If you hire foreigners that makes you my enemy. Screw them. The save a few pennies when they could hire local. Don’t buy their BS.
You have illustrated your ignorance....... there is no local. To hire local means there are local people that will work.
The point is there are no locals to hire for this work and this is not all stoop labor. It is greenhouse labor for starting plants and transplanting, planting out,driving tractors to plow, harvesting,washing and sorting and packaging.
The owners work alongside the hired workers doing exactly the same labor. It is a labor-intensive business that lasts from January to November. They would prefer to hire Americans and save the annual trip to Mexico, the paperwork and all the ancillary hassle.
After hearing the same story over time from several different farmers in varying operations, I tend to believe it is not BS.