Alabama’s draconian immigration law is hitting farmers hard: Gov is wrong that citizens will take field jobs

[웃 910]

Alabama's draconian immigration law is hitting farmers hard: Gov is wrong that citizens will take field jobs

^Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley made a big mistake with harsh anti-immigrant law.

The nation's harshest immigration law is backfiring spectacularly. As it does, Alabama is learning the hard way just how much immigrants, including illegal ones, contribute to the economy.

It's a lesson New York City and State — where most people without papers can live and work without constant fear of deportation — could have taught them from the get-go.

In June, Alabama's legislature passed, and

Gov. Robert Bentley signed, a bill requiring cops to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally, threatening to revoke business licenses of any company that knowingly employs such a worker — even mandating that public schools determine their students' immigration status.

That last terribly punitive step is one not even Arizona dared to take in its infamous crackdown.

At the time, Alabama's legislature professed to be targeting migrant workers, who were theoretically taking jobs from citizens in a tough economy. The shockwaves since have proven just how flawed that logic was — especially in the vital agriculture industry.

Good old citizen farmers are suffering up and down the state.

Tomato farmer

Brian Cash told a local paper, "We probably left 15,000 boxes in the field," and said next year he'd have to plant a third of his regular crop.

Another, Chad Smiths, said 80% of his workforce disappeared when the bill became law.

On NBC's "Rock Center" news show last week,

Jerry Danford — who's been raising and selling cucumbers for half a century — said his workers were fleeing in fear of the new law, even though they had the papers federal law requires.

It's not just farmers. Last week, an international business traveler, a Mercedes-Benz executive from Germany, was busted by a Tuscaloosa cop who noticed there was no tag on his rental car.

The businessman had left his passport at his hotel, so he was arrested and taken to the police station until colleagues could produce papers.

It was pretty stupid to pass a law that makes marked men and women of needed agricultural workers and executives of a company that contributes an estimated $6.8 billion and 41,830 jobs to Alabama's economy.

While his state suffers, Bentley — a native-born citizen of Fantasyland — cares not. To hear him tell it, citizen farmers will eventually, magically, raise their wages, and unemployed U.S. citizens will flock to the fields.

Residents of the real world know better: undocumented immigrants do jobs American citizens are simply not lining up for and are intricately interwoven into the country's economic ecosystem.

When you hunt them down and throw them out, everybody pays.

http://www.nydailyne...rticle-1.981461

Edited December 12, 2011 by Lord Infamous

[Pooky 3,828]

Time for America to come to terms with one immutable fact - when you pay fair wages, you pay fair prices.

You want artificially low prices? The stand up and support illegal immigration to supply the labor force.

Only problem is, the big corporations are still gouging you by keeping prices up for farm produce in supermarkets.

[웃 910]

Time for America to come to terms with one immutable fact - when you pay fair wages, you pay fair prices.

You want artificially low prices? The stand up and support illegal immigration to supply the labor force.

Only problem is, the big corporations are still gouging you by keeping prices up for farm produce in supermarkets.

For people avoiding taxes - see craigslists skilled trade section...

My wife worked 2 jobs since coming to the US. Both in the restaurant industry. Both restaurants had a kitchen staff 90% made up of illegal immigrants. They all had documentation - were paid by check - and had taxes come out just like everyone else. The documentation was fake but nobody (including the gov't) knows about it. Or maybe they know but they don't do anything about it.

I'm pretty sure this is not a coincidence and this is standard operations in the world of illegal immigrants...Nobody was paid under the table.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

For people avoiding taxes - see craigslists skilled trade section...

My wife worked 2 jobs since coming to the US. Both in the restaurant industry. Both restaurants had a kitchen staff 90% made up of illegal immigrants. They all had documentation - were paid by check - and had taxes come out just like everyone else. The documentation was fake but nobody (including the gov't) knows about it. Or maybe they know but they don't do anything about it.

I'm pretty sure this is not a coincidence and this is standard operations in the world of illegal immigrants...Nobody was paid under the table.

So those illegals paid into FICA and Soc Security yes? And the business owner was held to the same standard as "legal business owners" in regards to federal and state labor laws" while paying insurance on his "illegal employees".

Did anyone here go to school or do they just lie about it?

[웃 910]

So those illegals paid into FICA and Soc Security yes? And the business owner was held to the same standard as "legal business owners" in regards to federal and state labor laws" while paying insurance on his "illegal employees".

Did anyone here go to school or do they just lie about it?

Yes. The restaurant industry is much different than a hillbilly farmer hiring a team of illegals.

And from what I've seen with my own eyes half the restaurants out there have kitchens full of undocumented fake documented workers.

It's an epidemic but I don't think the problem is they are paid too little or having their rights violated or stealing jobs from native born Americans.

If you can't get a job as a dishwasher within 1 week you have serious problemas.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Yes. The restaurant industry is much different than a hillbilly farmer hiring a team of illegals.

And from what I've seen with my own eyes half the restaurants out there have kitchens full of undocumented fake documented workers.

It's an epidemic but I don't think the problem is they are paid too little or having their rights violated or stealing jobs from native born Americans.

If you can't get a job as a dishwasher within 1 week you have serious problemas.

Honest question here. What do you think about those business owners that employee illegals?

[Pooky 3,828]

It's an epidemic but I don't think the problem is they are paid too little or having their rights violated or stealing jobs from native born Americans.

If you can't get a job as a dishwasher within 1 week you have serious problemas.

There is too much of a disincentive to take low-paying jobs, when you are used to more. Until the incentive to get back to work - any work - is made stronger than the disincentive, this problem will not go away.

[웃 910]

Honest question here. What do you think about those business owners that employee illegals?

Well in both cases the hiring managers were illegals. And they both hired my wife (legal). But obviously they hired each illegal too.

In the case of Red Robin I'm not sure if the owner of the restaurant knew. Maybe he did but just played dumb?

In the case of the other restaurant (her current employer) they got audited and had to fire every last illegal immediately. This was about a year ago.. It's a small restaurant chain that has a few locations in Ohio and Michigan.

I personally would do things legally but once the infestation spreads and you find yourself with all Mexican workers you get into a complex problem. You'd have to fire them all, close down the restaurant for a few days, and rehire.

It's a strange phenomenon.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Well in both cases the hiring managers were illegals. And they both hired my wife (legal). But obviously they hired each illegal too.

In the case of Red Robin I'm not sure if the owner of the restaurant knew. Maybe he did but just played dumb?

In the case of the other restaurant (her current employer) they got audited and had to fire every last illegal immediately. This was about a year ago.. It's a small restaurant chain that has a few locations in Ohio and Michigan.

I personally would do things legally but once the infestation spreads and you find yourself with all Mexican workers you get into a complex problem. You'd have to fire them all, close down the restaurant for a few days, and rehire.

It's a strange phenomenon.

I honestly don't know of any resteraunts here that hire illegals, but then again our Hispanic population here is about nil. The Protestants here out number the Catholics.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

That's the problem exactly. Without e-Verify any employee can provide the silliest fake documents and the employers can pretend they hired their employees in good faith.

[kytwell 179]

Time for America to come to terms with one immutable fact - when you pay fair wages, you pay fair prices.

You want artificially low prices? The stand up and support illegal immigration to supply the labor force.

Only problem is, the big corporations are still gouging you by keeping prices up for farm produce in supermarkets.

I believe we should be utilizing prisoners for farming/picking type of work, rather than illegals. It serves this country better in numerous ways:

1) No jobs then for the illegals, so they won't come here and jack up our social services, healthcare and education costs

2) It provides "cheap" labor for the corporations

3) It will give ex-convicts a chance to possibly learn a skill or possibly upon release if they're a good worker get a legit job on the farm

4) Farm work is a back breaking, labor intensive job. Not all, but some potential criminals may really consider it to be enough of a deterrent.

Edited December 12, 2011 by kytwell

[Danno 1,228]

The poll asks 2 questions,

-DO you favor

-Is it a success

The second question is rather silly as barely enough time has passed to implement the change.

[106206 15]

I believe we should be utilizing prisoners for farming/picking type of work, rather than illegals. It serves this country better in numerous ways:

We should bus out these people that are hovering around homeless shelters here in downtown, they sit around doing nothing except looking to get high or find shelter. And they are clustered in packs of fellow addicts, there's crack dealers amongst them walking around, the environment doesn't lend itself well to rehabilitation.

Send them out to the farm, give them a job, put money in an escrow account, provide studies in the evenings and on the weekends, and maybe 3-4 cold beers at the end of Friday. They could eat off the land and grow their own crops.

After a month they would have $1000 in an account, an education, physical fitness, focus, and skills. Promote and develop the leaders and use the charismatic ones to help recruit others.

I'm talking about taking maybe the top 3% of those that are milling around downtown, the other ones would just take the $1000 and smoke it at the end of the month. And 80% of that 3% would probably relapse back into #######. But you would still get to lift up a good 20-50 men & women into a normal life in a year. That's something.