Agriculture industry faces labour woes in immigration debate

WASHINGTON (AP):

The agriculture industry fears a disaster is on the horizon if the one bit of new immigration policy that Congress seems to agree on becomes law.

A plan to require all American businesses to run their employees through E-Verify, a programme that confirms each is legally entitled to work in the United States (US), could wreak havoc on an industry where 80 per cent of the field workers are illegal immigrants.

So could the increased paperwork audits already under way by the Obama administration.

"We are headed towards a train wreck," said Rep Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat whose district includes agriculture-rich areas. "The stepped-up (workplace) enforcement has brought this to a head."

Lofgren said farmers are worried that their workforce is about to disappear. They say they want to hire legal workers and US citizens, but that it is nearly impossible, given the relatively low wages and back-breaking work.

'Little hope'

Wages can range from minimum wage to more than $20 an hour. But workers often are paid by the piece; the faster they work, they more they make. A steady income lasts only as long as the planting and harvesting seasons, which can be measured in weeks.

"Few citizens express interest, in large part because this is hard, tough work," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak said this past week. "Our broken immigration system offers little hope for producers to do the right thing."

Arturo S. Rodriguez, president of United Farm Workers, said migrant farm workers are exposed to blistering heat with little or no shade and few water breaks. It's skilled work, he said, requiring produce pickers to be exact and quick. While the best mushroom pickers can earn about $35,000 to $40,000 a year for piece work, there's little chance for a good living, and American workers do not seem interested in farm jobs.

"It is extremely difficult, hard, dangerous work," Rodriguez said.

Last year Rodriguez's group started the 'Take Our Jobs' campaign to entice American workers to take the fields. He said of about 86,000 inquiries the group got about the offer, only 11 workers took jobs.

"That really was thought up by farm workers trying to figure out what is it we needed to do to show that we are not trying to take away anyone's job," Rodriguez said.

Vilsak and the American Farm Bureau Federation President, Bob Stallman, said in a recent conference call with reporters that the best and likely only hope to stave off an economic catastrophe for American farmers and consumers is comprehensive overhaul of immigration policy. Vilsak said the industry is worth about $5 billion to $9 billion a year.

"We need to address the agriculture labour supply," Stallman said. "This situation will affect the future of America's farmers and ranchers."

No means of verification

Manuel Cunha, president of Nisei Farmers League, a group representing growers in central California, said farmers don't have the wherewithal to verify a worker's status when their labour force is often hired on the spot and in a hurry to pick ripe crops. Forcing them to verify a worker's legal status, he said, would prove disastrous.

"If we were to use E-Verify now, we'd shut down, either that or farmers would go to prison," said Cunha, a Fresno-based citrus farmer. "We've admitted many workers are not legal and, if you have to get rid of everybody, where do I go to get my labour? Nowhere. We have to have a workforce that we can put in the system."

Shawn Coburn, a politically active farmer who grows thousands of acres of almonds on the west side Fresno County, said he favours tighter borders, a guest-worker programme and a path to citizenship for those already in the US, or at the very least their children. But, like Cunha, he believes a mandatory E-Verify plan would be nothing but trouble for the industry.

"I don't think it's going to happen, but, if it does, it would throw the California economy for a loop," Coburn said.