Illegal Aliens Worry Local Farm Community
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Jefferson County has about 300 immigrant workers on dairy farms.
There are new concerns in the farming community that the documents workers provide their employers are not legal.
There are also worries that the system could lead to farms getting stripped of their workforce.
Jose works on a farm in Jefferson County.
At the age of 14, he decided to come to the U.S. from Mexico to find work.
He says entered the country illegally.
“When you have dreams of having a better life, even just to have a job when you don’t have it, you have to take the chances that are needed,” said Jose.
Just as Jose took a chance, farm owners take a chance when hiring immigrant workers.
According to the law, an immigrant must provide a photo ID and Social Security card.
Farmers have to do their best to determine if the paperwork is legitimate.
But experts say there’s risk involved.
“Farmers over time have become faced with the dilemma that some of the documents that they are given by their employees are not authentic,” said Thomas Maloney of Cornell University.
The federal government is cracking down.
“Recently we’ve had at least four people picked up and hauled away, if you will, by the Border Patrol,” said Jefferson County Agricultural Coordinator Jay Matteson.
Farmers say they’re stuck in the middle.
The rely on immigrant labor and trust that their employees’ paperwork is legal.
At the same time, they live with the fear the government can come and take their workers, which can cripple a dairy operation.
Meanwhile, Jose is working to become a U.S. citizen.
He and the farm he works for asked 7 News to conceal their identities because the fear of government intervention is real.
Lawmakers in Washington are working to address the problem.
There are bills in the works that would change the rules for immigrants working on dairy farms.
The measures could provide a way to help farmers be sure their workers are legal and make it possible for immigrants to legitimately work in the U.S.
See Jeff Nelson’s report:
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43 Responses to “Illegal Aliens Worry Local Farm Community”
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When did we start deciding which laws we are going to abide by. If the law are enforced as they were written i think that our crime rate would drop. Employers would have to pay a living wage for the employee. If you all dont like the laws of this land I would pick somewhere else to operate.
Well, looks like farmers may have to break down and go back to paying highschool kids a $100 bucks a week to milk cows. I’m suprised that our local government and the community in general are not concerned about the use of immigrants by farmers to get cheap labor. It would definately open up some jobs in an area where local residents either work at McDonalds, or Ft. Drum. It may even teach some of the youth in the area some basic work ethics. People are complaining about higher prices for everything, and turning a blind eye to the simple truth that biusness owners are greedy, and cheap labor doesn’t affect the bottom line for an everyday person paying $4 a gallon gas, high grocery costs, and high taxes. Americans need to wake up and be proactive in the economy rather than being a nation of consumers.
Get rid of the illegal ’s and make more jobs for some of the younger people. Send them back to were they come from. What about are own people here in the us that need a better life and money. There needs to be stiffer fines for finding these mexicans. There are people in are own country that need a job let us worrie about them for once instead of over sea or them mexican. What ever happened to the wall or putting for at the boarder ?
we insist on allowing profits, capital, and goods made by slaves to freely cross the border; we even smuggle in exotic animals. Cattle were illegally transported back and forth to/from Canada when the mad cow scare was on. Colorado is begging for 3000 migrant workers now. Who has been doing all the seasonal farm work from here to Buffalo, college students?
This has been a problem for some time , it’s just that people felt so bad for the farmers that no one said anything. now with unemployment at 7% in jefferson is it taking job’s from the locals ?? or is the problem that the unemployed don’t want to work or can’t work for the cheap pay that the farmers pay these immigrants. The farmers know that these people are here illegally and they know they are cheap labor heck the apple farmers have been doing it for years Are the farmers paying withholding taxes on the immagrants ?? Did we issue them drivers licences ???? Why isn’t the Border Patrol looking to see who’s coming in from the south instead fo always looking north???? ” Papers I don’t need no stinkin papers “
You would think with all the unemployed individuals on the the welfare rolls that they would be required to take jobs like this. There are plenty of able bodied individuals here locally that farmers should have NO problem whatsoever to fill these positions
These farms that are hirning illegals are not paying a minimum wage, sending in social security or workers comp insurance payments either. Those large dairy farms are big business. If they are sending in the proper payments to the governing agencies and the socail security numbers are not correct then the governing agencies would contact the employer that there is a problem. So they (the farmers) know what is right and wrong but turn a blind eye, and are saving a bundle!!
They need to held accountable also. They need to step up to the plate, pay a decent wage, pay the governing agencies the contribution to social security and unemployment insurance etc. Then they would get local, americain cictizens to work for them.
I myself think this is very wrong that any illegal is here to work or for that matter here for anything else. My wife and I have spent thousands of dollars for her to be here and work legally, drive and live here even after we were married. Doing this all legally takes alot of time and is costly but we have gone thru this and nobody has offered any breaks to us. If i knew of any that were illegal , I think its right to turn them in and have them hauled off. Why should we pay anything for them to be here reguardless of how old they are? America has to many problems right now to have to take care of illegals. We cant even take care of our own people!
Any employer who doesnt want to pay a decent payrate to get workers should do the dam work themselves. Thats the problem with this all. We cant live on the min. wage. Illegals get money underboard, mostly cash so they have no problems. I sound bitter , I am, walk in our shoes and you would be too…
If farmers were able to hire local American help for their farms you bet they would. But you can’t hire people to work on a farm that only want to work 9-5 Monday through Friday with no holidays or weekends. And you can’t hire people to work on a farm that only want to drive heavy equipment and not milk cows. And you can’t hire people who are only applying to keep their unemployment going. But when you put an ad in the paper for farm help, thats what you get.
I have been there and I have seen it. I go from farm to farm for my job plus I have worked with them. I did not lose my job when they came here to work. I made an excellent living on the money they paid and it also allowed me to move to my current job which is still farmer oriented. They pay taxes out of their check. They spend their money locally. The farmer pays withholding and workers comp just like everyone else. The point I was trying to make is that they would hire American if the American help would WORK. But they don’t. They want to sit on their butts at a desk and do as little as possible for the most money. Hey! The jobs are out there if you look for them. You can’t convince a farmer to hire you if you sitting behind a computer whining. And you may have to get your hands dirty or work past five. Farm help gets excellent pay and now benefits at some of the bigger places. The farmers aren’t trying to save a buck, they are trying to make a living. And unlike grocery stores and gas stations they can’t set the price for their commodity.
What the heck is the goverment doing ? The illegals had a big protest march, saying they are not criminals ! What other country,makes, illegals aleins, honest citizens ? They sneak sneak into their countries and they are arrested and sent to jail, then sent back to where they come from. No wonder our taxes are so high. We have to pay for insurance, when the women have babies over here. We have to pay, when they do get caught and transport them back to the border. Personally I think our taxes are high enough.
When people say, they are helping our farmers out, by working cheap and no American wants to work in the fields ! Wake up America !!!! I have driven all over the Eastern United States and I want to tell you, Road construction jobs are mostly Illegals taking away jobs!!! A lot of our construction workers, union and non union are out of work. Does this make sense ? No wonder the United States is going under !! I feel sorry for our people, who want to work and can’t, just because, contractors and farmers are hiring the cheapest help they can find.
I just want to say one more thing. Our goverment, should fine the contractors and farmers, and who else hires illegals, hefty fines and not just a measley few dollars. maybe then, we can get out country back on track ! Jim
It amazes me that the governement can turn a blind eye to both the illegal immigrants and the people that are knowingly employing them! I have been dealing with immigration now for 3 years, thousands of dollars and masses of paperwork later, so that I am eligilble to live and work here legally. When I hear of these people that come here illegally and want to cut through all the red tape it makes me very angry! Send them back ,that’s what they’d do with me and punish the people employing these illegals!!!!
Yes Dairy Farmers should pay a decent wages so the unemployed and welfare recipients can make ends meet. SO who pays for the pay raise? The consumer when milk goes up so famers can afford to pay employees, taxes and feed their own families. Let’s not blame individuals such as illegals or farmers. Our government should be doing more to assist these famers and keep them from loosing their farms.
Boo Hoo! These farmers have been breaking the law for years, at the expense of taxpaying citizens, and now their complaining that they can’t continue their criminal ways? They have put americans out of work, caused taxpayers to support these illegal alien criminals kids, education, healthcare, food stamps etc. The farmers that use illegal alien labor, and the illegal aliens, are common criminals!
The reporter should tell the farmers and the public that they are able to verify whether the Social Security number the workers give is legitimate by using the government’s E-verify system. This won’t, however, guarantee that the farmhand isn’t using a stolen number and hasn’t stolen someone’s identity. I wonder how the farmers would feel, knowing that the hands they have working for them might steal THEIR social security numbers and other information. After all, according to one of these illegal workers, “When you have dreams of having a better life, even just to have a job when you don’t have it, you have to take the chances that are needed.”
.’..Meanwhile, Jose is workinmg to become an American citizen’ This news report is full of obfuscations and half-truths. An illegal alien with false and forged documents must beconme a legal resident before he can be considered for citizenship. From illegal alien to citizen just doesn’t happen that way. Jose should return to Mexico and do it the legal way, until then Americans will have no sympathy for crimimals such as these illegal alien Latinos and their illegal employers. The laws of this land must upheld and enforced.
When I was growing up in the United States in the 50’s and 60’s the people tending the dairies and farms were American citizens.
Why don’t these greedy farmers pay a decent wage and why don’t these people on welfare start working for a living? Those that don’t need to be on welfare could be doing the farm work.
At least in the old day Americans had pride.
In California open border politicians are even changing the history books to make
30’s deportations look like a crime.
Janet something is wrong with your comments. I have friends in the construction business that use to make 20 dollars and hour and are now being offered 7 dollars an hour! Same thing with a friend of mine who has been building fences f or 20 years! He’s lucky to get a job and then it pays 7 dollars an hour! NO BENEFITS BUT HE HAS TO PAY TAXES!
Last year meat packing companies were raided of illegal aliens. The sob story went around that there were no workers but the next day American workers were lined up down the street to go to work! They had lost their jobs there and their families had a history of working in those plants until greed got in the way and illegal aliens were hired.
Oklahoma just passed very strict laws against illegal aliens so thousands fled the state. Guess what??? Unemployment is DOWN in Oklahoma now! Why? because illegals are gone and jobs are available to Americans. Illegal aliens are not counted in the unemployment rate! And as far as Americans only wanting sit on their butts and work 9 to 5, you should be ashamed of yourself! What planet are you living on? Look around Janet, there are millions of Americans working 12 to 16 hours a day and many working more than one job! They have to because they want to feed their families too and they don’t get free benefits from the government! My friend finally got a job putting up fences. He works no less than 12 hours a day in the hot heat. This is not easy work. He has to lift hundreds of pounds of fence all day long! But at least he is grateful for his job and hasn’t asked anyone for anything!
The illegal work force drives down wages and takes jobs for Americans who need to feed their families! Plain and simple!
A note from the moderator. A post was removed here. It purported to come from “Vicente Calderon”, head of an immigration reform group called LEGAL. I edited the post to remove identifying information as the post contained some interesting points. I also asked for validation of the person’s identity, as I could not find the person or the reform group through diligent searches, which, if this was truly a national organization, should have been fairly easy to do.
A second comment arrived, purporting to be from “Rex Valenzuela”, head of an immigration reform group called “PRO-LEGAL”. He said he’d been referred to our story by his colleague, “Vicente”. Again, Google searches turned up no trace of the organization, though “Rex” appears on several other news websites in their comments systems. The red flags here:
1. “Rex” and “Vicente” share an IP address in New Jersey.
2. In one news website posting, “Rex” claims “PRO-LEGAL” has 75 million members — about a quarter of the population of America. That’s a lotta folks, folks. And yet, no website for the organization.
It is possible that these are legitimate posters. But, until we see proof otherwise, both posts are on hold. This comment is posted to explain the disappearance of the “Vicente Calderon” comment for those who may have seen it.
sure , the dairy farmer does not know that his workers are illegal i also believe in the tooth fairy. the news paper, i believe has the right to conceal the source for the story , but i would turn Jose in in a heart beat, he is here ILLEGALY and should be deported.
A comment from Clark Burdick that came in via e-mail. He gave permission for his comments to be posted here:
I just saw your coverage of illegal alien farm workers in the North Country. Your coverage was an insult to every hard working U.S. citizen, and presented a distorted view of reality.
It is immaterial what illegal entry crime a 14 year old Mexican high school drop out committed when he decided that he would invade our country to take advantage of our economy.
The facts are that that person is undercutting a U.S. wage and is using U.S. health and welfare services; with a net loss to the overall economy. It is a FACT (not anecdote such as your supposed ‘argument’) that the average U.S. taxpayer pays $1,800 per year to support public services (health, education, etc.) for illegal aliens in the U.S. How can your station take a stance that costs us so much? Between money sent to Mexico, and the cost of services, the illegal aliens in the U.S. cause a constant drain of at least $50 billion ($50,000,000,000) EVERY SINGLE YEAR IN PERPETUITY. The hispanic birth rate is high, and at 54% of births out of wedlock, who do you think is picking up the bill for these irresponsible pregnancies, and the child that results.
The illegal alien scourge is nothing more than offshoring a business that can’t be moved - you bring the cheap labor in, and pass their presence off as an economic necessity and a human rights issue. Instead it is the further undercutting of the U.S. economy.
I suggest that you look at the big picture and not worry about the consequences of a farmer’s illegal hiring activity coming home to roost. You betray your viewers with such disingenuous, ill founded, and skewed coverage. Please take a more balanced view and present some coverage on the costs to society, and NY State in particular, of the illegal alien invasion. It is a disgrace that your station, based in a state that was so key to our nations founding, is now working to destroy that same nation through the abuse of its responsibility to present he truth. How can you have a clear conscience when you work against your fellow citizen?
Most of us Americans forget how the produce at the supermarkets get to the shelves. It is not just the mexicans out there in the hot sun picking the fields. There are other nationalities like guatemalans, el salvadorians, etc. Do not forget how many so called Americans got to this land….via boats, ships coming thru Ellis Island. Many of your ancestors just passed on through, and now that you have enjoyed the benefit of them fleeing their homeland you want to prevent Mexicans from coming across the border. Not all illegals are mexicans. I am Mexican-American and proud of that fact. Do you think the immigrants long ago would have been able to afford all the legal fees involved with coming across the border.
I am sick and tired of reading the countless stories every day on the internet about the destructive ongoing massive third world illegal alien invasion of this nation…….. aided and abetted by the Bush administration. The truth is forty percent of all illegal aliens domiciled in the U.S. arrived here since January, 2001. What a rotten legacy! President Bush’s “open borders/amnesty” immigration policy is an outrage. Mr. Bush has failed to do his constitutional job of enforcing the law including tax, labor, and immigration laws…….all because he worships at the altar of “diversity” and “cheap labor”. Shame on you Mr. Bush and shame on those wimpy, pandering, quisling Congressmen and Senators that will not lift a finger to secure our borders or crack down on this preposterous flood of foreigners barging into our country.
and little jose should be kicked out on his butt. I was born here and I work on a farm every day in Virginia sometimes 60 hrs a week. So please don’t give the crap about can’t find labor. The real line is can’t find labor for minimum wage
House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also wants to allow the influx of foreign nationals guest workers. Perhaps her main reason is because she needs swarms of cheap labor that she can exploit on her grape plantations in central California. Wonder whats in it for state Colorado Rep. Kathleen Curry, a Democrat? Rep. Terrance Carroll, a Democrat? Are is also trying to gut the border fence, so millions more uneducated poor can feed at the public welfare trough? As if that was not enough the leading Democrats are have amended President Bushes fence law and underfunded it. Including to re-engineer the plans of Rep.Duncan Hunter (R-CA) for a two-tier fence. Currently we have a damn mess were instead of miles of border barrier, we have towers with inoperative camera, sensing equipment and millions of dollars in wasted taxpayers money. Duncan Hunters border fence in San Diego county, California had a 90% success rate of stopping drugs, white slavery and an illegal aliens easy path into America.
But why are these politicians and farmers opting for an Arizona guest-worker program when the federal government already has on?. It’s called the H-2A visa program designed for U.S. companies hiring foreign workers to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature. Why do they want to set-up shop in Mexico? Here there are very few workers laws, safety measures and they can exploit the poor, cheap labor.
However in this nation this program has a number of advantages for employers, most notably the assurance of a legal, documented work force and the reduction of labor turnover with the resulting loss in productivity. No restrictions are made on the number of H-2A workers that are admitted yearly.
So why don’t farmers like the program?
Maybe it’s because they don’t like the H-2A visa requirements intended to protect workers from exploitive working conditions. Or they don’t like having to pay the same wages as comparable U.S. workers would have to be paid as determined by the Department of Labor.
Or they don’t like having to provide the laborer with an earnings statement detailing the worker’s total earnings, the hours of work offered and the hours actually worked. That they don’t like having to provide housing to all H-2A workers, which must be inspected by the Department of Labor to assure minimum federal standards.
Or they don’t like having to provide transportation to and from the guest worker’s temporary home (if it’s made available) as well as transportation to the next work place when the contract is fulfilled. Or they don’t care want to provide meals or facilities in which the workers can prepare food. Or they don’t like having to provide worker’s compensation insurance, nor do they have to provide health insurance. The taxpayers provide that as a free-be to pariah employers.
If farmers had to comply with the federally mandated requirements, it would defeat the advantages of hiring cheap illegal immigrant labor in the first place. What farmers really want is to legalize the on-demand hiring of the same cheap labor they have always hired, with the taxpayers footing the bill for workers’ benefits like schooling for their young, including free meals under title 1. Free student books and other complimentary hand-outs, including free health care. Not forgetting that low wage earners can apply for food stamps, subsidized housing, baby sitters for their toddlers and many other benefits on the taxpayers dime.
That is why some politicians like Grijalva push for the H-2A visa program? Could it be that they want “temporary” to really be “permanent” — advocating that in return for the “cheap” lettuce produced, temporary workers and their families deserve a path to permanent U.S. citizenship? Is this a way around immigration enforcement, like the federal SAVE ACT now pending in Congress. The simple question is, are the tomatoes, grapes or even lettuce cheaper? No! Not when you realize the massive cost to US taxpayers. Hudson Institute, a nonpartisan policy research organization, said U.S. taxpayers paid more than $9,000 for each immigrant in the country, a third of whom are believed to be in the U.S. illegally.
In addition, more than 37 million immigrants in the United States, both legal and illegal, cost the federal government more than $346 billion last year, twice as much as the nation’s fiscal deficit, according to a report released yesterday. The loss estimates, the report said, included $100 billion in federal taxes lost “from the reduction of native incomes caused by immigrant workers.” He also stated that even programs that are not usually associated with immigration, he said, have actually added financial burdens to the taxpayers.
What is certain is that neither the farmers nor the lawmakers are really interested in what is good for America — and the U.S. citizen worker is in this nation. They have become the puppets of the special interest lobby.
We desperately need a federal mandated law such as the SAVE ACT, so we can seal our borders, and fully restrict illegal immigration within the interior of America as well.
My heart bleeds. Not for illegal criminals, but for the way he and his ilk are turning the United States into a third world country. Our country needs immigration laws like they have in Mexico:
1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools, no special ballots for elections, and all government business will be conducted in our language.
2. Foreigners will NOT have the right to vote, no matter how long they are here.
3. Foreigners will NEVER be able to hold political office.
4. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, nor any other government assistance programs.
5. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.
6. If foreigners do come and want to buy land that will be okay, BUT options will be restricted. You are not allowed to own waterfront property. That property is reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.
7. Foreigners may not protest; no demonstrations, no waving a foreign flag, no political organizing, no “bad-mouthing” our president or his policies. If you do you will be sent home.
8. If you do come to this country illegally, you will be hunted down and sent straight to jail.
Kick them all out!
I hope this small town get busy to save themselves! The invasion is on folks, in every single state! Thousands comming over the border! I just moved from Mexifornia because of the invasion! I move to the state of Washington and it is the same old thing! Join organizations write your reps vote them out SCREAM and MARCH! We the people need to take back our country!
# Manuelita Di Rocco on April 23rd, 2008 1:10 pm
Most of us Americans forget how the produce at the supermarkets get to the shelves. It is not just the mexicans out there in the hot sun picking the fields. There are other nationalities like guatemalans, el salvadorians, etc. Do not forget how many so called Americans got to this land….via boats, ships coming thru Ellis Island. Many of your ancestors just passed on through, and now that you have enjoyed the benefit of them fleeing their homeland you want to prevent Mexicans from coming across the border. Not all illegals are mexicans. I am Mexican-American and proud of that fact. Do you think the immigrants long ago would have been able to afford all the legal fees involved with coming across the border.
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REPLY:
American citizens picked the veggies in the past or can’t you admit that Manelita?
This is not about the past Manuelita this is about the year 2008.
All we here in the U.S. ask is that foreigners enter legally.
Is that too much to ask? If someone can’t afford the fees SAVE to enter.
They seem to have the money for the coyotes?
Also regarding Ellis Island. Not all Europeans were able to enter.
They had to enter LEGALLY. Many were turned away.
Do you see anyone crying about that today?
I know for a fact that anyone can buy a CA drivers license,green card,social security card and more right on the street in downtown Los Angeles at Mcarthur Park.All documents must be checked for veracity.Punish your enemies;reward your friends.
Immigration has direct massive negative consequences on today’s and yesterdays economy.
Are you now living from paycheck to paycheck, wondering how your going to feed your family, making your mortgage payment.
You need to be aware of how much Uncle Sam is secretly skimming off your taxes and diverting into government freebies
for immigrants and illegal foreign nationals.
This is a document that should disturb you, because the globalist open border, free traders do not want you to see it. This is an thoroughly researched analysis of immigration costs, that the hierarchy of the U.S. government and special interests groups do not want you to read.
Now you can read the disturbing details in the new 70-page document called “The Economic and Fiscal Impact of Immigration” by Edwin S. Rubenstein (www.eagleforum.org/sources). A Manhattan Institute adjunct academic with a mile-long scholarly resume, he has been doing financial analysis ever since he directed the studies of government waste for the Grace Commission of 1984.
Did you know that taxpayers are supporting immigrants to the tune of $9.000 each. That means your subsidizing each family of four with $36.000.
More than 37 million immigrants in the United States, both legal and illegal, cost the federal government more than $346 billion last year, twice as much as the nation’s fiscal deficit, according to a report released yesterday. The loss estimates, the report said, included $100 billion in federal taxes lost “from the reduction of native incomes caused by immigrant workers.” He also stated that even programs that are not usually associated with immigration, he said, have actually added financial burdens to the taxpayers.
Our students are short-changed in overcrowded classrooms, because teachers must spend more time with illegal immigrant children.
The financial burden immigrants inflict on education starts with the 3.8 million K-12 students enrolled in more-expensive classes for the non-English-speaking. When we add up the costs of hiring specialized teachers, training regular teachers, student identification and assessment, and administration costs, the total amounts to an estimated $1,030 per pupil, or $3.9 billion. Of the 48.4 million public school children, pre-K through 12th grade, 9.2 million or 19 percent are immigrants or the children of immigrants. In the next few years, immigration will account for almost all the increase in public school spending.
Look at the $1.5 billion cost of incarcerating 267,000 criminal aliens in federal prisons. That’s not the worst of it; prison capacity is limited, so 80,000 to 100,000 other criminal aliens have been prematurely released to prowl our streets. Then their is the expenditure to hunt down 676,847 fugitive warrants by (ICE) and special agents. Actual cost for incarcerating illegal foreign nationals since 2001, over $1,407.798.965 dollars.
The Manhattan Institute report includes all sorts of costs that pundits conveniently ignore, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. EITC gives an average cash payment of $1,700 per year to 25 percent of immigrant households.
The emergency medical treatment given ‘gratis’ to illegal immigrants is another enormous cost, causing many border state hospitals and emergency rooms to close. Emergency means any complaint from morning sickness to athlete’s foot, gunshot wounds to AIDS.Even after some restrictions were imposed in 1996, 24.2 percent of immigrant households still receive Medicaid, whereas the figure for native-born Americans is 14.8 percent.The stiudy calculates that Hispanics account for 19.2 percent of Medicaid enrollment, while they are 13.7 percent of the U.S. population.
This is just the tip of the iceberg about these outrageous costs.
Please go to (www.eagleforum.org/sources) and know what your taxes are paying for…?
Please copy & paste and distribute freely
Being Hispanic I understand everyone’s frustration with the illegal alien issue. I am an immigrant myself and have been able to attain a college degree ( with my earned money ” and yes I paid taxes”). I also served in the military and helped defend other nations against potential infiltrators. This country was founded by “immigrants” that fled a country for a better life. I can also safely say that many here in noertern new York have descendants that are from other countries. Look at the rich history of this area and you can find how immigrants also resided here ( Germans, Italians, etc.). Remember : America is the melting pot. Remember what it states at the statue of liberty. Remember that slaves were brought here to do labor that was cheap and that others didn’t want to do. And now immigrants are doing the work that others don’t want to do; such as the milking of cows.
sergio on April 23rd, 2008 9:45 pm
Being Hispanic I understand everyone’s frustration with the illegal alien issue. I am an immigrant myself and have been able to attain a college degree ( with my earned money ” and yes I paid taxes”). I also served in the military and helped defend other nations against potential infiltrators. This country was founded by “immigrants” that fled a country for a better life. I can also safely say that many here in noertern new York have descendants that are from other countries. Look at the rich history of this area and you can find how immigrants also resided here ( Germans, Italians, etc.). Remember : America is the melting pot. Remember what it states at the statue of liberty. Remember that slaves were brought here to do labor that was cheap and that others didn’t want to do. And now immigrants are doing the work that others don’t want to do; such as the milking of cows.
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No one cares about the RICH HISTORY SERGIO all we care about is entering LEGALLY.
Is the word Legal absent from your vocabulary?
Sergio, I think we are talking about ILLEGAL aliens, not people that have entered this country legally. I too have served in the military so don’t use that as some type of hype to justify what these illegals are doing. If we entered Mexico or some other Latin American country illegaly we would be sent straight to jail and deported (and justifiably so) for breaking their laws. Why is there such a double standard?
It is unfortunate that many commenters here are misinformed about the realities of farm labor. The fact is that there is no reliable way to verify the authenticity of worker documents. Do you think you could tell the difference between a legitimate and forged Social Security Card? Could your boss? The government doesn’t provide a way for employers to verify authenticity and they are stuck doing the best they can without discriminating based on race–that is illegal too.
It seems the commenters here also don’t really know what kind of wages farm workers are making. We’re not talking about under-the-table cash transactions. These people are presumed legal based on their documents and are receiving payroll with deductions taken from the state and federal governement, just like everyone else. And they are making a wage well above the minimum wage, which is more than the starting wage for a high school student applying at the Gap or McDonald’s. Sure, its still not the greatest, but farm workers often receive a lot of amenities, like housing, utilities and transportation. If I didn’t have to pay for those things, I would be able to work for a lot less too, and probably save more.
These foreign workers aren’t taking jobs from local workers. It’s just not happening. Unfortunately, most people are not willing to put in the type of work required on a farm at any wage. Many industries face this same problem, like hotels and restaurants. Let’s not bash farmers who are doing the best that any employer can in the envirnoment fostered by our government–they just want to be able to care for their animals and crops with any willing worker out there.
The work forse of America is not like it used to be. High school students in my day were content to work on a farm. It was a great workout and gave us spending money. In an era where video games, TV and other electronics suck up the time of most youth, none of them have the ambition to get up off the couch and do the actual farmwork, thus farmers need to turn to other sources. Fixing the illegal immigrnat problem is a lost cause. There is always going to be illegal immigrants in this country. What we need to fix is the way our youth are raised today. They are all the “me” generation, and hard labor doesn’t exist in the youth of today. Todays parents have bought into the “my kids need a better life than I had” theory. So as a nation on a whole we are producing lazier kids who get everything done for them. Or their parents just make excuses for them so they don’t have to do it…therefore they have no employable skills even if they did somehow manage to get a work ethic passed on to them. I am an educator in a public school, and oh my are we in trouble as a nation.
It is not totally true that people won’t work as farm laborers.Farmers won’t hire local people.The migrants are contracted and they get them for slave wages.It’s all about the wages.Let’s see some proof of what they’re paid.I’ve never seen any.It’s a fact that most of the USdollars earned are sent back to Mexico.We have people on welfare who could do these jobs if they needed to in order to qualify.We also have prison populaions that would be glad to do it.In the South the usual deal is every work day is counted as two on your sentence.We do not need these people.They are the ones who are telling you that you need them.Totally false!
Several states are using low risk inmates to work the crops and with great success. The farmer is happy and the inmates are happy. It’s a win win for both. Then there are millions on welfare who could be doing this work too. Using the inmates and welfare people would save the American tax payer billions of dollars each year. The most recent study on the cost of immigration, legal and illegal in the US shows at the very least a 346 billion dollar drain on the tax payer EACH YEAR!
There are far too many problems associated with immigrants legal and illegal to make sense in continuing down the same path we have been on. They will always be a burden to the tax payer because they make too little to pay their own way and they tend to have large families they cannot support so that means you and I go to work every day to support them. That’s wrong on every level!
This country is way behind the rest of the world because we don’t use crop machines that cut down the need for labor. These farms need to get with it and use machines and then pay a decent wage to American workers. I heard a woman from New York claim she pays well but cannot get Americans to work her farm. She starts pay at $7.00 an hour! She couldn’t live on that but she expects other Americans to? The government needs to make low interest loans to farmers and demand they start using machines, inmates and the millions of able bodied people on welfare!
I would like to add that if you are an American hired at $7.00 an hour to work on the farms, I believe you do not get housing, transportation, etc.
Joy on April 24th, 2008 5:19 pm It is unfortunate that many commenters here are misinformed about the realities of farm labor. The fact is that there is no reliable way to verify the authenticity of worker documents. Do you think you could tell the difference between a legitimate and forged Social Security Card? Could your boss? The government doesn’t provide a way for employers to verify authenticity and they are stuck doing the best they can without discriminating based on race–that is illegal too.
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The government does provide a free and easy way for employers to verify Social Security numbers; it’s called E-Verify. There is currently legislation pending in congress, Save America through Enforcement Verification (SAVE act). Unfortunately, speaker Pelosi will not allow a vote on this. If you would like to see this become law, please contact congressman McHugh (http://mchugh.house.gov/) and urge him to support it.
Thank you for your coverage of the difficulty that farmers have to find and retain a reliable legal workforce. Farmers are committed to follow laws and like all employers work hard to do so. Domestic farm workers are hard to retain at any wage rate, so it is important that the federal government address the needs of farmers and consumers by creating a workable guest worker program as soon as possible.
Farmers do and will hire anyone who is willing to work, and complete the necessary authorization paperwork for all new employees. Their primary concern is to care for their animals and crops and to produce the safe and affordable food supply that our country needs. The reality is the upstate New York workforce pool is shrinking, which makes it hard to find and retain employees. Potential farm workers, in the age bracket of 25 to 34 years old, in upstate have declined at twice the rate of the state and nearly four times the national rate.
While Jefferson County’s average dairy worker wage in 2006 was $9.92 per hour, countless dairy farmers can describe the difficulty they’ve had in finding and retaining reliable workers. One North Country farm over the past 2 years hired, trained and lost 23 local employees. Half left within the first two months. That’s why some farmers have turned to a non traditional labor pool in the North Country – former migrant farm workers who are seeking full-time work. These farm workers, primarily from Mexico and other South American countries, are familiar with and seek out agricultural work. Working outside, around animals, and on nights and weekends, is not as appealing as other jobs to some local employees.
Hispanic workers are a dependable labor source, but they are not a cheap substitute for local labor. According to a Cornell University study published in 2005, average wage is well above minimum wage. In addition farms also provide these employees with thousands of dollars of benefits, including housing with heat and electricity, transportation, telephone in residence and Spanish TV via satellite.
All farm employees provide appropriate documentation, complete an I-9 and pay taxes. Some of the identity documents, however, might not be authentic. Employers shouldn’t be forced to add immigration enforcement to one of their many record keeping duties. Instead, Congress needs to offer a better guest worker program that also secures our borders. If dairy farmers are to stay in New York, and continue to produce local, safe, and affordable milk and dairy products, we need a fair immigration system that allows these employees to work the jobs Americans don’t want and to return home to visit their families.
Why do so many forget that the law says illegal. We can not enforce only when it benefits us. The USA is headed for trouble and will be a third world country. Could any usa citizen go into another country and demand that they change the laws to suit us? We need to wake up and smell the coffee.
Julie, thank you for your thoughtful post. But again I would like to say that farms in New York can use the inmate system already in place in some states and proven successful. Secondly, while you have stated workers get over $9 an hour in Jefferson County, the woman I spoke of in New York stated she started her workers off at $7.00 an hour. Regardless, when you add to any hourly wage benefits, housing, transportation, telephone, utilities and TV that really racks the income up. However all of these benefits would not be paid to an American citizen. There are laws that apply to guest workers and the provisions they receive that would not apply to an American citizen.
Once workers are here they disappear into society, plant roots and then expect to be allowed to stay and bring their families here as well. That’s just wrong and unfair to the American people. We now have an estimated 20 million ILLEGAL ALIENS in this country. That’s an invasion by any consideration. It’s time to use able bodied people who are unemployed and drawing welfare and low risk inmates while farms upgrade to machines. A study was done not long ago about the increase in cost should we not use foreign workers. I can’t remember the fruit that was used for the example but it was what was considered to be the most expensive. The increase in cost was $1.00. A head of lettuce was $.10. TEN CENTS! I think most Americans would much prefer paying a little more for their food than $346 billion a year to support immigrants.
The solution to the illegal is very simple. If you want to correct the problem (and I agree is a problem) just stop eating. They are the reason you have the food you and your families eat. This has been going on for a very long time and any one who buys food is inableing this to continue. SO grow your own vegies, milk your own cow, feed the chickens, and butcher the hog yourself or sit down and go on an diet!
PS: The white folks of this great country will not do this work, we have tried over and over and we pay $123.00 plus insurance and pension.