CA: Life without 50,000 illegal immigrants (Ventura County)

Ventura Star ^ | 4.23.06 | Tom Kisken

[Serenissima Venezia]

I think one of the best benefits would be that instead of spending so much money educating children that can't even speak English and who, most of the time, don't get the help at home they need with their schooling, more resources could go towards the upper level kids for a change. Our education system needs revamping as well, with more emphasis on encouraging the smart kids to study math and science. All the emphasis these days is on helping the bottom feeders move up a teeny tiny percentage.

[ApplegateRanch]

Rojas says he would only work for $20 an hour, then he proceeds to say that he works now as a landscaper for $400 a week. If that is a 40 hour week, that is $10/hour. What kind of fuzzy math is involved here???

You are confusing AMERICAN former carpenter, Rich De La Rosa, with ILEGAL IMMIGRANT landscaper, Alvaro Rojas.

No fuzzy math involved.

Deport them all, and let Vicente sort them out!

[ApplegateRanch]

If the market sets the price of the commodity, then why do Mexican farm workers have to come here to get a decent wage? Mexican farmers, who sell across borders, have the same market pressures & price structure, so why can't Mexican farm workers demand and receive a comparable wage? Who is getting rich? Who is facilitating that?

Why isn't something being done on that end? Or is it a case of Narco-politoces get the beans, and the peasants get the gas pains?

I'm actually in favor of welfare for illegals: Give every one who illegally crosses the border a free rifle, a box of ammo, and a Spanish language copy of our founding documents; and then point him back south.

[ApplegateRanch]

1968 Berry Good Picking Engineers release the first prototype of a mechanical strawberry harvester

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3838/is_200505/ai_n13637136

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On December 10, 2002 the Michigan State Horticulture Society (MSHS) presented the Grower Service Award to Richard Ledebuhr for his contributions to the success of Michigan's vegetable and fruit industry at the Great Lakes Expo.
...[snip]
Richard assisted in the assembling of the original double bar sickle adopted for trimming fruit trees and then in the 1980's modified it for grape trimming. He helped perfect the first mechanical strawberry harvester and the modification of strawberry processing equipment. He also worked on cucumber harvesters and improvement of potato storages before he turned his attention to better sprayers to effectively deliver pesticides to the target.

http://www.egr.msu.edu/age/aenewsletter/1_jan_feb_03/ledebuhr1_30.htm

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Adjusting to Technological Change
in Strawberry Harvest Work
byHoward R. Rosenberg

A machine used by many Ventura County strawberry firms in 2003 holds economic promise
for adopters throughout California. While significantly reducing the amount of labor needed in the harvest,
it alters the jobs of crew members and raises several key questions for human resource managers...[snip]
Use of a recently developed machine by many
strawberry growers in Ventura County this year
exemplifies the potential of new technology to
substantially reduce work hours and costs. The
machine will not have an impact comparable to
that of the tomato harvester or cotton gin, but it
can cut the amount of human work time needed in
strawberry harvest, which is one of the most laborintensive
operations in agriculture, by one-third or
more...

http://www.agecon.ucdavis.edu/uploads/update_articles/v7n1_2.pdf

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Note that this last specifically cites Ventura County.

[VOA]

Thanks for the updates on automating agriculture.
I know there are innovations, but my point is that as long as there
are cheap illegal laborers, it appears that growers are loath to
invest the capital for going full-tilt into automating as much of the
process as possible.

And who could blame them? If they did, they might encounter vandalism
of machinery by their laborers who think they see one of the few jobs they
are qualified for simply disappear.
It wouldn't be the first time luddites wrecked "the looms".
And they might get boycotts from pressure groups (La Raza) for dispossessing
their workers.

Economically, there may just not be the incentive to make technology king
of the harvest.

And I just finished up ten years in Los Angeles. Every time I'd go up
the 101 to Ventura, there seemed to be just about the same number of folks
crouched over in the fields doing the dirty jobs. Maybe it's changing,
but not that I could notice.

I'll be the broken record and say again: many employers of illegal laborers
are todays Old South planters. They want to take the cheap, subsidized
route of illegal labor rather than spend for that new-fangled, complicated
D-mned Yankee technology.
Who says history doesn't repeat itself?

[Ben Ficklin]

Let me respond to your question with another question.

Why are the labor rates in China lower than those in Mexico?

[Edie]

If you want to do your part in counter protesting the May 1, 2006 illegal immigration boycott against America, do your Christmas Shopping on that day. If the illegal immigrants and their activists won't shop, let us shop in the name of patriotism. Wouldn't you love to see the look on their faces when they see they were not even missed.

[hattend]

BTTT

"Or they'd develop machines that can help harvest citrus or even strawberries by shaking the fruit free."

Shake, shake, shake that strawberry tree

[Tammy8]

There was a debate in congress about whether or not to take all of Mexico after the Mexican War. When the decision was made to only keep what is now the southwest and let Mexico keep pretty much what it has today it was based on the following reasons:

The vast differences between the cultures.
Language barrier.
Corruption and unrest among the population; Mexico had to deal with many revolutions and mini-revolutions, widespread civil unrest.
Widespread poverty among the population.

The main reason it took New Mexico and Arizona so long to become states is because of the same issues, both NM and AZ had to prove to congress they had overcome those problems before being admitted as states.

It seems the politicians then understood what problems could arise if you take on a large population of people who don't basically think the same way you do- it's a shame most don't understand that today.

[VOA]

1. 40% of all workers in L.A. County (L.A. County has 10 million people) are
working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly
illegal immigrants, working without a green card.

IIRC, a few years ago a Pepperdine University researcher surveyed
these workers about their cash economy.
By a large majority, they said they'd prefer to stay in cash (and illegal)
for the purpose of sending cash home. And they knew what a loser
making Social Security payments was, even if they would be legalized.

[stevio]

Damn. It sounds like it's all over except for the shooting.

[Onelifetogive]

Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops but 29% are on welfare. http://www.cis.org (This web site has information galore!!! Interested? Check it out.) Over 70% of the United States annual population growth (and over 90% of California, Florida, and New York) results from immigration.

I tune out anyone who starts blending stats on "legal" and "illegal" immigrants. To gloss over the difference in the two terms is like mixing up ATM withdrawals and bank robbery. They are nothing alike!

[Serenissima Venezia]

I tune out anyone who starts blending stats on "legal" and "illegal" immigrants. To gloss over the difference in the two terms is like mixing up ATM withdrawals and bank robbery.

Great analogy! (BTW, it's 'undocumented bank withdrawers')

[Serenissima Venezia]

Great cite - thanks!

[Mike Darancette]

Mournful numbers.