Posted on 09/15/2006 8:32:02 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
CLIFTON SPRINGS NY--On Aug. 28, dairy farmer Rodney Brown had no workers to milk the some 600 cows on his farm outside Clifton Springs. He went to the home of his Mexican workers, also located on his property, and found it empty. Finally, he reached a worker on his cell phone and learned that Immigration & Customs Enforcement officials had come at milking time, 6 a.m., and taken six men.
Brown said he’d been using Mexican workers since 1999, with no problems. Two of the workers taken had been with him since the beginning.
And their papers said they were legal. But you never know for sure, Brown said, echoing other farmers and the farm bureau itself.
The raid left Brown, 46, and some borrowed help from neighbors scrambling to milk the herd.
Brown is among a growing number of farmers experiencing the effects of stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws.
"We don't blame the ICE or Department of Homeland Security," said Julie Suarez, spokeswoman for the New York Farm Bureau. The problem lies with politicians who haven't addressed that "we need a viable guest-worker program."
The state Farm Bureau says increasing immigration raids have made this year the most challenging ever for farm labor — and with approaching harvests, raids are ill-timed.
For example, strawberry farmer Jim Coulter, 78, of Lockport, found himself 10 people short with 20,000-plus quarts to pick following an immigration raid this summer.
He had two weeks before the berries would go bad.
So the farm 20 miles north of Buffalo asked its pick-your-own customers for the extra hands. Neighbors sent help but in the end, the farm couldn’t finish the harvest. Coulter said he was down at least $20,000.
Farmers, including Coulter, gave Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton an earful last week at the state fair and Aug. 30 during a visit to the the New York Wine and Culinary Center in Canandaigua.
A month ago, farm bureau staff met with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in western New York to complain.
“They promised they wouldn’t go on farms unless there was a violation or a disruption off the farm,” said bureau President John Lincoln, who has two Guatemalan workers on his East Bloomfield dairy farm. “But even the presence of immigration is a problem in itself.”
Farmers say that as the country debates tougher immigration enforcement, the government is under pressure to show it’s doing its job.
How is it that farmers are suddenly finding that their workers from Mexico and other countries — sometimes workers who have been with them for years — aren't legal?
In many cases, "fraudulent documents are so good, you can't tell the difference," said Suarez. The federal government has promised to provide new guidelines to help employers verify whether a prospective worker is legitimate. But until then, farmers and others who hire immigrants are at a risk of using illegal workers and not knowing it, she said.
A U.S. Department of Labor survey in 2001 and 2002 said 53 percent of the country’s 1.8 million crop workers weren’t authorized to work here. But workers often show up with seemingly real documents.
ICE spokesman Michael Gilhooly pointed to a recent raid last month at a hydroponic tomato farm in North Tonawanda, near Buffalo, to illustrate how illegal immigrants fool employers.
According to a Aug. 30 report of the incident, agents arrested 34 illegal aliens working at the farm and charged each with two criminal violations: use of a fraudulent alien registration card — commonly called a green card — and false use of a Social Security number. Those charged were to be scheduled for a removal hearing before a federal immigration judge.
Mark James, executive director of the Finger Lakes Office of the state Farm Bureau, said other problems stem from workers not coming to work because they've heard rumors of raids. He cited a recent case in which workers at a vegetable processing plant in Ontario County didn't show up one day because they heard of a possible raid. So the plant had to shut down, losing that day's production.
Earlier this year, the farm bureau sent an alert to its 35,000-plus members about immigration raids and told them not to talk to the media about them. “It is a reasonable assumption that some of these employers have been targeted due to comments made in local papers,” the alert said.
Gilhooly bristled at the bureau's suggestion of retaliation. “That is of course incorrect,” he said. “As far as timing, when we reach a point in our investigation, we conduct an operation.” He would not comment further.
Statistics on this year’s raids would not be compiled and publicly released until the federal government’s fiscal year ends Sept. 30, he added.
I ain't the one mandating a minimum wage to stick it to those evil dairy farmers as you are.
Although you are saying that, I certainly don't remember saying it. I also didn't propose a maximum wage. So take your strawman and shove.
You have accused me of not doing what I know about.
I also know how to till the soil, plant crops, harvest them, and sell them at market.
I know how to drill for oil.
I know how to drive semi trucks.
I know how to arrange international shipping.
I know how to lay pipelines.
I know how to manage water and waste systems.
I know how to build computers.
What I wish I knew how, is to avoid foolish people making follish arguments, not unlike yourself. You always inspire a reexamination of the ageold question. Do dumb people really know how dumb they are?
I ain't the one akin to a govt. beaureaucrat telling a dairy farmer how he should run his farm.
Apparently in addition to, not thinking well. You neither write or speak well either.
That's what happens when one gets into a hurry. It should have read;
You also neither write or speak well.
In your case not to worry. Reapply for your high school debating team, and I am sure, if you really apply yourself, they will let you participate in your senior year.
Why don't they just get tue bureaucrats out in the fields to register these workers and give them guest status, then start mapping where they go and when their time is up make them find their own way home.
30 million of these guys in our country, our govt is NOT telling the truth on the sheer numbers here.
10 million in Los Angeles County alone.
I would say 10 million in the whole state, but that is MONSTROUS!!!!
Mr CT:
I heard a discussion of this on some radio talk show. It appears that the Canadians aren't fooling around.
But if I understood correctly, someone on the program said the number of Canadian guest workers was about 7,000. Can that be correct?
The key to their program is that guest workers are not on any path to Canadian citizenship, and that they go home after 9 months. The House/Senate need to get their heads out of their butts and design something similar.
Philosophically, I would have to say that it wouldn't pass, though. Our guest worker program must have a "Path to Citizenship" or the politicians won't consider it.
I've heard that ICE uses trained Chupacabras to smell out illegals. Spread the word.
"Brown said he’d been using Mexican workers since 1999.."
and therein lies the problem, DO NOT USE MEXICANS IN AMERICA
My uncle had a dairy farm in N. Dakota. He had milking machines and no illegal workers. So I guess it does work for some. Anyone knows that farming is hard work and farm equipment is not cheap, but in the long run does make it somewhat easier.
Only 20 miles from Buffalo???Got to be some poor people in Buffalo that need jobs.
down $20,000????? How much extra $$ did he make over the years using illegals for labor???
I didn't think we'd have to worry about the homegrown spinach. Re: the article, those towns mentioned are in my neck of the woods. The farm jobs used to be hotly sought after jobs for the high school kids. Every big box store and fast food joint that's opened up over the past 25 years has siphoned off all that potential teenage help.
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