I would not have a problem with a picking visa - provided certain conditions are met.
Like 3 months in, then 9 months out, worker only, no family members, $10 an hour, wages payable in Mexico City.
“Immigration raids and employer penalties have led to a shortage of workers in the nation’s largest farm states, leading many in the agriculture industry to conclude that growers can’t get their products to market without a stable supply of workers from abroad.”
“The farm labor force in the U.S. currently numbers about 1.6 million people, 70 percent of whom are thought to be undocumented, according to people in the industry.”
It’s good to hear that some employers are actually trying to find workers by using a legal program.
But I wouldn’t believe the above two quoted statements for anything. 70% of farm workers are illegal aliens? According to people in the industry? Far too much self-serving rhetoric in those statements. Our government needs units within the immigration service to verify claims made by employers, and the means to verify a decent sample of the statements.
We’ll never have sensible immigration/guest worker policies until we have the means to verify the claims of employers, and stiff penalties for those making false claims to justify cheaper foreign workers.
Picker ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
If they would only ensure their workforce is 100 legal through the established verification program, they could grab a significant market share.
Employers don’t want to hassle with document verification or take the risk of fines or labor disruptions from raids.
As an example: if you own a packing shed and you have million dollars of apples sitting around to be processed and shipped (you don’t own those apples) but if your labor force gets sacked up or runs off and you can’t process the order you are going to be paying for those apples.
If the union could establish and verify that their members are legal and assume the responsibility for document verification I believe a lot of employers would use them.
As it stands now, unions only represent a very small number in the agg area so they would have nothing to loose.
Just another crock, immigration reform has nothing in it about these worker programs. Just as soon as a worker can make enough to get some sort of stolen ID or get some fat gal to marry him, are some female drops a kid they stop working on the farm.
ping
There are laws available that allow temporary workers to come here legally, earn money, pay taxes and go home.
What is the problem and issue here? Just follow the laws we have.