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In Alabama, strict immigration law sows discord
Reuters ^ | May 30, 2012 | Daniel Trotta and Tom Bassing

Posted on 05/30/2012 11:06:00 AM PDT by moonshinner_09

He was afraid his seasonal migrant workforce might not return for the summer picking season, opting to stay away rather than risk running afoul of Alabama's stringent immigration law. The crew he awaits is picking the Florida harvest.

"I had to cut back my planting not knowing if the labor is going to be available," said Copeland, 47, who planted just two-thirds of his 30 acres on the far side of Straight Mountain in northeastern Blount County.

"I don't know what we're going to do if they run every illegal out of here. It's going to be hard to stay in business."

Fellow Blount County tomato farmer Tim Battles planted just 12 of his 25 acres because of uncertainties engendered by the law.

"I've got $160,000, $170,000 in my crop," he said. "Let's say (immigration enforcement officers) come in July and haul everyone off. I lose it all. What they're doing down in Montgomery (the state capital) is governing us out of a job."

Modeled after Arizona's controversial 2010 immigration law, Alabama's statute and others also passed last year - in Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah - require state and local law enforcement officers to verify the immigration status of those they suspect of being in the country illegally.

Now, Alabama is finding out whether it can live without undocumented immigrants, estimated to number 120,000 in 2010, who flocked to this southern state only in recent decades. They've been working in border states for several generations.

More states are considering their own laws but first want to see how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on provisions of the Arizona law, a judgment expected before the end of June. Based on questions posed by justices during oral arguments heard on April 25, some analysts expect the Roberts court

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Alabama
KEYWORDS: al; aliens; farmers; immigration
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Here the part i found interesting,Building contractors, among others who have long depended on undocumented workers, complain the law has also had the effect of driving out legal employees. Families and work crews tend to stick together, so if one or two lack papers, the entire group leaves together. If Building contractors, or anybody else has to depend on illegals, then they deserve the hardships confronting them. Building contractors,pay in cash , if one of their illegals gets hurt on the job, Building contractors,will take illegals to er drop off them and leave it to the taxpayers to provide healthcare coverage
1 posted on 05/30/2012 11:06:05 AM PDT by moonshinner_09
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To: moonshinner_09

“I don’t know what we’re going to do if they run every illegal out of here. It’s going to be hard to stay in business.”

I’m sorry, but that’s NOT a reason to flout the law.


2 posted on 05/30/2012 11:09:07 AM PDT by tickedoffnow (No more...)
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To: moonshinner_09

“Now, Alabama is finding out whether it can live without undocumented immigrants.”

Don’t worry about us Rooters. Somehow we’ll make it. /sarc


3 posted on 05/30/2012 11:12:09 AM PDT by BO Stinkss
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To: tickedoffnow

What can he do?

Well, he can join millions of working Americans to pass laws that arrest welfare cheats and when when arrested, place them in the fields to work......that’s what!


4 posted on 05/30/2012 11:12:29 AM PDT by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: moonshinner_09
Enforcing the law 'sows discord' - Rooters.

Advocacy journalism is the single greatest threat to this country's continued existance.

5 posted on 05/30/2012 11:12:57 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: moonshinner_09

Mr. Copeland, put an ad on Craiglist and you will probably get enough pickers.

If not, raise the pay until you do.

That is how capitalism works.


6 posted on 05/30/2012 11:14:15 AM PDT by Persevero (Homeschooling for Excellence since 1992)
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To: moonshinner_09
"I've got $160,000, $170,000 in my crop," he said. "Let's say (immigration enforcement officers) come in July and haul everyone off. I lose it all. What they're doing down in Montgomery (the state capital) is governing us out of a job."

So...your investment entitles you to illegally employ people to harvest your crops? Your investment entitles you to force taxpayers to subsidize you by providing taxpayer funded services illegals ultimately use?
7 posted on 05/30/2012 11:14:48 AM PDT by rottndog (Be Prepared.....for what's coming AFTER America.)
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To: Persevero

Many years ago, high school kids used to pick crops to make money so they could buy school clothes. Those days could come again if the illegals don’t show up.


8 posted on 05/30/2012 11:18:13 AM PDT by Tarantulas ( Illegal immigration - the trojan horse that's treated like a sacred cow)
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To: moonshinner_09

I bet he could find some unemployed people somewhere to help out. Of course he might have to pay at least minimum wage.


9 posted on 05/30/2012 11:22:13 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

I wonder if this chucklehead expects his kids teachers, doctors and dentists to be illegals so it is cheaper for him also.

STFU you criminal enabler!


10 posted on 05/30/2012 11:39:32 AM PDT by VRWCarea51
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To: tickedoffnow
I do not sympathize with anyone breaking a law to cut their expenses. This is different only in scale of walking into a bank and robbing it to keep your business “Competitive”How many illegals have been enticed into the US because of this attitude.. if you can't get legitamate help, you obviously are not paying a US Scale salary.
No tears from this Retired Soldier

Airborne !.

11 posted on 05/30/2012 11:39:32 AM PDT by coldflamingo (Old Paratrooper/Nam Vet/Retired SFC USArmy)
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To: moonshinner_09

Gee, maybe he will have to pay a wage that the market decides is right, whatever is required to attract legitimate workers. NAW, no way that would work.


12 posted on 05/30/2012 11:47:24 AM PDT by 12chachacha
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To: moonshinner_09

Could not agree more, frig’em and feed’em fish heads. The building contractors have for too long gotten away with this bullchit. They now think they are the new farmers, ie: lowered wages so low that illegals are the only ones who will work for them.

Where in the hell is the unions on this subject?


13 posted on 05/30/2012 11:47:57 AM PDT by Sea Parrot (I'll be a nice to you as you'll let me be, or as mean as you make me be.)
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To: VRWCarea51

u talking to me?


14 posted on 05/30/2012 11:50:53 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: moonshinner_09

What a winning business model!

It’s pretty obvious why Americans are not doing the work illegals do when you think about it. They only hire their foreign pals and they have locked out Americans from the skills development and work.

Construction jobs used to keep the working class in America rising. If you weren’t great at school, but could work with your hands, you learned a trade and then were trained on the job. No speaka spanish, no job in most construction operations in the US. It’s time for them to go.

That farmer who built his livlihood on illegal labor should be making other plans for hiring Americans rather than whining. He first has to get rid of his foreign farm manager who hires only illegal, foreign crews.


15 posted on 05/30/2012 11:54:03 AM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: moonshinner_09
Now, Alabama is finding out whether it can live without undocumented immigrants, estimated to number 120,000 in 2010, who flocked to this southern state only in recent decades. They've been working in border states for several generations.

At least one true statement in the article, but they fail to point out that all these jobs that Americans won't do were overwhelmingly being done in Alabama by white and black US citizens until about twenty years ago. It wasn't until the early 1990s that you could even find an illegal alien working in Alabama without going to great effort.

These illegals gradually began arriving and would work cheaper, so more employers began to hire them. If some employers who did the hiring are now having to hustle more to find workers, I have no sympathy for them. And if they can't arrange labor to work 40 acres of tomatoes, they shouldn't plant forty acres of tomatoes.

Farmers who want large scale operations, especially in labor intensive crops like vegetables and fruit, should work out their labor needs without including illegal workers, or they should not plant such crops on a large scale.

16 posted on 05/30/2012 12:06:43 PM PDT by Will88
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To: moonshinner_09

The problem is that he expects US to pick up the tab for all the bennies the illegals and their families claim. He gets the benefit of cheap labor. We get the shaft in the form of huge benefits costs, higher crime rates, increased infectious disease, ad nauseum.

Screw that.


17 posted on 05/30/2012 12:10:10 PM PDT by jimt (Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed.)
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To: moonshinner_09

” Building contractors,pay in cash , if one of their illegals gets hurt on the job, Building contractors,will take illegals to er drop off them and leave it to the taxpayers to provide healthcare coverage “

YEP


18 posted on 05/30/2012 12:14:12 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
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To: SaraJohnson

” That farmer who built his livlihood on illegal labor should be making other plans for hiring Americans rather than whining. He first has to get rid of his foreign farm manager who hires only illegal, foreign crews.”

Yes.

I have absolutely no sympathy for the home building contractors. Those SOBS got so bad in the mid 2000’s, that an American out west couldn’t find a construction job at all. Now tens of thousands of nearly new homes are falling apart, even turning into slums.


19 posted on 05/30/2012 12:21:32 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
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To: moonshinner_09

The guy has $170,000 invested in 12 acres of tomatoes? That’s $14,000 per acre. He’s got other problems other than labor.


20 posted on 05/30/2012 12:24:39 PM PDT by artichokegrower
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