Posted on 01/02/2012 6:58:29 PM PST by MamaDearest
Georgia Agricultural Commissioner Gary Black is preparing to release the results of a long-awaited report about whether the state can legally create its own guest worker-program.
Black is expected to release the report at a 2 p.m. news conference Tuesday at the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s headquarters office in downtown Atlanta. His report could help set the tone of the debate over illegal immigration in the upcoming state legislative session.
Last year, Black said his department would consult with officials in Utah, which has enacted a law to allow illegal immigrants to get permits to work there. There is sharp disagreement, however, over whether states can do that. Critics say only the federal government has that power.
Georgia’s new immigration enforcement law -- House Bill 87 -- called for Black to conduct his study. HB 87 also required Black's department to study immigration's impact on the state's agricultural industry and "the need for reform" of the federal H-2A guest-worker program.
After Gov. Nathan Deal signed HB 87 into law in May, the state’s $68.8 billion farming industry – Georgia’s largest industry – started complaining the law was scaring off the migrant Hispanic workers it depends on. In a report issued in October, the industry said labor shortages contributed to $74.9 million in estimated losses in seven fruit and vegetable crops last year.
Under HB 87, Black’s report was due to Deal and state lawmakers Sunday.
Actually it would simply be one more guest worker program since there are a whole bunch of programs that allow people to migrate here to work.
In my nearly 50 years, I don’t think one guest worker program has had any impact on the number of illegals coming in.
Even after having been deported multiple times, they come back again and again and work here - no question about it.
Regarding the link below, so much to be said for American workers who have been unable to find jobs in this economy......Wouldn't it be a switch for a large company like this to hire American citizens first?
200 undocumented Pacific Steel workers lose their jobs
Snip:
After a recent crackdown by the Department of Homeland Security, 200 workers who could not provide a valid social security number are being laid off.
Those let go from the third largest foundry in the United States include many highly skilled workers who have been at the company for decades.
“It’s very sad,” said spokeswoman Elisabeth Jewel from the firm Aroner, Jewel & Ellis Partners. “The employees who are being terminated now have the most seniority. Many have been there 20 to 30 years. They have kids in the public school. They pay taxes. They are fully invested in American life. It’s been a really wrenching situation – obviously for the workers – but also for the company.”
That’s what always irritates me about talk of guest worker programs. They always try to promote them as a new idea.
This is fine provided the company importing the labor pays for every single expense needed for the quest workers and not dump those costs on the taxpayer. (IE, welfare, healthcare, food stamps, housing section 8, etc.)
Not so cheap labor anymore is it?
Trouble with ‘’guest workers’’ is all too often they turn into the guests who won’t leave.
So true. We have at least 5 guest worker programs now. We never used to have a problem getting the crops picked when the “migrant” workers were picking. They call them migrants because they migrate around the country following the picking season and then go home to Mexico til the next year. Big Agra in GA is just upset because if they have to hire US workers they will have to pay a little more. They have been fighting the GA immigration law tooth and nail from the start along with the Builders Association.
Legal guest workers are expensive because they have to be insured and have things like housing provided. One of my oldest friends began life as a migrant farmworker with his family. He says guest worker programs are cover for illegals.
I remember the year they didn’t go home. They bought a shack from the farmer and began to make a home. The kids all spoke perfect english because their mother homeschooled them in the evenings.
Yes Big Agra wants to use those illegals because they can treat them like you know what and pay them less. One of my friends family were migrant workers and they were poor blacks. They were Americans. What most people don’t know is that currently about 70% of the agricultural workers are US ciitzens so we don’t need to be importing a gazillion illegals to work the fields. The guest worker programs we already have are supposed to supply the extra labor we need.
You are right that the Libs are trying to use guest worker status to give permanent residency to illegals. It never ends.
No, we need to draft each and every able-bodied welfare parasite. Then we whould have a unlimited supply of cheap labor.
We already have their names.
would
“No, we need to draft each and every able-bodied welfare parasite. Then we whould have a unlimited supply of cheap labor.”
That would deplete the welfare rolls very quickly as most of the “parasites” would not take well to the fresh air.
Yeah, another downside would be, putting a lot of murdering/thieving ghetto-rats out into flyover country.
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