Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Growers fear worst in immigration reform debate
Chicago Tribune/Charlotte.com ^ | 5-29-06 | MICHAEL MARTINEZ

Posted on 05/29/2006 3:34:54 PM PDT by SJackson

OCEANSIDE, Calif. - Tomato grower Luawanna Hallstrom understands how paths cross in the shadowy world of illegal immigrant and employer.

Her three-generation family farm needed workers to harvest a crop in 2001, so it hired 300 farmhands. All their documents appeared in order, she said.

Then federal authorities found that three-fourths of the workers were illegal immigrants, and that left the peak harvest in ruins.

"People say, `You should get those employers that hire the undocumented!' Well, wait a minute. They have documents, but they're fraudulent. We are supposed to take them at face value - otherwise you get into these discrimination issues," Hallstrom said.

(Excerpt) Read more at charlotte.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agriculture; aliens; farmworkers; immigrantlist; immigration
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-86 next last
To: spikeytx86
If migrant work were to dry up there would be a rather drastic up tick in migrant sensitive crop prices.

Hogwash, what percentage of the cost of a head of lettuce is the labor? My guess is that transportation, storage, wastage, etc... makes up a much larger percentage of the overall price. We might see fewer farmer's trophy wives driving their brand new Yukon or Escalade while claiming their farm use tax credit than in the past, but at most the cost will go up 10%.
61 posted on 05/29/2006 7:05:20 PM PDT by Tailback
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: meyer

How many people do you think have a yard big enough to grow produce? Did you ever hear about people living in condos?


62 posted on 05/29/2006 7:36:34 PM PDT by speekinout
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: MizSterious

If you live in an urban condo, where do you put those seeds?


63 posted on 05/29/2006 7:38:37 PM PDT by speekinout
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: meyer

> Interesting - is there an investigation into this? A link?

Sadly no, I heard about it from my dad awhile back and never thought that I'd need to refrence it... maybe I can find one for you.


64 posted on 05/29/2006 7:57:57 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: coladirienzi

Bravo! I'll work for half that. (Is that how the market works?)


65 posted on 05/29/2006 8:04:58 PM PDT by sgtyork (Prove to us that you can enforce the borders first.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: Tailback
The price would not go up at all or might even fall even with kicking out the illegals if farm subsidies were to be repealed :-)

Don't hold your breath on that one though.
66 posted on 05/30/2006 4:18:05 AM PDT by spikeytx86 (Pray for Democrats for they have been brainwashed by there fruity little club.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: TexasTransplant
" When I was a kid, "Kids" picked fruits and veggies'

Exactly, I started at age 14 picking strawberries, beside mexican and vietnamese workers. I spent all of high school and college working on that nursery just south of Indianapolis. It was a great experience, then we were 12 miles from downtown Indy, living in a suburb and working on a farm, I got the advantage of all 3 lifestyles.

Now I'll admit I only picked one season then moved up to hourly worker and eventually through college as the assistant manager. I actually hired those migrant workers and dealt with them 16 hours a day for 6 weeks a year.

I checked papers and so did the owner and we dealt with INS showing up and once removing 2 workers for false papers. In the 8 years I worked there TWO got by us ( that I know of), we had 2 to 4 INS visits a year.

We also an advantage in that our migrant workers also worked for the apple orchards locally, in fact we as a group tried to keep the same people employed as long as we could and to bring them back year after year.

My point being that this system can be worked and worked legally, and that there are kids who can work these hours and jobs.

67 posted on 05/30/2006 4:33:49 AM PDT by Kakaze (American: a Citizen of the United States of America........not just some resident of said continent)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Kakaze

Just an add on to my earlier post. This was from 1980 to 1988.


68 posted on 05/30/2006 4:34:53 AM PDT by Kakaze (American: a Citizen of the United States of America........not just some resident of said continent)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: SJackson
illegals are self employed sub contractor's by any normally accepted definition.

Since it is illegal to be here to start with, what makes you think the care about the tax law.

A few day's ago some Texas contractor came by my house, he was clearing the gas line for Duke Utilities, three 80,000 dollar tractors, all driven by Mexicans., I'd say if you ask duke utilities they would say it was a contractor sub contracted to a sub contractor, etc, etc.

69 posted on 05/30/2006 6:06:13 AM PDT by org.whodat (Never let the facts get in the way of a good assumption.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: org.whodat
Since it is illegal to be here to start with, what makes you think the care about the tax law...A few day's ago some Texas contractor came by my house, he was clearing the gas line for Duke Utilities, three 80,000 dollar tractors, all driven by Mexicans., I'd say if you ask duke utilities they would say it was a contractor sub contracted to a sub contractor, etc, etc.

I doubt they do. That was my point, they're violating it, as, in most cases, are their employers. In your example, Duke's sub-contractor contension would likely be valid. Presuming the contractor considers the drivers "sub-contractors", there's a good possibility that arrangement wouldn't pass muster, and if it did the driver would be responsible for remitting FICA. In my view, there's a lot of tax $ unaccounted for.

70 posted on 05/30/2006 6:43:47 AM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn’t do!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: speekinout
Or you can spend one day planting 5 tomato plants and then a little preventative maintenance everyday such as watering pruning, and have all the fresh tomatoes you can eat.
71 posted on 05/30/2006 6:49:29 AM PDT by Xenophon450 (Behead those who say Islam is violent)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: coladirienzi
That's about it.

I've used a similar slovenliness argument. If lettuce is $1.30, and moving the wages from an abusivd $5.00 an hour to a generous $15.00 an hour moves the price to $5.00 a head, then these hard working migrants doing jobs Americans won't do are picking fewer than 3 heads per hour. Presuming the entire cost of lettuce is wages, an obvoius fallacy promoted by the supporters of illegal labor. Food pricing is a strawman. And if we can only grow lettuce with $5.00 an hour labor, let it be grown in Mexico, an increase in their wage scale and a significant saving in social costs for America. In theory, that was one of the objectives of NAFTA anyway.

72 posted on 05/30/2006 6:53:55 AM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn’t do!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: BigBobber
"But they never will because robots don't vote Democrat."

Go to DU and then tell me that same statement.

73 posted on 05/30/2006 6:54:51 AM PDT by Xenophon450 (Behead those who say Islam is violent)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: speekinout

In containers, on a shelf near a window. If you have a balconey, better yet.

**Gosh, I can't believe how UN-self-reliant some folks can be! If there were ever an emergency that interrupted food supplies, folks like you would STARVE!


74 posted on 05/30/2006 8:50:50 AM PDT by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: SJackson
In my view, there's a lot of tax $ unaccounted for.

That is correct, but you do know that most truck drivers are considered sub contractor and the IRS has approved it. The sub contractor law's and rules and the abuse there of is one of the things that need to be fixed.

75 posted on 05/30/2006 9:01:03 AM PDT by org.whodat (Never let the facts get in the way of a good assumption.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: MizSterious

As in "Let them eat cake"?

Have you ever seen an average big city condo?


76 posted on 05/30/2006 2:22:07 PM PDT by speekinout
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: speekinout

For a time, dear hubby and I lived in one--and grew a few yummies in containers.


77 posted on 05/30/2006 3:34:11 PM PDT by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

"The more important question, 10-12 million illegals generate a half million SS# mismatches, what's happening to the tax remittances for the rest?"

I understand that the SSA also accepts money deposited for 999-99-9999, though I haven't heard how many have their money put in this way. (It would be kind of hard to tell, since all have the same SSN. :-)

I expect that what you're really getting at is that most don't pay into Social Security, at all, or pay Federal Income Tax, or any other form of withholding, for that matter. Many are paid on an "under the table", or "cash", basis.

Obviously, illegal aliens (on the average) pay very little in the way of taxes. They consume (on the average) tens of thousands of dollars, per year, in government services, however.


78 posted on 05/30/2006 3:59:50 PM PDT by 3niner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: coladirienzi

Isn't it fun to deal with the misconceptions of those who are innumerate? ;-)


79 posted on 05/30/2006 4:03:09 PM PDT by 3niner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

We already have visas to cover quotas for agricultural workers. One of the 9-11 hijackers came into the country on an agricultural visa but never worked on a farm. In California the growers are now having a hard time getting enough workers because the illegal aliens who used to do the work now have no fear of ever being caught or deported with Bush in office. The illegals now are taking Americans' retail jobs, contruction, drywall, restaurant workers, cashiers in supermarkets, etc. Eight illegal aliens were working at the Los Angeles Country Dept. of Water and Power (one was making more than $100,000 a year). Why should illegal aliens stick with hard farm labor when they know they can easily go anywhere in our country and work pretty much wherever they want as Presidente Jorge W. Bush has made it clear he will never enforce our immigration laws.


80 posted on 05/30/2006 5:58:19 PM PDT by Spice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-86 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson