Posted on 08/22/2007 10:25:14 PM PDT by neverdem
HAMPTONBURGH, N.Y., Aug. 16 — With a look of supreme satisfaction, Jeff Crist squinted at the Ginger Golds and Jonamacs ripening under an incandescent sun at his apple orchard here: the trees were so laden that they almost seemed to strain under the effort.
“It’s a vintage crop — a solid quality crop, which means good sugars in the apples,” he said. “They should eat very nicely, almost like a good wine.”
This is the third year in a row of near-perfect weather, and Mr. Crist, a fourth-generation apple grower, like many other growers in the Hudson Valley, is finally feeling secure after a disastrous string of harvests marred by early frost and hail. In fact, Mr. Crist is so bullish that he recently bought a 164-acre orchard nearby, bucking the decades-long trend of apple orchards being sold to housing developers.
But while weather conditions have cooperated and industry experts say demand for apples nationwide has approached an all-time high, there are new fears in New York and around the nation over whether there will be enough hands to pick the crop. This month, the Bush administration announced new measures to crack down on employers of illegal immigrants.
Nationwide, growers’ associations estimate that about 70 percent of farmworkers are illegal immigrants, many of them using fake Social Security numbers on their applications. Under the new rules, if the Social Security Administration finds that an applicant’s information does not match its database, employers could be required to fire the worker or risk being fined up to $10,000 for knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
They don’t want Americans. They want people who aren;t covered by any laws and people they can pay under the table - non persons - illegal invaders.
Oh wow, sounds a lot better than those mealy Red Delicious ones we get stuck with here in CA. The skin is bitter. I love Mackintosh and Rome, but the prices are very high.
Blackberries are completely outrageous. I wish I could grow them up here. Fresh blackberry pie, anyone??? I don’t recall ever having black raspberries. Are they similar?
Not enough low-wage workers is what they really mean.
Did you mean a day without illegals? Why would I wish for a "Day without a Mexican"?
That's just racist BS.
Proof positive (well, at least some proof) that illegals supress wages.
Seems to me that the wages need to be where people are willing to work for them.
Wait a minute! I thought the weather was terrible because of global warming. Now the New York Times is telling me the weather has been near-perfect for the last three years?
Sad, but true.
“I’m not an illegal aien but I picked apples when I was a teenager..
Why dont they hire Americans? College students?
It’s not work that Americans wont do..”
They want to pay cheap wages. Even illegals don’t want
to do it. Construction pays much better.
BUMP
There's lots of high school graduates who are functionally illiterate, unskilled laborers. Many are unemployed as they can't compete against illegal alien labor as they are expected to be paid federal minimum wage (another stupid cause of unemployment). Lots of potential job seekers here.
I’m not being racist. I should have chosen my words with more care. I was referring to the movie, but in my mind I was thinking illegals, not mexicans as a whole.
The ones I was referring to are the ones who wave a mexican flag while protesting in OUR country.
The ones who refuse to assimilate into AMERICAN culture.
The ones who demand that WE learn THEIR language so we can accommodate them. I don’t believe bi-lingual is a plus. I believe it is a screening tool for affirmative action requirements to be fulfilled easier.
The ones who go to the ER when they get a minor illness, because they are “under the table”.
The ones who mill outside Home Depot, and urinate in the parking lot while they wait for some contractor to offer them a dayjob.
These are the mexicans I was referring to.
Don’t even get me started on Mohammeds minions.
Some legal Mexicans up in the mountains of Western NC bought an old orchard, nursed it back to health and now hire local rednecks to pick their apples.
“Mexican” isn’t a race, so me saying I don’t like mexicans isn’t a racial statement. I don’t like their socialist, scofflaw culture, I don’t like their colonizing, I don’t like their trashy neighborhoods, I don’t like mexico.
So,clearly you’re not American!
susie
I wonder if the owners of the farms pick any of their own produce these days?
susie
Hmm...teenagers, welfare recipients, unemployment office....
work Americans won’t do in the entitlement society
Prisoners. The prisoners get to bring home 5 apples home with them every day. they can eat them, or trade them for cigarettes, or turn ‘em into alcohol for all I care.
The illegals can work when they choose. It takes very little money for them to exist here. (all those freebies, don’cha know?) They will pick the easiest job for the most money, and send most of it back to their ‘home-land’.
12 to 20 million people is not enough or is it the wages are not enough.
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