Why not simply place a classified ad and hire Americans?
"It seems to me like if they would have some kind of guest worker program in place before they put pressure on the borders. It would make a lot more sense to farmers. There's got to be a better solution than what they're doing," he said.
The government used to have a guest worker program in place. It was called the Bracero program.
Unfortunately, it was killed because greedy farmers, such as yourself decided to hire Mexican migrant workers and pay them less wages than were being paid to American workers. Then, farmers, such as yourself, told the American workers to work for Mexican wages or find another job, which they did. But, not before complaining to their unions, who lobbied Congress to kill the program, which they did.
Down the road, fellow farmer George Thoeny faces the same labor shortage. Like Dobbins and most farmers across the state, he depends on the migrant workers to stay in business. The Hispanic population, he said, is a necessity because white people are unwilling to do agricultural work.
No, Americans are unwilling to do agricultural work in America and be paid Mexican wages.
"I personally can tell you, where I need 300 workers a day, I haven't had one Caucasian person knock on my door and say, 'I want to work for you.' I couldn't do this without the Hispanic people," Thoeny said. "Fifteen years ago we would have a steady stream of young people coming to us to ask for a job. This year, we didn't have one Caucasian person come to us," added Dobbins.
Well, Mr. Dobbins, how much money did you offer them?
Baker, though, agrees with Dobbins, Thoeny and Boyer that a guest worker program is needed for migrant workers.
Such a program would grant migrant workers a permit, for a fee, to come into the U.S. for the harvest months, and then return to Mexico for the rest of the year.
Again, the USA used to have such a program, called the Bracero program, but it was killed by greedy farmers who wanted to maximize their profits by driving down the wages of the American workers. Pay a fair (American) wage and you'll find no shortage of workers.
Then, there's the problem of stoop labor, but I'm sure strawberry farmers, like Mr. Dobbins and Mr. Thoeny don't want to talk about that subject.
We still do, the H-2A temporary agricultural program. Of course the employer has to participate, which means actually proving theres a labor shortage, and legal migrant laborers are more expensive than illegal. To my knowledge there is no limit on the number of H-2A visas issued.