[ottbmare]

OK, I have a question for the forum. This is not intended to be snarky. You all can see I have a loooong conservative posting history so I’m not trolling. I am asking this legitimately because liberal friends and family members are saying this to me and I don’t know the answer and don’t want to lose a debate on this point.

I know that it’s true that in Arizona first, and now in Alabama, enforcement of the immigration laws does mean that crops really are rotting in the fields. Friends who live down there are telling me about this. Farmers who are used to hiring illegals to do the stoop work can’t find anybody; the illegals have all cleared out and the legal Hispanics don’t have to settle for field-work.

Obviously we have millions of unemployed people in this country—me among them. But you can’t pick up some welfare mother in (say) Chicago and ship her and her four kids fifteen hundred miles to work in the Alabama fields picking crops; the logistics make that impractical and very costly. You can’t take someone like me, a woman in her late middle years with health problems, and make her move to Arizona to do physical labor; I’d be in the hospital in half a day. So how do we work this out?

I don’t want the illegals here any more than anybody else does—they’re a dangerous and costly plague here in the DC area, and even the nice ones really are taking jobs from citizens and soaking up expensive social services. I am not making excuses or covertly hinting that they should be allowed to stay.

What I’m thinking is that we should have tightly-controlled borders, but then let people in on a very rigid, as-needed legal basis for a finite period of time, WITHOUT CHILDREN OR OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS, just to do a specific low-paying farm job for a specific employer. This is what was done many years ago when I was young. Does that sound right? If not, what other ideas do we have to get this food harvested, hay baled, and other low-paying physical labor done in rural areas? Let’s throw some ideas out there.

[Amberdawn]

As I understand it, there are already programs in place for hires to work seasonally to pick crops. That they were abused in the past is one reason we have so many illegals now. Many simply disappeared into the woodwork, started families, and voila. I have no problem with them coming IF THEY THEN GO HOME, but there is no mechanism to ensure this. As for me, if the price is right, I’LL go down there to pick crops-Seriously.

[org.whodat]

I would tend to think you are out in left field. The government, that is you and me, has 14 different programs for farm workers, all of which requires legal book keeping and accounting. Joe farmer would rather screw the American people out of five cents than do it the legal way. And no, crops are not rotting in the fields. See it is taken care of, the laws are on the books, but there is no worker program for the illegals flipping hamburgers.

[manc]

I’m a legal immigrant who became a proud American

First off even if the crops are rotting which I doubt then we still have laws.

2, We have immigration laws and if those cannot be respected then how do we know they can be respected on other laws once here.

3 I went through the fees, interviews, questions tom become America finger prints etc why should someone jump the border and now stay here when they have broken the law and it is not fair to those I have met and I who came ehre legally, went home to get our visas and paid for all of it ourselves.

4 If we cannot get Americans to do the jobs <which we can as look at the dopes in Wall street demo. then how about those in prison, students in the summer and wanting more money to pay for education, community service can be imposed for lesser crimes, homeless wanting money to get their own place etc there is a load of folks whio can do this job.

5 If we have a country with laws being ignored then we become an anarchy state which the left or some on the lunatic left want.

I do not think you are trolling and it is indeed a decent question and I hope you find my answer alright and adequate.

if you want to know more on immigration and how the process works then I would bne more than happy to help you out.

I have told my kids they are lucky to be here, They understand they have to do good at school and my 13 year old cuts grass to pick up money, he knows he works for money and not reply on anyone

BTW I came from England and have seen a socialist country with a health care which does not work and I have lived in other countries around Europe.
I tell my kids the best place on earth is America, bias maybe but I think the south of America is by the best place to live and raise kids in a traditional way.

[manc]

Hope my post makes sense to you as I am tired, had a few cocktails EEK and typed fast.

[SatinDoll]

Illegal aliens have been let in to do agricultural work which is seasonal. The rest of the year, the US taxpayer has been picking up the bills to keep them here.

Farmers have no incentive to grow crops that can be harvested mechanically. Switching to crops that can be harvested mechanically is only a small part of the solution, as local small farmers markets expand and attract more customers for locally grown food. We have a horrible mess in this nation because of large scale commercial farming that relies on others to care for workers in the off season. There is something grossly wrong with their business plans, and corporate welfare shouldn’t be part of the picture.

Laws like those in Alabama and Arizona, which back up the lawful intention of our fellow citizen, are not onerous. We are a nation of laws and we both better hope it stays that way.

[Shadowstrike]

There is already a legal way into America, but some think they’re so special they don’t need to follow the rules.

As for food rotting in the fields...

I have yet to see one farm advertise for pickers. Thankfully I already have one job, but as My mom has been laid off hers, I’d be more than willing to take another one to help her and Dad out even more.

So, when farmers quit b@tchin about the lack of “hands” and actually try to hire people. I’ll listen.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Your liberal friends are liars. I live in Arizona and the crops are doing just fine. That “rotting in the fields” BS is a myth being spread by the state run commie “media”. Unlike those living in the northeast, not everyone living in Arizona has a master’s degree from Harvard. Those people, Americans and legal immigrants, appreciate not having all the illegals around driving down the wages.

[headstamp 2]

Tell your liberal friends that if our so-called economy can’t function without what amounts to illegal “Mexican Coolies” doing the manual labor, then we are truly finished as a country.

[mvpel]

Even if the crops were rotting in the fields for lack of slave-wage laborers, so what? Does a field full of rotting cabbage make slave-wage labor morally justifiable?

I'll bet the 19th century cotton farmers made the same arguments - "you can't abolish chattel slavery, who will pick the cotton?! Cotton will be rotting in the fields! Slaves are doing jobs Americans won't do!!"

And besides, the USDA regulations and price-support programs make far more food go completely to waste than any shortage of slave-wage labor.

[gogogodzilla]

Usually, if the price of labor becomes too high for employers to bear, they turn to automation.

Cotton gin, combines, automatic harvester, etc, etc, etc.

So the question ought to be, why isn’t this happening now?

[Lancey Howard]

...the immigration laws does mean that crops really are rotting in the fields. Friends who live down there are telling me about this. Farmers who are used to hiring illegals to do the stoop work can’t find anybody; the illegals have all cleared out and the legal Hispanics don’t have to settle for field-work.

This claim is suspect. I think if this was true it would be the top story on every liberal news program on TV, complete with panning video of rotting crops.