Posted on 05/30/2012 11:06:00 AM PDT by moonshinner_09
He was afraid his seasonal migrant workforce might not return for the summer picking season, opting to stay away rather than risk running afoul of Alabama's stringent immigration law. The crew he awaits is picking the Florida harvest.
"I had to cut back my planting not knowing if the labor is going to be available," said Copeland, 47, who planted just two-thirds of his 30 acres on the far side of Straight Mountain in northeastern Blount County.
"I don't know what we're going to do if they run every illegal out of here. It's going to be hard to stay in business."
Fellow Blount County tomato farmer Tim Battles planted just 12 of his 25 acres because of uncertainties engendered by the law.
"I've got $160,000, $170,000 in my crop," he said. "Let's say (immigration enforcement officers) come in July and haul everyone off. I lose it all. What they're doing down in Montgomery (the state capital) is governing us out of a job."
Modeled after Arizona's controversial 2010 immigration law, Alabama's statute and others also passed last year - in Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah - require state and local law enforcement officers to verify the immigration status of those they suspect of being in the country illegally.
Now, Alabama is finding out whether it can live without undocumented immigrants, estimated to number 120,000 in 2010, who flocked to this southern state only in recent decades. They've been working in border states for several generations.
More states are considering their own laws but first want to see how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on provisions of the Arizona law, a judgment expected before the end of June. Based on questions posed by justices during oral arguments heard on April 25, some analysts expect the Roberts court
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
“I don’t know what we’re going to do if they run every illegal out of here. It’s going to be hard to stay in business.”
I’m sorry, but that’s NOT a reason to flout the law.
“Now, Alabama is finding out whether it can live without undocumented immigrants.”
Don’t worry about us Rooters. Somehow we’ll make it. /sarc
What can he do?
Well, he can join millions of working Americans to pass laws that arrest welfare cheats and when when arrested, place them in the fields to work......that’s what!
Advocacy journalism is the single greatest threat to this country's continued existance.
Mr. Copeland, put an ad on Craiglist and you will probably get enough pickers.
If not, raise the pay until you do.
That is how capitalism works.
Many years ago, high school kids used to pick crops to make money so they could buy school clothes. Those days could come again if the illegals don’t show up.
I bet he could find some unemployed people somewhere to help out. Of course he might have to pay at least minimum wage.
I wonder if this chucklehead expects his kids teachers, doctors and dentists to be illegals so it is cheaper for him also.
STFU you criminal enabler!
Airborne !.
Gee, maybe he will have to pay a wage that the market decides is right, whatever is required to attract legitimate workers. NAW, no way that would work.
Could not agree more, frig’em and feed’em fish heads. The building contractors have for too long gotten away with this bullchit. They now think they are the new farmers, ie: lowered wages so low that illegals are the only ones who will work for them.
Where in the hell is the unions on this subject?
u talking to me?
What a winning business model!
It’s pretty obvious why Americans are not doing the work illegals do when you think about it. They only hire their foreign pals and they have locked out Americans from the skills development and work.
Construction jobs used to keep the working class in America rising. If you weren’t great at school, but could work with your hands, you learned a trade and then were trained on the job. No speaka spanish, no job in most construction operations in the US. It’s time for them to go.
That farmer who built his livlihood on illegal labor should be making other plans for hiring Americans rather than whining. He first has to get rid of his foreign farm manager who hires only illegal, foreign crews.
At least one true statement in the article, but they fail to point out that all these jobs that Americans won't do were overwhelmingly being done in Alabama by white and black US citizens until about twenty years ago. It wasn't until the early 1990s that you could even find an illegal alien working in Alabama without going to great effort.
These illegals gradually began arriving and would work cheaper, so more employers began to hire them. If some employers who did the hiring are now having to hustle more to find workers, I have no sympathy for them. And if they can't arrange labor to work 40 acres of tomatoes, they shouldn't plant forty acres of tomatoes.
Farmers who want large scale operations, especially in labor intensive crops like vegetables and fruit, should work out their labor needs without including illegal workers, or they should not plant such crops on a large scale.
The problem is that he expects US to pick up the tab for all the bennies the illegals and their families claim. He gets the benefit of cheap labor. We get the shaft in the form of huge benefits costs, higher crime rates, increased infectious disease, ad nauseum.
Screw that.
” Building contractors,pay in cash , if one of their illegals gets hurt on the job, Building contractors,will take illegals to er drop off them and leave it to the taxpayers to provide healthcare coverage “
YEP
” That farmer who built his livlihood on illegal labor should be making other plans for hiring Americans rather than whining. He first has to get rid of his foreign farm manager who hires only illegal, foreign crews.”
Yes.
I have absolutely no sympathy for the home building contractors. Those SOBS got so bad in the mid 2000’s, that an American out west couldn’t find a construction job at all. Now tens of thousands of nearly new homes are falling apart, even turning into slums.
The guy has $170,000 invested in 12 acres of tomatoes? That’s $14,000 per acre. He’s got other problems other than labor.
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