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Growers fear worst in immigration reform debate
Chicago Tribune/Charlotte.com ^ | 5-29-06 | MICHAEL MARTINEZ

Posted on 05/29/2006 3:34:54 PM PDT by SJackson

OCEANSIDE, Calif. - Tomato grower Luawanna Hallstrom understands how paths cross in the shadowy world of illegal immigrant and employer.

Her three-generation family farm needed workers to harvest a crop in 2001, so it hired 300 farmhands. All their documents appeared in order, she said.

Then federal authorities found that three-fourths of the workers were illegal immigrants, and that left the peak harvest in ruins.

"People say, `You should get those employers that hire the undocumented!' Well, wait a minute. They have documents, but they're fraudulent. We are supposed to take them at face value - otherwise you get into these discrimination issues," Hallstrom said.

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


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agriculture; aliens; farmworkers; immigrantlist; immigration
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As enforcement has intensified in recent years and would multiply further under proposals now before Congress, growers like Hallstrom say they are under a strain over whether their fields will have enough workers...Hallstrom remedied her 2001 crisis by hiring farm workers through the federal government's temporary guest agricultural worker program. The program is shunned by most farmers because it's too costly and its bureaucratic delays threaten crops, she said.

Yup, unlawful employers will soon have to follow the more, use more costly labor, and encounter bureaucratic delays. Like the rest of us.

And yes, I know lettuce will be $5 a head and tomatoes unavailable, so it's not necessary to tell me. I'll eat cabbage.

1 posted on 05/29/2006 3:34:55 PM PDT by SJackson
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To: SJackson

We grow our own tomatoes. The bonus--they actually taste like tomatoes, unlike the cardboard tomatoes you get at the supermarket.


2 posted on 05/29/2006 3:37:34 PM PDT by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
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To: SJackson

I'll have an Elk Burger. Hold the lettuce. Hold the tomatoes.


3 posted on 05/29/2006 3:38:20 PM PDT by claudiustg (¡En español, por favor!)
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To: SJackson
We are supposed to take them at face value - otherwise you get into these discrimination issues," Hallstrom said.

Oh, please, if you have the same TOUGH standard for the paperwork for everyone there's no discrimination.

You are expected to live by the same rules as the rest of us do. If you can't abide by the labor rules your business requires, get out of the business.

4 posted on 05/29/2006 3:39:41 PM PDT by Darkwolf377
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To: SJackson
You know what will happen??

Someone will build a robot to automate their cultivation.

5 posted on 05/29/2006 3:41:20 PM PDT by GeronL
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To: SJackson
Duh!!!!!

Ain't nunya boys heard of a Chain-Gang? Ain't that whas we has prisons fer?

6 posted on 05/29/2006 3:43:03 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
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To: MizSterious
We grow our own tomatoes. The bonus--they actually taste like tomatoes, unlike the cardboard tomatoes you get at the supermarket.

You know, don't you, that we got the cardboard tomatoes when the last guest worker program went away, and the growers had to find a tomato sturdy enough to be picked by machine.
There may be Americans willing to do the job, but not enough of them, and not reliably enough.

Fresh peas are already rare for the same reason. What produce will we lose next?

7 posted on 05/29/2006 3:44:40 PM PDT by speekinout
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To: Darkwolf377
Oh, please, if you have the same TOUGH standard for the paperwork for everyone there's no discrimination.... You are expected to live by the same rules as the rest of us do. If you can't abide by the labor rules your business requires, get out of the business.

Imagine firms which run security and drug checks. We can't do the check, don't want to discriminate against drug dealers or former criminals. Current violations excepted.

8 posted on 05/29/2006 3:44:44 PM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn’t do!)
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To: GeronL
Someone will build a robot to automate their cultivation.

Or, we'll just get more produce from Mexico directly, as we already do with avocados.

9 posted on 05/29/2006 3:44:54 PM PDT by sinkspur ( Don Cheech. Vito Corleone would like to meet you......Vito Corleone.....)
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To: GeronL
You know what will happen??...Someone will build a robot to automate their cultivation.

Eli Whitney is channeling this conversation.

10 posted on 05/29/2006 3:45:48 PM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn’t do!)
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To: speekinout
Fresh peas are already rare for the same reason. What produce will we lose next?

If peas can't be produced legally in the US, we'll have to import them.

11 posted on 05/29/2006 3:46:22 PM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn’t do!)
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To: sinkspur
Or, we'll just get more produce from Mexico directly, as we already do with avocados.

Exactly, same as we do with many products.

12 posted on 05/29/2006 3:47:01 PM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn’t do!)
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To: SJackson

Even those of us who are most vehemently opposed to illegal immigration are willing to look at guest workers for the farm jobs that traditionally taken by migrants but only after the laws are enforced.


13 posted on 05/29/2006 3:49:57 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Never a minigun handy when you need one.)
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To: SJackson

When I was a kid, "Kids" picked fruits and veggies.

TT


14 posted on 05/29/2006 3:50:19 PM PDT by TexasTransplant (NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET)
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To: sinkspur

"AMES, Iowa--Common produce items such as grapes, cauliflower, peas, broccoli, spinach and lettuce can travel an average of more than 2,000 miles before reaching Midwestern markets, according to an updated report from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Moreover, at least one-third of the asparagus, cucumbers, eggplant, squash and tomatoes shipped within the conventional U.S. food system comes from Mexico. "

http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/newsreleases/2002/foodmiles2.htm

"Their study also showed that cabbage, cucumbers, onions, sweet corn and tomatoes originated from 15 or more states, while green peas and table grapes only came from California. Mexico was a source of 21 of the 30 produce items investigated, with 43 percent of the squash arrivals originating from Mexico. "

So tell me again why we need 10-20 million illegals?



15 posted on 05/29/2006 3:52:49 PM PDT by stopem (God Bless the U.S.A the Troops who protect her, and their Commander In Chief !)
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To: SJackson

There are robot vacuums and lawn mowers and there are combines harvesting all kinds of crops already. Automation is moving ahead and when it does what exactly will we do will millions and millions of unskilled foreigners?


16 posted on 05/29/2006 3:52:53 PM PDT by GeronL
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To: TexasTransplant
When I was a kid, "Kids" picked fruits and veggies.

Same here but migrants have worked on the big factory farms for a long time. When I was a kid growing up here in Michigan, legal migrants harvested root crops all around where we lived.
17 posted on 05/29/2006 3:54:25 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Never a minigun handy when you need one.)
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To: stopem
So tell me again why we need 10-20 million illegals?

We don't need any to assist on farms, if you don't care that, eventually, much of US agribusiness will shift production to South America.

It doesn't bother me, as I believe in free trade. Some of the more protectionist on the board might not be too keen on the idea.

18 posted on 05/29/2006 3:57:40 PM PDT by sinkspur ( Don Cheech. Vito Corleone would like to meet you......Vito Corleone.....)
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To: GeronL
There are robot vacuums and lawn mowers and there are combines harvesting all kinds of crops already. Automation is moving ahead and when it does what exactly will we do will millions and millions of unskilled foreigners?

And it won't move ahead if we maintain a system based on abusive wage rates and employer labor practices. And if tomatoes or avocados are too expensive to produce here, we'll import them. As we do with, for example, clothing from China, a clearly abusive labor market by American standards. Without getting into the many ramifications of trade with third world countries, we import the product, we don't import the laborers and make it here. Which we easily could.

19 posted on 05/29/2006 4:00:57 PM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn’t do!)
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To: TexasTransplant
When I was a kid, "Kids" picked fruits and veggies.

When I was a kid, they worked at McDonalds, mowed lawns, painted houses and bagged groceries. Still do in rural areas.

Retirees and housewives did too.

20 posted on 05/29/2006 4:04:33 PM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn’t do!)
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