Thread: Uh oh: Ag Sec Says Trump Open to Allowing Immigrant Farm Workers To Stay In U.S.

Looks like this was published on 4/28/17. I hope this is not an "AG Jobs" Amnesty redux:

***
Excerpt from:
Harvestpublicmedia.org

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Friday said President Trump may be open to creating a way for some undocumented immigrant workers to stay in the U.S. and Perdue is already working on a “blueprint” of policy guidelines to offer the president.

Refusing to call it a pathway to citizenship, Perdue says he would like to find a solution that would allow workers in the ag industry to remain in the U.S. legally. That’s despite Trump’s campaign promises to step up deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Trump met with farmers this week and heard about the challenges they face keeping laborers for dairies or field work, Perdue says.

Full story here:

http://harvestpublicmedia.org/post/a...orkers-stay-us

This is so wrong. This plan plus DACA plus military service, plus, plus. Millions of illegal aliens would remain with the amnesties being proposed. The families will receive amnesty, too, whether now under Republicans or later under Democrats.

Trump immigration policies have farming industry on edge


February 27, 2017


By AFP

President Donald Trump’s tough new immigration measures are sending shudders through the US farming industry, which largely employs a low-wage foreign workforce.

Since taking office on a “America first” agenda, Trump has made immigration a policy cornerstone. Among other measures, he has broadened authorities’ powers to detain and deport unauthorized immigrants.

In a tight labor market, this could leave farms with few options when looking for workers to pick the vegetables and tend to the animals that feed the country.

Eric Ooms, who runs a 450-head dairy operation in Valatie, a village about two hours north of New York City, told AFP that many people were unwilling to do the messy work of milking cows.

And in a region where unemployment hovers under five percent, the $10.50 he pays for an hour’s work attracts few US citizens.

“We just cannot find local people who want to get dirty and milk cows,” Ooms said. “I have been doing it all the time so I am used to it. It does not mean I like it but it is how it is.”

As a result, in addition to five members of his own family, Ooms employs a Mexican immigrant hired by word of mouth to get his milk past the farm gate and out to market.

– ‘Vital’ to food supply –

The US agricultural sector relies on cheap immigrant labor to keep costs down. In all, about 70 percent of farmhands were born outside the United States, the majority of them in Mexico.

The industry acknowledges that most of these workers are not legal residents in the United States, so Trump’s aggressive stance on immigration could threaten American farms.
Industry representatives nevertheless choose their words carefully.

“Increased rhetoric about enforcement is challenging,” said Kristi Boswell, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau, a group representing the industry.

“But it is our role to educate the country about why these workers are still vital and critical to our operations to have access to our food supply and food security.”

The organization points to the difficulties that simply expelling unauthorized migrants could create.

According to a farm bureau study, if the industry were to lose access to all undocumented workers, net farm income could be slashed by between 15 percent and 29 percent, fruit production could tumble by as much as 60 percent and consumer prices could rise about five percent.

The consequences would be particularly stark for vegetable and fruit growers, where foreign labor exceeds 40 percent, with California’s producers first in line to feel the effects.

The National Milk Producers Federation in 2015 predicted a doubling of consumer milk prices in the absence of immigrant labor, which accounts for 80 percent of American milk.

There are visa programs for farm workers, but with hundreds of thousands of people work US farms without proper immigration status, legal immigrant labor is a drop in the bucket.

The H-2A agricultural guest worker visa program, intended to meet the industry’s need for workers to bring in the harvest, is largely insufficient: in 2013, only 71,000 visas were granted, according to a congressional report.

The visa program makes employers responsible for workers’ housing and transport and has been criticized for lacking flexibility, creating delays when harvesting cannot wait.

Industry representatives say they hope to use the debate spurred by Trump’s immigration policies to gain a greater audience for their calls for reforms that could lead to a legalized work force.

In the meantime, Eric Ooms has invested in equipment to automate the milking of his cows — a purchase of more than $1 million that could protect his farm from a potential labor shortage.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/trump-...ustry-on-edge/

“I’m trying to describe the heart of the president and my heart regarding how we treat people, some people here who are undocumented who have been working in the United States for a number of years,” Perdue says. “Those people are different than the criminal people, illegal criminals preying on the population of the United States of America.”

Hey boys, the "heart" crap ain't sellin'. Americans don't just want the "criminals" deported, we want them all deported. There are legal immigrants available to do this work, many of them already in the country on green cards, permanent residents. Hire them if for some reason our "farmers" refuse to hire Americans. But on this, someone needs to investigate why the "farmers" refuse to hire Americans. Sounds like a terrible case of race and ethnic discrimination to me. After all, a lot of the people available to do this work in the South are black Americans and in the Southwest, Mexican and Hispanic Americans. So is it the blacks in the South your "farmers" are refusing to hire and pay a decent wage and benefits? Is it the Mexican and Hispanic Americans in the Southwest your "farmers" are refusing to hire and pay a decent wage and benefits? Is it legal immigrants your "farmers" are refusing to hire and pay a decent wage and benefits?

What is it exactly about your "farmers" that with 94 million working age Americans out of the work force your "farmers" feel they need to hire illegal aliens?

I hope Trump doesn't fall for this, and I don't think he will. They'll all have to go back. They all gotta go!!! That's the only way you put Americans back to work, cut the welfare spending, and stop the Anchor Baby breeding.

I bought a jug of milk at Walmart tonight for $1.11. I assumed it was a quart because of the price. I get it home and realize it was a half gallon of milk for $1.11 at Walmart with 2 week expiration, so quite fresh, their Great Value brand. A week and a half ago it was $1.47. I mean how much lower do you need to get your costs to a public that will pay $2.00 for a half a gallon of milk any day of the week and twice on Sunday?!!! Maybe Walmart bought up a bunch of that Wisconsin milk they were going to have to dump until Trump got involved? Look for a sale on ice cream, coming soon!!



Farmers, we love you, we always have, even though almost all of you are Democrats because the Democrats had all those farmer programs, paying you not to grow or produce, but we're trying to fix our country and need you for the first time in 100 years to SHUT UP AND STOP WHINING!!!

(When Sonny Perdue was governor of Georgia they cracked down on illegal immigration. )

America First" does not involve all of these amnesties for illegal foreign citizens. It requires removing them to their home nations or elsewhere. "Hire American" does not include amnesties for millions of illegal foreign citizens who take jobs from American citizens. It requires millions of illegal aliens to leave and to free our nation from the burdens of care and theft of our taxpayer dollars as well as jobs.

The poor and illiterate foreigners will require ongoing services. Our government must stop robbing its citizens to assist illegal aliens. Demands must be made for foreign governments to assist their citizens.

The National Milk Producers Federation in 2015 predicted a doubling of consumer milk prices in the absence of immigrant labor, which accounts for 80 percent of American milk.

We don't care. Double the price. If it's $2.00 a half gallon or $3.00 a half gallon, we don't care. We know you're lying about that because labor isn't 100% of your costs, it's a small fraction of your costs. STOP LYING!! But we'll call your bluff and raise you 3. If it's $3.00 a half gallon, we'll either pay it or buy different products. JUST SHUT UP AND STOP WHINING.

Originally Posted by GeorgiaPeach

(When Sonny Perdue was governor of Georgia they cracked down on illegal immigration. )

America First" does not involve all of these amnesties for illegal foreign citizens. It requires removing them to their home nations or elsewhere. "Hire American" does not include amnesties for millions of illegal foreign citizens who take jobs from American citizens. It requires millions of illegal aliens to leave and to free our nation from the burdens of care and theft of our taxpayer dollars as well as jobs.

The poor and illiterate foreigners will require ongoing services. Our government must stop robbing its citizens to assist illegal aliens. Demands must be made for foreign governments to assist their citizens.

Yes, they will be underpaid, breeding foreign citizens, and signing up for welfare all day long every day of the week. There is no advantage to the American Worker, the American Consumer, or the American Taxpayer for these jobs to be filled with illegal aliens, ever.

Farmers fear losing workers under Trump crackdown on illegal immigration



April 24, 2017

Bethel Heights Vineyard looked out over the 100 acres of vines her crew of 20 Mexicans had just finished pruning, worried about what will happen if the Trump administration presses ahead with its crackdown on immigrants.

From tending the plants to harvesting the grapes, it takes skill and a strong work ethic to produce the winery's pinot noir and chardonnay, and native-born Americans just aren't willing to work that hard, Patricia Dudley said as a cold rain drenched the vineyard in the hills of Oregon.

"Who's going to come out here and do this work when they deport them all?" she asked.


President Donald Trump's hard line against immigrants in the U.S. illegally has sent a chill through the nation's agricultural industry, which fears a crackdown will deprive it of the labor it needs to plant, grow and pick the crops that feed the country.

Fruit and vegetable growers, dairy and cattle farmers and owners of plant nurseries and vineyards have begun lobbying politicians at home and in Washington to get them to deal with immigration in a way that minimizes the harm to their livelihoods.

Some of the farm leaders are Republicans who voted for Trump and are torn, wanting border security but also mercy toward laborers who are not dangerous criminals.

Farming uses a higher percentage of illegal labor than any other U.S. industry, according to a Pew Research Center study.

Immigrants working illegally in this country accounted for about 46 percent of America's roughly 800,000 crop farmworkers in recent years, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the U.S. Departments of Labor and Agriculture.

Stepped-up deportations could carry "significant economic implications," a 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture study said. If America's unauthorized labor force shrank 40 percent, for example, vegetable production could drop by more than 4 percent, the study said.

The American Farm Bureau Federation says strict immigration enforcement would raise food prices 5 to 6 percent because of a drop in supply and because of the higher labor costs farmers could face.

In addition to proposing a wall at the Mexican border, Trump wants to hire 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and has served notice that he intends to be more aggressive than the Obama administration in deporting immigrants.

ICE agents have arrested hundreds of immigrants since Trump took office, though how much of a change from the Obama administration that represents is a matter of debate.

Field hands have been among those targeted, with apple pickers detained in upstate New York and Guatemalans pulled over in Oregon on their way to a forest to pick a plant used in floral arrangements.
It doesn't appear the arrests themselves have put a sizable dent in the agricultural workforce yet, but the fear is taking its toll.

Some workers in Oregon are leaving for job sites as early as 1 a.m. and staying away from check-cashing shops on payday to avoid dragnets. Farm employers are worried about losing their workforces.

"They say, 'Don't go out, don't get drunk, don't do nothing illegal' because they need us too. They worry too," said Moses Maldonado, who is in the U.S. illegally and has worked for nearly four decades tending wine grapes and picking fruit in Oregon.

In Los Banos, California, asparagus farmer Joe Del Bosque said workers are so afraid of being arrested in the field that he struggled to find enough hands in March to pick his crop.

When immigration attorney Sarah Loftin held a recent seminar in the Oregon wine-region town of Newberg to talk about immigrants' legal rights, she was surprised to see about half of those present were winery owners or farmers.



By law, job seekers must provide documents establishing their eligibility to work in the U.S. But the papers are often fake. Many agricultural employers say that it's not their responsibility -- and that they lack the expertise -- to determine if they're genuine.

At the same time, they say that U.S.-born workers have little interest at laboring in the dirt and the cold at the crack of dawn.

As 18 Guatemalans in hoodies and rubber boots toiled in such conditions recently in Oregon's Willamette Valley, their boss expressed admiration for their willingness to do the back-breaking work he said native-born Americans won't do.

"Homeless people are camped in the fir forest over there," the farmer said, pointing to a stand of trees. "And they're not looking for work."

He lamented that crackdowns may force him to retire because he won't be able to find workers. Fearing reprisals from federal agents, he spoke on condition of anonymity and didn't want even his crop identified.

Some immigration hardliners say people who are in the U.S. illegally steal jobs from Americans. But a 2013 study by an economist at the Center for Global Development looked at farms in North Carolina and found that immigrant manual laborers had "almost zero" effect on the job prospects of native-born U.S. workers.

"It appears that almost all U.S. workers prefer almost any labor-market outcome -- including long periods of unemployment -- to carrying out manual harvest and planting labor," Michael Clemens wrote.

While lobbying for visa and immigration reforms, agricultural employers are also looking into contingency plans such as mechanization or a switch to less labor-intensive crops. In Vermont, officials are considering a vocational program to train inmates in dairy farming.

Dudley, the vineyard owner, isn't optimistic about some of the alternatives.

"I don't trust that temps off the street, or jailhouse labor, or whatever alternative they come up with would work," she said.



http://www.syracuse.com/us-news/inde...migration.html

Another thing, milking and the dairies is not a seasonal endeavor, it's a 24/7/365 endeavor. So this has nothing to do with "harvesting". It's a 3 shift full-time very contained and mechanized operation now. These are outstanding full time jobs probably with over-time opportunities for American Workers. There was a farmer at one of the Trump Town Halls during the campaign, who stood up and asked about his illegal alien workers, he milks 5,000 cows. Do you know what it means to have 5,000 cows? That is a very very rich dairy farmer. That is a huge operation.

Related:

Bad News: Department of Agriculture Hires Immigration Expert from the Farm Bureau

https://www.alipac.us/f9/bad-news-de...bureau-346295/