Thread: Editorial: How Alabama’s immigration law is crippling its

How Alabama’s immigration law is crippling its farms

By Editorial, Published: November 3

FARMERS IN ALABAMA are in revolt against the state’s over-the-top immigration law, which is designed to hound illegal immigrants so that they move elsewhere. As it happens, a substantial portion of farm workers there, as in other states, are undocumented. In the farmers’ view, the law is depriving them of steady, experienced labor — and threatening to deal a lethal blow to crops throughout the state.

The uproar has exposed political fault lines within the Republican Party, whose vows of support for business have run headlong into its crusade to drive away illegal immigrants, on whom agribusiness relies. It’s also laying bare the nation’s hypocrisy over unskilled immigrants, whose legal entry into the country is blocked in most cases even though their labor remains much in demand.

Of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, some 7 million are in the job force. The idea that they can be deported or replaced en masse with jobless U.S. workers is far-fetched. That’s the message that Alabama farmers have been giving their elected leaders, so far to little avail.

Alabama lawmakers insist that, by driving undocumented workers out, they will open jobs for Americans; the unemployment rate in the state is nearly 10 percent. But farmers say that jobless U.S. workers, mostly inexperienced in field work and concentrated in and around cities, are ill-suited and mostly unwilling to do the back-breaking, poorly paid work required to plant and harvest tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and other crops. Farmers also say that, if they were to raise wages to make the jobs more attractive, as advocates for the new law suggest, crop prices would soar, making Alabama produce uncompetitive.

A federal court has stayed some parts of the Alabama law, such as a particularly obnoxious measure that requires school systems to collect information on the immigration status of students and their parents. But it has let stand other provisions, including one allowing police to demand documentation from suspected illegal immigrants who are pulled over in routine traffic stops. This has prompted some of the state’s estimated 120,000 illegal immigrants to pack up and head elsewhere.

Some lawmakers, including Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), are suggesting the creation of a guest-worker program to recruit sufficient numbers of farm hands and other unskilled workers. But the workers required are already in the United States. Congress and the federal government have failed to establish an adequate supply of visas for the immigrant labor drawn here by the prospect of jobs. The right thing to do is to fix the problem by enabling those workers to legalize their status and put them on a path to citizenship.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ ... story.html

These people didn't seem too concerned when non-farm workers were asked to subsidize cheap farm labor with their taxes. Health care, free education and welfare were paid for by taxpayers, not by farm owners.

This at least the third or fourth time I have read that strict immigration law enforcement is harming agriculture. This clearly demonstrates that too many businesses, including farms, want the cheap labor and damn the consequences for the rest of us. If their farms so desperately need foreign labor to plant, till, and harvest why are they not using the exisiting LEGAL visa programs to obtain that labor. Because, as ReggieMay just said:

These people didn't seem too concerned when non-farm workers were asked to subsidize cheap farm labor with their taxes. Health care, free education and welfare were paid for by taxpayers, not by farm owners.

The right thing to do is to fix the problem by enabling those workers to legalize their status and put them on a path to citizenship.

And once they're legalized, do you think they will continue with farm labor? Nope. They will get better paying jobs and the farmers will hire more illegals workers. The cycle would never end.

Originally Posted by ReggieMay

These people didn't seem too concerned when non-farm workers were asked to subsidize cheap farm labor with their taxes. Health care, free education and welfare were paid for by taxpayers, not by farm owners.

I guess we are supposed to feel sorry for them. How many years did they get taxpayer dollars for not farming or growing certain crops by this government at taxpayers expense and a hefty "pittance" they got too imagine that "paid not to farm, produce or what ever you want to call it"..Well I would call it traitorous!!!!l.......All so the big corporations could gain a foothold and control local farming buying them all up for control over our farmlands and food supply.

to all you Farm you could have the American to do your work
you pay the right money you would have the help
I don't feel sorry for any of you or the illegal Immigrants No way in
hell
I will pick for $ 12.00 hr . & you are still making money
& don't say your not .
as I said be for I don't feel sorry for any one Only the American
we work hard as hell & we are not cheap
the Illegal immigrants work cheap they don't work hard they are the jack ass
if the farm had 5 family liveing in one apartment you would work cheap also

I did not just get off the Boat
No amnesty

And meanwhile, illegal invaders continue to "cripple" this country. Farmers have other options; they just cost a little more money which makes them less appealing than their slave, illegal invader labor pool. The open border, pro-illegal invaders like to ride the coattails of the “poor farmersâ€

Can anybody here show me a machine that picks ripe fruit? How about a machine that picks Tomatoes, Peppers, and Peaches, or is this just all wishful thinking there is something better? Chattel Slavery was the thing back before Capitalism took over to do this work. Slaves lived on the farm, and did the work there. Now we have migrants who roam the Country picking and causing a ruckus. Seeing as how many Americaans are out of work, stuck in their hometowns, and unable to move about freely to "pick" these farms, how are they going to pick Peaches in Georgia, when they are stuck in Alabama without a car? I know, I know, something or other here will probably bully me around and Popov off with " you are not against illegal immigration", but seriously, Do we have real answers for Farmers?

Can anybody here show me a machine that picks ripe fruit? How about a machine that picks Tomatoes, Peppers, and Peaches, or is this just all wishful thinking there is something better?

Yes there are. Automation of basic farm tasks has been around for decades. When I was a teenager I worked for various dairy farmers since it was the only work available. I worked on places that still operated like the 1920's (including using a team of draft horses, which I learned to hitch up and drive), to a guy who had mechanized and automated every thing he could. He had a silo unloader, mechanized drop cleaner, milking station, bulk tank, etc. He had his hay baler modified so it made mini-bales and then actually "kicked" them into a wagon pulled behind the baler, eliminating the need for a crew to pull a wagon around and manually toss the bales on the wagon and stack them. When his wagon was full I would deliver an empty wagon, and take the full one back to the barn. The wagon had a false end-gate, and, using a small electric motor with a shaft that fit in the take-up cylinder on the false end gate, I could slowly pull the false end gate towards me and toss the bales on a hay elevator that ran up into the hay mow. Because the bales were cube shaped vs oblong, they packed neatly by themselves without someone having to stack them manually.

That farmer and I put in 100 per cent of his hay without any other help the last year I worked for him.

That was over 50 years ago. I do believe there have been improvements since.

With regard to truck farming, there are machines that will pick tomatoes, and I Know there are machines that can pick corn. As for picking ripe fruit, my experience was that most fruit is picked before it is ripe since it will continue to ripen after picking. And I believe there are machines that will pick oranges, peaches and apples. Berries might be a problem.

While there may be some exceptions, I believe most harvesting can be mechanized. The problem lies with the cost of the machinery. It is a huge capital investment, and many farmers would rather pay cheap labor over ten or twenty years rather than make a large capital investment up front, even though it might be more cost effective in the long term.

Originally Posted by wilro

The right thing to do is to fix the problem by enabling those workers to legalize their status and put them on a path to citizenship.

And once they're legalized, do you think they will continue with farm labor? Nope. They will get better paying jobs and the farmers will hire more illegals workers. The cycle would never end.

That is exactly what has happened, does happen, and will continue to happen. The 20-40 year olds are roofing, pouring cement, framing, landscaping, any kind of manual labor that pays better and is not seasonal. The fields are full of illegal grandparents and legal young anchor babies