We own a small office building in a Northern California city. We have leased office space as a satellite office for a SF-based immigration attorney for about 5 years (hey their money is as good as anyone else’s). He has another year to go on his lease with us, but has asked us to find a new tenant for his space. Reason: his business has fallen off sharply since Trump took office. Note: his clientele are principally agricultural workers. Given the robust commercial office rental climate in the Bay Area, we will have no trouble finding a replacement, which was not the case when we initially rented to him. P.S. he’s looking to close other satellite offices as well.
I have a neighbor who is an executive in a major business that packs fruit. He tells me that they are having a terrible time getting field labor to pick crops this year. As a consequence, his firm is investing heavily in the development of the mechanization of the picking processes with the notion that they must free themselves from the need for “stoop labor.” So the idea that we need to import more and more unskilled labor is not true. Take that “DICK” Durbin!
MAGA.
It’s a very small percentage of illegal aliens who work picking crops. Most are employed elsewhere.
They have taken over construction jobs, food processing, hospitality (hotel, restaurant), landscaping, etc.
Need for pickers is the favorite excuse of the Cheap Labor Express.
Past time to automate.