Farmers Press GOP on Hiring

[alp227]

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Recent Republican solidarity on illegal immigration is showing cracks under pressure from agriculture groups, with two GOP congressmen floating programs that would make it easier for foreigners to work legally in U.S. fields and orchards.

Labor researchers say more than 1.4 million people are employed as field workers in the U.S. each year, and the Labor Department estimates more than half of them are here illegally. Grower groups say that number exceeds 75%, and say measures pending in Congress could deprive Americans of homegrown food.

"We need land, water and labor to produce the food that feeds this country," said Tom Deardorff, a fourth-generation farmer in Southern California, who is on the board of Western Growers, a large trade group. "They've been trying to take away our labor."

Rep. Lamar Smith (R., Texas), an immigration hardliner who now heads the House Judiciary Committee, plans to introduce a bill Wednesday that would revise an existing guest-worker program and allow up to half a million foreign farm workers a year to work in the U.S.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903648204576554830735887802.html

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[alp227]

1. oh, farmers? why is it so hard to...

HIRE.

US.

CITIZENS.

[lonestarnot]

2. Not if you want to work for nutt'n. Maybe they'll let you have a head of cabbage.

[Tumbulu]

4. 60 hrs before overtime,

6 day work weeks in extreme temperatures. Water and bathrooms 1/4 mile away but only 10 minutes to walk there and back every 4 hrs....very few US citizens are able to do this hard labor under these circumstances. And many jobs require a great deal of horticultural skill. They are all paid minimum wage at least and pay into SS and medicare, but never get thanked for paying in and not being eligible to receive anything back.

What would happen to SS if all this money from this large workforce actually went back to these people?

[alp227]

5. given how the illegal immigrant workforce contributes a surplus to SS,

then your point might be that SS might choke. At least the workers would have more money to spend in the economy, wouldn't they?

[Tumbulu]

6. they would, but I am quite certain

that SS depends on this money coming in- think about how much they do get this way knowing that they will not need to pay it back. Ever wonder why employers are not notified in any kind of a timely way that the SS #'s do not match the employees name? It usually takes a few years in most cases.

In the meantime the employer is sending all this money in every month.....

The largest organic farm near me pays all it's (60+) workers more than minimum wage, provides health and dental insurance and some on farm housing. They send all the numbers into the SS office. If the SS office does not tell them the numbers are fake, how would they know?

[madrchsod]

3. there used to be hundreds of migrant workers here in northern illinois but...

their work is now in south america.