, others wary of new federal immigration policies
by The Associated Press

With fruit rotting in fields, unmilked cows suffering in barns and shuttered farmhouses, growers are painting a bleak picture of their industry under new federal immigration policies - and the poultry industry is wary of the new rules, as well.

Following the Bush administration announcement that employers who knowingly keep undocumented workers will be held liable under a new enforcement push, many growers said their businesses would be hardest hit.

Particularly vulnerable would be fruit operations that are now hiring thousands of seasonal workers in preparation
One northeast Georgia poultry executive has been quoted as saying illegal labor is "indispensable."

for the peak harvest months of July through September. The measure is to take effect in mid-September.

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

``I'm guessing 80, 90 percent of the ag work force is illegal,'' he said. ``Implementing this rule will be catastrophic.''

One northeast Georgia poultry executive has been quoted as saying illegal labor is "indispensable" to the country's economy.

While it's long been illegal to hire anyone not authorized to work in the United States, farmers take their chances that documents presented by the 1.6 million farmworkers around the country are valid, said Howard Rosenberg, a farm labor at the University of California.

Think tanks that oppose illegal immigration praised the move, hoping it will turn off the job magnet has attracted new immigrants.

To farm workers, though, 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 farm worker 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 J. Allen Carnes, president of Winter Garden Produce in Uvalde, Texas.

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

Steve Pringle, legislative director for the Texas Farm Bureau, said the Bush 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 has said the Labor Department will work to streamline the existing temporary worker program, which allows farmers to apply for foreign workers.

But farmers were more 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 U.S. every year. Growers rely on 225,000 year-round employees, and twice that many in summer.

Keeping track of people who presented questionable papers weeks or months earlier in an industry where there's much worker mobility is beyond the scope of what farmers should be expected to do, they said.

``We're being charged with having to be the policing agent,'' said Russel Efird, who grows almonds, walnuts, grapes and fruit and heads the Fresno County Farm Bureau. ``This will make it very hard for us to do our jobs.''

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/ ... ?ID=116449

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

``I'm guessing 80, 90 percent of the ag work force is illegal,'' he said. ``Implementing this rule will be catastrophic.''

Seems they need to throw ole Andy in the poke.

I guess the mulch business will be very lucrative this coming year. You know as well as I do that this is just a smoke screen to get what they want. I think "We the People" need to work out our own spin as to how free trade is going to force all the citizens to have to seek work in foreign countries and illegals will be left with no lawns to mow and no cheap jobs to do because there will be no one to buy the goods and services. There will be no people left as the middle class seeks refuge in foreign countries because of the oppression in America and the nation will become a huge ghost town. yada, yada, yada....

I guess they never heard of automation! You know machinery.

I guess they never heard of automation! You know machinery.

(Read the following with great sarcasm!!!)
Oh, well that would be too expensive to implement. Besides no machenery does the work as good as human hands and with the price of fuel it would cause the price of goods to be cost prohibitive for the consumers leaving us to go back to the first thought that cows will go unmilked and crops will rote in the fields. blah blah blah....

I know the one way the plant I worked at got around the deal was to take certain portions of the work and call it "sub-contractors" so they didn't have the responsibility or have to offer insurance or benefits. Example....people that delivered the chickens...people that took the old chickens....people that got rid of the dead chickens or disposed of the waste etc.

They are doing that "subcontractor" idea in everything from pizza delivery to courier, flower delivery etc. Problem is they act like they are hiring you and most don't tell you you are not their employee or that in essence....you are your own business and they get around not paying people what they should be paid or having anything such as workmans comp or anything. Not to mention if you leave for another job and use them as a reference for another job.......they don't know you. It's extreemly mis-leading especially since so many young kids are being used like this as well as the elderly who don't know about this latest way around the game.

Another thing that makes me mad about these farmers is they leave out the fact these aren't full time jobs. Sometimes people are needed for maybe 2 weeks worth of work and that's all. Maybe a month. I'm speaking more of smaller farmers like I used to know for harvest etc. They paid very well and they worked hard.......but it was temporary. If they couldn't find enough work......they pitched in and helped each other........the idea of leaving it there to rot just wasn't an option.

Years ago we had fields here of blueberries and strawberries and tomatoes where the public was allowed to come in and pick their own. It was for alot less than you could buy at a store and beleive me....there were plenty of people out there picking it themselves.

They haven't done anything as far as trying to find alternatives. I want my cheap labor or you don't get food. I doubt what they are saying when that's the best option out there.


Cows don't go unmilked for long and yes...it does require someone to line the equipment up to the body but machinery does the rest. When you're doing that kind of work......you just do it till it gets done.....again....from what I saw.....it's a 7 day a week job and they hire people to come in for 2-3 hours in the morning and then 2-3 at night. Can't live on that when they were paying 6.25 an hour. Not to mention it wasn't possible to get another job that fit in their schedual.

I think any able bodied person who collects a check from the federal governmant or any state governmant should work for a living. This would solve any labor shortage anywhere in America today and lessen the tax burden.

crazybird The sub-contractor idea is one of the ways one large poultry concern is getting around the illegal issue. At least from the 'talk' I have heard.

Rather than their employees doing the catching and clean out, egg gathering, etc., they hire contractors - who then hire those same employees.

Yes, the sub-contractor has a record of their 'contract laborers', any non-match won't be found for a year, or 5 years.

People, they are not sending these people home, they are not firing these people.

If, in fact, they thought they were going to have to fire their illegals - they would be out hiring every and anyone they could find.

They are not worried - they may let the crops rot, all right - just to try to frighten us.
I am sure the government has assured them they will bail them out - with our money.

This is hype.

They haven't even started the program yet and there is so much whinning going on I can not believe this S____t



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They are not going to 'start' the program except the part dealing with 90 days and all the new things about temp workers.

All this hype is to keep your attention away from the truth. The truth is, I haven't heard any reports by Minutemen or border watchers about convoys going south.

I haven't heard of any company putting out the word for massive hirings of Americans.

It is business as usual - except in the meda. ACtually that is usual as well. It's all baloney!!