Posted on 07/30/2011 2:57:06 PM PDT by Steelfish
Farmers Oppose G.O.P. Bill on Immigration
JESSE McKINLEY & JULIA PRESTON July 30 Calif. — Farmers across the country are rallying to fight a Republican-sponsored bill that would force them and all other employers to verify the legal immigration status of their workers, a move some say could imperil not only future harvests but also the agricultural community’s traditional support for conservative candidates.
The bill was proposed by Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. It would require farmers — who have long relied on a labor force of immigrants, a majority here without legal documents — to check all new hires through E-Verify, a federal database run by the Department of Homeland Security devised to ferret out illegal immigrants.
Farm laborers, required like other workers to show that they are authorized to take jobs in the United States, often present Social Security numbers and some form of picture ID. Employers, many of them labor contractors providing crews to farms, have not been required to check the information and are discouraged by antidiscrimination laws from looking at it too closely. But it is an open secret that many farmworkers’ documents are false.
Supporters of E-Verify, an electronic system that is currently mandatory for most federal contractors but voluntary for other employers, argue that it would eliminate any doubt about workers’ legal status. But farmers say it could cripple a $390 billion industry that relies on hundreds of thousands of willing, low-wage immigrant workers to pick, sort and package everything from avocados to zucchini.
“This would be an emergency, a dire, dire situation,” said Nancy Foster, president of the U.S. Apple Association, adding that the prospect of an E-Verify check would most likely mean that many immigrant workers would simply not show up.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Nancy Foster speaks for the farmers of America??
“I do not think it is the job of employers to verify the legal status of their employees.”
Nonsense. E-verify is free and easy to use. Turning off the jobs magnet will be by far the best way to reduce illegal immigration.
I certainly understand your point. It is tough. And why we are having troubles competing in the world.
And your higher expenses, translate to higher prices for the consumer. We are all at fault.
Curious: what percentage of produce is grown here in the States. Seems like a lot of produce is not grown in the States any more. Another strike and another issue. Similar to buying our TV from China where labor is cheap and without the regulations.
Suddenly, they are no longer compelling as a cheap labor source.
I am totally against amnesty. But this will be the consequence.
Those farmers only care about the almighty dollar while the country gets over run by the illegals.When that happens whose to say they dont take the farm away and give it to an illegal.I’m sure this has never happened before./s
““This would be an emergency, a dire, dire situation,” said Nancy Foster, president of the U.S. Apple Association, adding that the prospect of an E-Verify check would most likely mean that many immigrant workers would simply not show up.”
Put the unemployed to work.
Did you see in my post where we aren’t asking for ID? Background checks? On 300 temporary minimum wage workers? Gosh that is a practical solution. Thanks for taking the time to come down from your high horse for that practical solution
Likely most of our produce is still grown domestically especially during the summer and fall. At different times of the year produce from the Southern Hemisphere and Mexico are brought in but that is due mainly to the lack of availability for US grown. It is a bit ironic that at a time when food safety is becoming such an important issue, we are forcing our safe food supply out of the country.
When I was a teenager, I picked strawberries in the Capistrano Valley, CA. Hardly what one would term, a high horse. There were a number of us teenagers out there picking berries right alongside migrants from Mexico.
When we moved to Oregon, same thing: kids in the fields, working at bringing in crops. Then those fools in Congress made it illegal. Now a number of generations have grown up not understanding the value of hard work and how to earn money.
Yeah, you’re asking for identification. And I understand how you think it unreasonable to do background checks on temporary minimum wage workers. It is unpractical.
But, are you asking to be treated better, or differently, than other employers?
I suspect that farming is changing. See my post at #56. If you do large scale farming and sell to a wholesale distributor you may not like what I said. But I’m very interested to hear what you think, and how the farm system we presently have SHOULD change.
The reason I believe it should change is at the bottom of that post #56.
SatinDoll, the current system is a mess and it is very concerning to those if us who make our livelihood farming. I took to exception to your post because it was an accusation and I apologize for the tone of my response. Since you are honestly interested I will do my best to explain what I would like to see. First, kids in the field, welfare recipients and parolees are not workable solutions. The work is very hard and demanding. A viable and workable guest worker program would be the best solution in my opinion. Couple the guest worker program with a defended border and a workable verification system and we have gone a long way toward solving the problem.
When I was a small child attending grade school in Oxnard, CA, many of my classmates’s parents were working on truck farms on the Brassero program. That was during the Eisenhower administration. Somehow, when the Democrats were voted back into power, everything fell apart.
Things are really bad, that is a given today.
“A viable and workable guest worker program would be the best solution in my opinion. Couple the guest worker program with a defended border and a workable verification system and we have gone a long way toward solving the problem.”
You, sir, are 100% correct.
I know a factory owner who wants free labor... many despicable business owners out there who love to have labor they can screw over.
We used to have a temporary farm worker immigration option where Mexican peasants could come into the US to work the farms during harvesting seasons. Then they would go back home until the next season.
These farmers don’t need to wreck the whole country with open borders nor do they need to oppose legal workers in the US. They need to support a LEGAL immigration visa system taylored for their farming labor needs. This is a part of immigration reform what Republicans should try to get passed in order to help out with harvesting.
Thank you for correcting my horrible Spanish spelling, truly!
I mentioned in one of my posts that the conditions under which migrant workers in the past toiled were cruel. They weren’t paid very much back then, and they’re not paid very much today.
Back in the late 1960s, I met a family from Mexico working on truck farms who knew how to work “the system”. The grandparents took care of the small children while dad, mom, and the oldest son (who had graduated from an American high school) worked in the fields. All their children were expected to attend American schools and graduate eventually.
Their money increased 9-fold whenever they went home to their small ranchero in Mexico. The family intended to work until the youngest graduated from high school, then they would return to Mexico permanently.
And the people lobbying for imported, stoop labor aren't making things any easier.
People forget this, but before there was the Minuteman Project there was Caesar Chavez.
“However, the government should not mandate that an employer must check up on my background.”
And is not illegal immigration an illegal activity? And in any area where a particular illegal activity is rife, rampant, of epidemic proportions, why is it not the obligation of government to command employers check for that illegal activity? There is only one reason, and it has nothing to do with the Constitution, and that is to protect that illegal activity.
“If a vehicle is not driven on public roads, it does not need to be registered.”
And there is such a place where you can conduct 100% of your daily travel needs using an auto and NOT travel on public roads? No.
Libertarian Utopians are no different that Marxist Utopians, they want a “perfect” world that TOTALLY meets their “perfect” understanding of such a world. Meanwhile the only world we have, the only world we ever have is filled with imperfect people.
I hope private space travel really takes off. Maybe you and the rest of the Libertarian Utopians can go make a “perfect” colony somewhere.
I’m aware of that they can come here legally on work visas but the Mexicans we have working on the farms here are illegal. The farmers smuggle them in and they are undocumented. They put them up in shacks that I wouldn’t let my dog live in and they stay all year. They never go home. We have a handful of State run farms that hire Mexicans but they are here on legal work visas and leave at the end of the season.
We don’t have a problem with the farm workers that are here legally. It’s the 99% that are illegal that bothers us.
I have signs posted on my farm in Spanish that trespassers will be shot. We haven’t been bothered since the signs went up. It’s really a shame that we are forced to put up with these animals. I live in an extremely rural area with few neighbors and I can’t even ride my bike down the country roads without packing my .40 cal. due to being harassed by them. If I walk down the roads I have to pack the .40 and take one of my big dogs.
I want them gone!
Democrats move to outlaw local farm stands.
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