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"If E-Verify passes, it will kill the dairy industry in Wisconsin," Reinhart said. "I'm scared to death."

This is the same type of rubbish we've heard for years from those in the agriculture industry. The world will end if we don't have cheap labor. How did we survive all those years without illegal immigrants? Prices adjusted that's how. It's the way market systems work.

What we have in the agriculture sector are farmers who want subsidies. And these subsidies come in different forms. Somethings it's direct subsidies and other times it's the importing cheap labor in the form of illegals. This is a lot more typical in California than Wisconsin but it seems to be everywhere. The costs of these illegals are borne by the rest of society in the high rate of crime or in educating the scores of children these illegals often seem to have. The farmer doesn't give a rats *ss about that. That's someone else's problem. Besides there is a gigantic pool of welfare recipients in both Madison and Milwaukee who ought to be able to fill these jobs. There's a recession on haven't you heard. People are out of work.

What we have in the agriculture sector are farmers who want subsidies. And these subsidies come in different forms. Somethings it's direct subsidies and other times it's the importing cheap labor in the form of illegals.

Some people have a fetish of keeping business in the US.

I doubt the farmers want the average welfare recipients' lack of work ethic. Instead, they will cross back over the Canadian border, just like businesses head out of the US if we don't have cheap enough labor. The problem is, US workers expect things like OSHA protection, but also make wages that are higher than elsewhere, all while we tax businesses so heavily. Those things add up to uncompetitive businesses here.

Back in the early 90s one of my Senior NCOs owned a farm about 12 miles from base. It was his home town and of his more than 20 years in service he had been gone from home just two years (we called it Homesteading).

Anyway, he bragged he received about twice what he made from the Air Force from the Feds for keeping over half his land fallow. He also said he received other subsidies that totaled his AF pay and because of that he was quite hard to deal with.

I finally got fed up and pressured him to retire from the military and go farm.

Agriculture does not need illegal immigrants. I know many farmers and ranchers that do not hire illegals and they do just fine. Their cows don’t die and their crops don’t rot- they are able to get legal immigrants and/or citizen employees. The Ag industry is just like other industries, there are those that follow the law and those that don’t. The sad thing is those that follow the law have to compete with those that don’t. That is truly unfair and must be stopped.

Agriculture is where this mess all started with the illegals, many of my family and friends worked in agriculture jobs and were forced out by illegals many years ago. Many owners wanted the illegals because they would not only work for lower wages, but would tolerate unsafe or otherwise bad working conditions. At the time those of us that needed and wanted the jobs tried to speak out about what was happening but no one cared. It wasn’t their job. As the years have passed illegals have moved into construction, motels, restaurants, you name it illegals have taken the jobs.

We simply cannot afford to subsidize illegal workers and need the jobs for citizens.

Wherever illegal migrant farm workers have settled the crime rate has sky rocketed along with the other ills brought by them. I’ll pay 5 cents more for a head of lettuce to hire Ameicans. Lets start by employing welfare fraud recepients and put them in the fields. If they don’t like it then they don’t eat. Guess what, they’ll work.