Mollie Tibbetts case exposes farms' worst-kept secret: hiring undocumented immigrants

WFAA.COM | 25 AUGUST 2018 | USA TODAY

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/nation-world/mollie-tibbetts-case-exposes-farms-worst-kept-secret-hiring-undocumented-immigrants/507-587547900

[tinyowl]

Secret?

[DIRTYSECRET]

Picking strawberries is ok. It’s when they show up at construction sites.

[9YearLurker]

It’s a shame. It has kept farming behind on capital investment and in improving the quality of jobs provided.

[CMSMC]

You walk into any big hog farm or 1k plus head milking operation and you’d better be able to speak Spanish. On the other hand a good friend just sold his 40 head herd because I was getting the same price for milk as his father was in 1973.

[raiderboy]

it is my strong opinion that that sorry SOB that hired that murdering illegal alien SOB should go to prison for 20m years. This is bull crap. Someone ought to whip his ass.

[shanover]

Huh?

[oldasrocks]

He used a stolen ID to get the job.

[Newbomb Turk]

Employer Craig Lang ran for state ag director and is a big Republican. Employee had a valid drivers liscense and SS number and was background checked through that SS number.

Makes me wonder where all those false documents come from.

[raiderboy]

I think that is a lie.

[Mears]

“Makes me wonder where all those false documents come from. “

—

From someone who’s making a boatload of money.

.

[txrefugee]

Why should the rest of us suffer the curse of illegal immigration because farmers want cheap labor? The cotton farm that I grew up on employed migrant Mexican labor until the 1960s when mechanical cotton harvesters were developed.
They were expensive, but farmers adopted the new way of harvesting because it was less trouble than dealing with migrants. For one thing, on Monday mornings you didn’t have to bail anyone out of jail for drunk driving or disorderly conduct.
It’s high time farmers invest in machines and robots to take the place of illegal labor or pay better wages to attract legal labor. The current situation is costing the rest of us too much in social services and in lives lost.

[Balding_Eagle]

We should have picked their own damn cotton back then, and we should pick her up on Dam strawberries now

[Balding_Eagle]

We should have picked our own damn cotton back then, and we should pick our own dam strawberries now.

[small farm girl]

Broken record alert: we have a guest worker program. People come here to work, pay taxes on income and return home to families. The prevailing wage for farm labor is $12.84 in MA...meanwhile we watch our minimum wage increase to $15. Dont' leave out twenty weeks of paid leave. Ya, that should help. My farm is not near a hub of immigrant, employing young people is tricky and I already have to pay for their health insurance(MA Health), how shall I cover the new wages?
We've f'd ourselves with all the laws!

[small farm girl]

Just to clarify, we have a legal system for bringing in Mexicans, Jamaicans, Haitians....
use the H2A program, E-verify, or LEGAL local workers. THAT'S IT!!!
NO ONE should be hiring illegals. Not necessary!

[McGruff]

We use to have things called migrant workers when I was young.