Thread: 2 states consider guest-worker program

"2 states consider guest-worker programs"

Jacques Billeaud - Associated Press Writer - 3/14/2008 2:25:00 PM
PHOENIX - As a labor contractor in the nation's winter lettuce capital, Francisco Chavez struggles to hire enough workers to pick and package the produce.
Last year, ripe romaine sometimes went bad in the fields around Yuma, Ariz., because Chavez didn't have enough people to harvest the crop, which must be picked by hand. "That's my challenge - to get the crews," he said.

Such complaints are becoming so common that lawmakers in Arizona and Colorado are considering creating their own guest-worker programs to attract more immigrant laborers. It's unclear whether states have the authority to adopt such measures, but legislators are tired of waiting for Congress to overhaul the immigration system - and they are taking matters into their own hands.

State Sen. Abel Tapia, the Democratic co-author of the Colorado proposal, lashed out at Washington: "You had your chance to do a comprehensive immigration package a year ago, and you didn't do it, and I can't imagine that you will have anything by 2010, so what are we to do in the meantime?"

The federal government has run guest-worker programs for more than a century, but congressional efforts to overhaul the system stalled in 2006 and 2007.

The Arizona proposal aims to create a program run entirely by the state. Employers could recruit workers through Mexican consulates if they can document a labor shortage and unsuccessful efforts to find local employees.

If approved, the measure would admit an unlimited number of workers in a wide range of industries.

The Colorado proposal is intended to help chili, tomato and watermelon farmers. It's aimed at eliminating bottlenecks that slow federal applications for immigrant laborers. As an incentive for workers to return to their homelands, Colorado farmers would be required to withhold 20 percent of workers' wages and send the money after the workers move home.

The Arizona bill got unanimous approval last month from a legislative committee.

A sponsor of the Colorado proposal said she may scale back the bill because of opposition, reducing it to a program that would let the state hire labor firms in Mexico to find workers and help resolve procedural problems at U.S. consulates there.

Neither measure has come to a vote before the full House or Senate.

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http://www.onenewsnow.com/Headlines/Def ... x?id=71439

Wouldnt this help if they could bring in TEMPORARY farm workers?
Wouldnt it replace ILLEGALs with legals who could be held to a departure date?
News item of produce rotting in the fields, can be used against us and, is counter-produtive to our end game.

Originally Posted by shotgun

Wouldnt this help if they could bring in TEMPORARY farm workers?
Wouldnt it replace ILLEGALs with legals who could be held to a departure date?
News item of produce rotting in the fields, can be used against us and, is counter-produtive to our end game.

And who's going to house these workers? Who's going to flip the bill for their medical? Are their children to accmpany them and if so, where will they be taught Mexican style?, because I'll tell you what, if such a program is approved by the voters, they are not going to want these workers to stay after harvest. They will need to go home.

Some one else mentioned before that there are plenty of tempoary workers programs already on the books, but the farmers don't use them becuase the laws that form these programs requires the sponsor to provide housing for their workers. I guess the sponsors these days don't want to do that, they'd rather let the law be broken by seeing 20 workers live in the same apartment 20 miles away while not having to provide the housing themselves..sort of passing the buck.

These resposibilities are on the shoulders of the farmers and is the price they must pay for not hiring citizens at a livable wage. Those who are doing hard time in our prison system should be made to work in the fields.

Rockfish wrote:
"Some one else mentioned before that there are plenty of tempoary workers programs already on the books, but the farmers don't use them becuase the laws that form these programs requires the sponsor to provide housing for their workers."


Exactly right!

And, if they have guest worker programs that allow spouses and children, what about birthright citizenship??? That is a caveat that CAN NOT be ignored, but, of course, they are! We can't deport the parents of legal children...whine, whine, whine.

Why don't they advertise for American Farm workers from other states, if the are so short handed. Plenty of people out of work.

Give them some of the freebies illegals get, and I bet they will come on over.

The Arizona proposal aims to create a program run entirely by the state. Employers could recruit workers through Mexican consulates if they can document a labor shortage and unsuccessful efforts to find local employees.

If approved, the measure would admit an unlimited number of workers in a wide range of industries

In other words, if a farmer needs 50 workers and can demonstrate he has attempts to hire, the Mexican Consulate can authorize hundreds if not thousands of workers, in any field to legally come to this country?

They're suppose to prove that they can't get US workers first.

We do NOT need ANY more FOREIGN "guest worker" programs because ALL they are used for is to GUARANTEE that the PIPELINE to CHEAP illegal foreign labor remains OPEN!

There is no limit on the number of farm workers they can legally bring in. If they choose not to use the system because illegal aliens are cheaper let the crops rot. If the farm workers don't want to leave their families at home and return home themselves, let the crops rot.

There was a report on the news tonight that they are going to research why so many people are getting sick from salad greens. I can't wait to hear this one. One way or another it's going to be because the amnesty bill was shot down. I just want to hear how they are going to spin this one.