Posted on 07/02/2011 12:52:33 PM PDT by La Enchiladita
WRAY, Ga., - One of the toughest laws yet to fight illegal immigration went into effect today in Georgia. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the most controversial provision - requiring police to check the immigration status of suspects who don't have proper identification.
But it is now a felony to use false documentation to apply for a job. CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann says Georgia farmers have been anticipating this day, and the law is already having a big effect.
In south Georgia, it's a banner year for blackberries - but a bad year for berry farmer Gary Paulk.
"There's a lot of what appear to be good berries," Paulk said. "If we had the workers."
On one corner of this family farm, twenty acres of blackberries rot away.
"This is a healthy field. And it should have been picked," Paulk said. "But there's nobody here."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I prefer blackberries picked from old vines growing wild alongside the road.
We wanted to know more about how Georgia's immigration law came about. The governor's office told us today the state had to impose the law in its own defense. The state estimates illegal immigrants cost Georgia taxpayers more than $2 billion a year. Most of that to pay for the schooling and medical bills of their children.
So much for cheap labor, eh? Come on, you high school and college kids, get out there and pick!
Maybe he should try to hire some people instead of just sitting on his arse and complaining. Probably can’t though because he wants to pay under the table so he can save some money.
Blackberry cobbler! YUM!!
Gary,
Perhaps if you paid a decent wage you would get Americans to pick your crops. You want to pay illegals a low wage to keep your overhead down instead. I’m willing to pay more in the store for crops raised, picked, and packaged by Americans.
God forbid you have to pay 6 bucks an hour now...
And with all that warning, they still were not able to pay enough to hire unemployed Americans more than willing to pick berries. Of course, legal workers would expect the legal minimum wage. But paying that would be too burdensome.
I don’t understand - even by the low-ball official Federal Government figures, 9.9% of Georgia “workers” are unemployed. Is that not enough folks to pick the darned blackberries? Hello... its better than being a leech and drawing a check from the government for NOT working.
Come on folks - get off your butts and work. And of course, the figures above don’t even include the unemployed who are not looking for work, have dropped off the rolls, or who never have really worked - and just sit on their butts and do nothing while drawing a check.
It doesn’t take a college degree to pick blackberries. The last time the US economy was this bad - folks would gladly line up around the block just for the opportunity to pick these blackberries (or peanuts, or whatever work could be had). What’s the difference? That was before the government have over 50% of the population a check every month.
“Of course, they weren’t cheap sh*t, slave-loving democrats either.”
Or Republicans.
Agribusiness is whining big time to the media, because they know the favorable spin they will get. Hey, does that new bill impose penalties on employers of illegals??? I wonder, hmmmm...?????
Put the section 8 to work or short time jail inmates!
Well then let us bring back chain gangs, the prisoners are costing a lot as well, put them to work.
Decent wages attract decent people.
Am I willing to pay more at the grocery store? You’re damned straight I do. Employ my fellow citizens, and I’ll pay you what the berries are worth, including their wages.
Echoes from the past. The same reasons were given by cotton farmers in order to argue against freeing the blacks. Seems like we got beyond that crisis.
Just think the money these guys would save sending these jerks home. They could afford to pay a decent salary and it would save the taxpayer them included a nice chunk of change.
So, if a farming community was using felons (unconvicted felons, that is - sort of like those who in the West Wing) - and they got arrested, I’m supposed to be concerned that this impacts harvests?
Sounds like progress to me.
The youth unemployment rate is between 25-50%.
With young people, you teach work ethic and responsibility. With illegals, you get another generation of berry pickers and a culture that produces every social pathology under the sun.
I keep wondering why farmers don't just use mechanical harvesters?
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