Posted on 07/31/2011 10:12:27 AM PDT by sbMKE
New Holstein - As daylight breaks, David Geiser is already in the barn of the Gold Star Dairy farm tending to more than 300 head of Holsteins on his sprawling farm.
Like his father and grandfather, Geiser has lived and worked on this farm, founded by his Polish and German immigrant ancestors, all his life. Next year the farm will celebrate its 100th anniversary.
Deborah Reinhart, whose Quaker ancestors were dairy farmers in Pennsylvania, works alongside her husband as the farm business manager and also cares for the young livestock. The couple raised three sons, who are now grown and gone to other careers and other locales.
But Geiser and Reinhart remain.
"This is our life," Reinhart said. "It's who we are and what we do. The dairy mentality is deep in my soul. Everything David and I have is tied up in this land."
Now they find themselves caught up in the contentious immigration battle that stretches from the halls of Washington to this quiet rural landscape and Wisconsin's signature industry. They worry that proposed legislation that would require all employers to use a new system - called E-Verify - to confirm employment eligibility could jeopardize their livelihood.
About four in 10 dairy farm workers are immigrants, many believed to be undocumented.
"If E-Verify passes, it will kill the dairy industry in Wisconsin," Reinhart said. "I'm scared to death."
....
Watch the bellyaching on the accompanying video (I don't know how to farm - our cows will starve) and you'll get a sense that these people are plantation-owners, not farmers. Exploitation is a dairy farmer's right !!! http://www.jsonline.com/general/37714089.html?bcpid=8725036001&bctid=1086521612001
PS - the featured farmers (with illegal immigrant workforce) are Deb Reinhart and David Geiser, Land o Lakes Gold Star Farms, New Holstein Wisconsin.
“Those whiners can bring in as many LEGAL immigrants as they want to do the ag work and get the LEGAL visas renewed several times.yes let’s all report them on Monday.”
They do realize that there are hundred of thousands of unemployed kids with Masters degrees who have nothing to do with them.
At this point, I am sure they will take whatever you are paying illegals just so they can move out of the parents basement.
This country has to stop illegal immigration. Companies that employ illegals are putting Americans out of work. Half of illegals are on some form of welfare and many are in jail for other crimes and their kids are in public school.
The taxpayers cannot afford this. Hey Dairy Farmer, how about YOU pay for their school, welfare and everything and see if you want to keep them then??
I’m not saying the farmers here don’t hire illegals- I do know farmers and ranchers that do NOT ever hire illegals though and somehow they make it work.
My original point was that the 4/10 number is crap. It is far higher than that, and on dairy farms even in the Northeast and Upper Midwest -- areas not traditionally associated with high levels of slave-agriculture -- the number is approaching 100%. It is ALL illegal, not "partly" or "mostly" illegal. It is also not "unknown" by these farmers. People who hire illegals know damn well that they are.
I agree also that these farmers do not need illegal labor. They need to install more robots and pay the human labor they still require what the LEGAL market will bear. That is MUCH higher than most of them want to pay. That's tough. In my experience there is NO job an American is not willing to do, as long as the price is right. If farmers don't like that, tough.
We need the awful businessmen who can't make a profit without subsidies and illegal labor to get the hell out of farming so that the good businessmen can make some money. People such as those in the article -- farming for no better reason than that their "family always did it" -- are often terrible businessmen who just drive food prices down for everybody in agriculture.
They also need to get themselves ready to go off farm subsidies: we are not going to be subsidizing anything much longer.
It’s employers like you lady who are breaking this country’s back. I refuse to subsidize your collaboration with illegal foreign invaders.
There is only fraction of the nation’s population who are farmers. One hundred years ago nearly ninety percent of the population were farmers. Today it’s about two or three percent. It may sound harsh, but if some farmers can’t make it, there will be others to take their place. Who sheds tears for all the tiny mom and pop grocery stores that went out of business when the big chains moved in? If certain industries can’t make a living without breaking the law, they shouldn’t be in business. That goes for farmers or any other industry.
Absolutely, and you didn't even mention subsidies and price controls. The relationship between the government and farming is economic fascism.
Think of the benefits these types of farmers and dairy farmers bring to their communities by hiring illegals.
The community benefits by:
Higher crime
Uninsured/unlicensed drivers
Good decent neighborhoods become blighted
English language becomes second to Spanish
Taxes go up to pay the school system for bilingual education
Parking lots become eyesores due to pampers on the lot
Any shred of manners and Social rules disappear
You have the privilege of watching them get free groceries
while you get to pay for both yours and theirs.
And the best part is.........they refuse to assimilate into our society and bring their corrupt and socially unacceptable Mexican customs into your neighborhood.
I know, last night I had to call the cops twice to end a Mexican party next door, complete with DJ, blasting Spanish music all over the neighborhood at 10pm while the “guests” (animals is what I call them) parked across my driveway (and other neighbors) with no regard as to what private property is nor any thought of privacy for myself and my other neighbors.
Yep! We need more illegals here so they can get their citizenship through the efforts of both the Dem and Rep parties so they can vote Democrat next time around.
Correct!! Chattel slaver was replaced by 'Share Cropping', the Orphan Trains, Chinese Coolies, etc. and now illegal migrants. Human nature doesn't change much, just the victims and words.
Don't expect E-Verify to accomplish much. Whatever laws and systems are put in place, there will be people that will turn avoiding the system into profit. It has always been that way. The stronger the law, the greater the profit. We learned that with the 18th (Prohibition) and 21st (Repeal of Prohibition) Amendments. Well, no! We didn't learn that lessen verry well, did we?
And eliminate all farm subsidies, along with every other business subsidy.
Gee what did the WI dairy farmers do before the illegals came? Hmmmm!!!!!
Illegal aliens. Just doing the jobs American workers can’t get.
How about allowing the South African Boer farmers immigrate and farm in the US. They are the best farmers in the world.
If four in ten dairy farm workers are immigrants, then six in ten are native born Americans. That stat does not exactly support the notion elsewhere in the article that they can't find citizens to do the work, or that citizens won't do such work and want too many benefits.
We're seeing a flurry of articles lately telling us how wonderful immigrants are and how indispensable they are. (At least the ones who haven't already returned to Mexico to enter that 'superior' job market). Lots of dairy farm waste products being flung around this issue recently. Look for more amnesty and Dream Act pushes, at least so the Dims can pander for Latino votes before November 2012.
So, this 'problem' is fairly new, only eleven years old for this farm. Or maybe what really happened eleven years ago is that, with little or no immigration law enforcement from the Slick Willie and W administrations, more and more illegals began to enter and spread around the US. I know the illegal population is fairly recent in Wisconsin and many other states.
So much BS surrounds the immigration issue that little can be believed in the MSM. Just as likely, eleven years ago illegals began showing up in Wisconsin willing to work below prevailing pay, and they gradually took the jobs of more and more citizen farm workers.
Rising fuel and energy costs cut across borders. The "Industry" is the Wisconsin dairy...they point out in the article that dairy will continue, but it will just move back to Canada.
As the article says, farm in Canada.
Same here, FWIW.
I find this story and the take personally offensive at the highest level. My ancestors settled in northern Wisconsin - Prussians and Hessians lured by the promise of land grants. They built homesteads from the stones they pulled from the fields and worked every day of their lives on those dairy farms.
Christmas-time growing up was marked by those relatives visiting in shifts, working around milking and chore schedules.
Not one of them got sick days, vacation days, pensions or any of the other benefits afforded the minorities and illegals living today on voter plantations.
When do I get my reparations?
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