Michigan farmers say U.S. crackdown threatens labor shortage (Immigration)

ap ^ | 7-28-05

[politicalwit]

"Time to bring back the WPA and make it mandatory for all welfare recipients."

NO!!!!...imagine the Union they would form!!!

[TheOtherOne]

There are millions of freeloaders sitting on their arses, all over the place, Detroit comes to mind, put them to work!

Selling crack is so much easier than picking fruit.

[Surtur]

Looks like we need a "War on Ags (farmers and Agricultural industries)" to match the war on drugs with the same kind of penalties. If a farmer or Ag industry is using illegal workers, shut them down and sieze the property. Then auction it off to the highest bidder and use the funds to reimburse the local communities that have had to bear the burden of costs, e.g schools for illegal's children and destruction of healthcare infrastructure because of indigent illegals, for the illegal immigrants. Some of the current illegal immigrant crap would cease post haste if the employers involved knew they would lose everything they had because of their actions.

[Calpernia]

I was on the phone last week with one of my new Breederville members.

He had an idea he was bouncing off of me.

Have the farm sponsor a camp program for city kids to come to the farm and experience farm life. One of the tasks would be chores. City kids never experience that type of life. They learn, they work, and they could earn if they are paid what the illegals get.

It is an idea worth pursuing.

[television is just wrong]

Absolutely.

[Calpernia]

Oh the developers would love YOUR idea.

[television is just wrong]

Is $89,000.00 all???

[Clock King]

Not smart. Remeber, only 3% of the people make the food for the other 97% of us. We need farmers or millions will starve. That being said, the real problem is the "lawyer-like skills for the paperwork."

[international american]

: )

[janetgreen]

The former cherry pickers are probably too busy hanging drywall.

And doing a multitude of other American jobs that supported American families in the past. In California you can hardly find a construction crew that speaks English. Ditto that for gardeners, warehouse workers, nannies, restaurant workers, tile setters, plumbers, etc. etc.

Good deal for them, bad deal for American workers.

[txhurl]

See, here is a job that even a Mexican won't do. Boo hoo.

[international american]

"In California you can "hardly" find a construction crew that speaks English. "

Correction my sweet......."cannot" find is the correct verbiage!

Love,
Tim

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

To hell with them, pay a decent wage for American workers buckos. I am sick of whining employers on the cheap destroying America just to make a buck.

[DTogo]

Matt Albence, deputy special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement for the region that includes northern Michigan, denied there have been any sweeps for illegal workers and said there is no reason for fear. "We just don't have the resources to go driving around picking people up," he said.

"And our bosses in Washington don't have the cajones to tell us to do so anyway," he added.

[Surtur]

I don't mean seize the property and "give" it away. Seize it and auction it off at no less than fair market value and plow that money back into the local infrastructure. I don't know about you, but I am sick of all of the rest of society subsidizing a handful of farmers, AgBusinesses, housing contractors, and restaurant/hoteliers who are to cheap to pay a livable wage to American citizens. If you have a better solution to this abusive situation, post it so we can all share in your knowledge. I saw your post about using urban children, and I agree that that is a a good idea, but it would not solve the entire problem, esp in non-ag industries/services. If the illegal immigrants are removed from the equation, then some inventive entrepreneur would find a way to mechanically harvest all produce in a cost effective manner. That solution has not been attempted because the current availability of cheap, though illegal, labor carries no penalties stiff enough for the abusers to wish to avoid them. Currently, violators only receive a slap on the wrist, so they continue to abuse the system at my, your, and everyone else's expense.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Pay better wages and you will find LEGAL employees. If you have to raise prices to do so, so be it.

Well unless Uncle Sam can crack down evenly across the board, or at least at random, it will be a game of chicken between the producers as to who will toe the line first and suffer losses from the rest who aren't following the roolz.

[HiTech RedNeck]

That being said, the real problem is the "lawyer-like skills for the paperwork."

Ostensibly the tight rules are to cut down on illegals being able to get in that way. It has a Kafkaesque perversity to it. Rules that work most of the time, while leaving it mostly up to the Feds themselves to crack down on credential counterfeiters rather than mostly to the employers to play super sleuth, would have a better overall effect.

[HiTech RedNeck]

"mas mojados"

"many wetbacks" shame....

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

Each illegal alien costs the taxpayer a net $89,000 lifetime.

For a detailed study that lays out the facts see The High Cost of Cheap Labor

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

Seems to me a lot of kids used to do that kind of stuff,because it was enough pay to really amount to something.

Like you, I was also one of them. But over the years the socialist mommy-knows-best-government ended the practice. In these litigous and PC times it would never work. The ACLU would no doubt find a reason to file a lawsuit.

But at the time it had the obvious benefits, both for farmer and child, as well as others:

Brought in some spending or savings money
Laid the foundation for a work ethic.
Accepting responsibility.

I current times it might encourage idle, overweight kids to be active, especially when Phy Ed has been all but dropped as a requirement in school. But there is no incentvie today when they are being raised to expect something for no effort.