CDZ California Farmers Backed Trump, but Now Fear Losing Field Workers

[Fishlore]

MERCED, Calif. — Jeff Marchini and others in the Central Valley here bet their farms on the election of Donald J. Trump. His message of reducing regulations and taxes appealed to this Republican stronghold, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest bases of support in the state.

As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trump’s pledges were mostly just talk. But two weeks into his administration, Mr. Trump has signed executive orders that have upended the country’s immigration laws. Now farmers here are deeply alarmed about what the new policies could mean for their workers, most of whom are unauthorized, and the businesses that depend on them.
...
Mr. Trump’s immigration policies could transform California’s Central Valley, a stretch of lowlands that extends from Sacramento to Bakersfield. Approximately 70 percent of all farmworkers here are living in the United States illegally, according to researchers at University of California, Davis. The impact could reverberate throughout the valley’s precarious economy, where agriculture is by far the largest industry. With 6.5 million people living in the valley, the fields in this state bring in $35 billion a year and provide more of the nation’s food than any other state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

 

[bodecea]

Same thing that actually happened in Georgia a few years back. Bummer for them.

 

[Sonny Clark]

MERCED, Calif. — Jeff Marchini and others in the Central Valley here bet their farms on the election of Donald J. Trump. His message of reducing regulations and taxes appealed to this Republican stronghold, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest bases of support in the state.

As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trump’s pledges were mostly just talk. But two weeks into his administration, Mr. Trump has signed executive orders that have upended the country’s immigration laws. Now farmers here are deeply alarmed about what the new policies could mean for their workers, most of whom are unauthorized, and the businesses that depend on them.
...
Mr. Trump’s immigration policies could transform California’s Central Valley, a stretch of lowlands that extends from Sacramento to Bakersfield. Approximately 70 percent of all farmworkers here are living in the United States illegally, according to researchers at University of California, Davis. The impact could reverberate throughout the valley’s precarious economy, where agriculture is by far the largest industry. With 6.5 million people living in the valley, the fields in this state bring in $35 billion a year and provide more of the nation’s food than any other state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ..................................... The assholes should be forced to hire AMERICAN CITIZENS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ILLEGALS ARE HERE ILLEGALLY, KICK THEIR ASSES OUT OF THIS COUNTRY.

People who hire, use, employ, or otherwise help ILLEGALS are breaking the law. Anyone caught hiring, housing, feeding, or otherwise helping or assisting ILLEGALS, should be put in prison for life without the possibility of parole. That would solve our problem with ILLEGALS. If businesses want to stay in business, let them hire American workers, or they can fold and close the doors. I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens. If they want to hire ILLEGALS, then they should move their businesses to the country where the ILLEGALS are originally from.

 

[Manonthestreet]

CA dems have been waging war on the central valley for yrs....locking up their water or dumping it into the ocean

 

[RodISHI]

MERCED, Calif. — Jeff Marchini and others in the Central Valley here bet their farms on the election of Donald J. Trump. His message of reducing regulations and taxes appealed to this Republican stronghold, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest bases of support in the state.

As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trump’s pledges were mostly just talk. But two weeks into his administration, Mr. Trump has signed executive orders that have upended the country’s immigration laws. Now farmers here are deeply alarmed about what the new policies could mean for their workers, most of whom are unauthorized, and the businesses that depend on them.
...
Mr. Trump’s immigration policies could transform California’s Central Valley, a stretch of lowlands that extends from Sacramento to Bakersfield. Approximately 70 percent of all farmworkers here are living in the United States illegally, according to researchers at University of California, Davis. The impact could reverberate throughout the valley’s precarious economy, where agriculture is by far the largest industry. With 6.5 million people living in the valley, the fields in this state bring in $35 billion a year and provide more of the nation’s food than any other state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Blame that on the Dems who have had eight years to form a policy for work permits for immigrant farm workers specifically. While your at forming that new policy take away exemptions from farmers for any other type workers that they hire; as many of the large farm operators that are supported through tax dollars seem to believe they are fully exempt from the employment laws for truck drivers, equipment operators, etc......

 

[Staidhup]

Possibly burnout has a valid point, when you equate his comments to the hair dresser in Texas and that of field hands in central California does it not lead to passing on higher prices for the end user, consumer? One would only imagine if Pelosi and Obama are correct there should be no problem in locating field workers to harvest the crop at escalated wage rates, say $15.00 per hour, so now the question remains can California agriculture compete with cheaper produce imported from Mexico and South America, what will the American end user be willing to pay? Most people are unaware that agriculture based field hands are paid based on production, amount harvested, not hourly wages, and be dammed if an unemployed person on welfare would soil their hands in the field.

 

[Mr Natural]

Be careful what you wish for . . .

 

[Fishlore]

From tomatoes to autos, the products we Americans buy come from international supply chains that serve a global market. Block or tax imported car parts from Mexico and the price of US vehicles at home and around the world goes up. In a tight, price conscious global market, that's a big hit. Send those Mexican farm workers home California agribusiness will collapse. Food prices will go up and Mexican farmers will get rich.

Trump has no experience in manufacturing or agribusiness. He runs motels and golf courses. Like his fans, he has a picture of world trade that became obsolete over thirty years ago.

 

[Fishlore]

MERCED, Calif. — Jeff Marchini and others in the Central Valley here bet their farms on the election of Donald J. Trump. His message of reducing regulations and taxes appealed to this Republican stronghold, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest bases of support in the state.

As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trump’s pledges were mostly just talk. But two weeks into his administration, Mr. Trump has signed executive orders that have upended the country’s immigration laws. Now farmers here are deeply alarmed about what the new policies could mean for their workers, most of whom are unauthorized, and the businesses that depend on them.
...
Mr. Trump’s immigration policies could transform California’s Central Valley, a stretch of lowlands that extends from Sacramento to Bakersfield. Approximately 70 percent of all farmworkers here are living in the United States illegally, according to researchers at University of California, Davis. The impact could reverberate throughout the valley’s precarious economy, where agriculture is by far the largest industry. With 6.5 million people living in the valley, the fields in this state bring in $35 billion a year and provide more of the nation’s food than any other state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ..................................... The assholes should be forced to hire AMERICAN CITIZENS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ILLEGALS ARE HERE ILLEGALLY, KICK THEIR ASSES OUT OF THIS COUNTRY.

People who hire, use, employ, or otherwise help ILLEGALS are breaking the law. Anyone caught hiring, housing, feeding, or otherwise helping or assisting ILLEGALS, should be put in prison for life without the possibility of parole. That would solve our problem with ILLEGALS. If businesses want to stay in business, let them hire American workers, or they can fold and close the doors. I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens. If they want to hire ILLEGALS, then they should move their businesses to the country where the ILLEGALS are originally from.

I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens

Wouldn't it be nice if those stoop crops could be picked by movie extras from L.A. or software engineers from Silicone Valley? I can understand hatred of Mexicans without papers but the reality of Mexican labor in the US goes back 150 years and is not an issue in places where it has been part of the local economy since time out of mind.

What has happened in the past generation or so is that a small number of Mexicans have started showing up in places where they were not seen before, often in places with very little history of immigrants of any kind. That is where the fear and the bigotry are coming from, not Anglos whose families have lived in the Southwest for generations. America's bigotry and racism have their roots in the Appalachian ridge.

 

[Fishlore]

L.A. region is home to 1 million immigrants who are in the country illegally, analysis shows

Nearly 10% of the nation’s 11.1 million immigrants who are in the country illegally reside in Los Angeles and Orange counties, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.

The region is home to 1 million such immigrants, second only to the greater New York area, which has 1.2 million. Third on the list was Houston with 575,000. The city of Los Angeles alone has an estimated 375,000.

L.A. region is home to 1 million immigrants who are in the country illegally, analysis shows

 

[RodISHI]

MERCED, Calif. — Jeff Marchini and others in the Central Valley here bet their farms on the election of Donald J. Trump. His message of reducing regulations and taxes appealed to this Republican stronghold, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest bases of support in the state.

As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trump’s pledges were mostly just talk. But two weeks into his administration, Mr. Trump has signed executive orders that have upended the country’s immigration laws. Now farmers here are deeply alarmed about what the new policies could mean for their workers, most of whom are unauthorized, and the businesses that depend on them.
...
Mr. Trump’s immigration policies could transform California’s Central Valley, a stretch of lowlands that extends from Sacramento to Bakersfield. Approximately 70 percent of all farmworkers here are living in the United States illegally, according to researchers at University of California, Davis. The impact could reverberate throughout the valley’s precarious economy, where agriculture is by far the largest industry. With 6.5 million people living in the valley, the fields in this state bring in $35 billion a year and provide more of the nation’s food than any other state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ..................................... The assholes should be forced to hire AMERICAN CITIZENS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ILLEGALS ARE HERE ILLEGALLY, KICK THEIR ASSES OUT OF THIS COUNTRY.

People who hire, use, employ, or otherwise help ILLEGALS are breaking the law. Anyone caught hiring, housing, feeding, or otherwise helping or assisting ILLEGALS, should be put in prison for life without the possibility of parole. That would solve our problem with ILLEGALS. If businesses want to stay in business, let them hire American workers, or they can fold and close the doors. I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens. If they want to hire ILLEGALS, then they should move their businesses to the country where the ILLEGALS are originally from.

I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens

Wouldn't it be nice if those stoop crops could be picked by movie extras from L.A. or software engineers from Silicone Valley? I can understand hatred of Mexicans without papers but the reality of Mexican labor in the US goes back 150 years and is not an issue in places where it has been part of the local economy since time out of mind.

What has happened in the past generation or so is that a small number of Mexicans have started showing up in places where they were not seen before, often in places with very little history of immigrants of any kind. That is where the fear and the bigotry are coming from, not Anglos whose families have lived in the Southwest for generations. America's bigotry and racism have their roots in the Appalachian ridge.

You have a problem as California's policies for protecting the illegal class is not going to rule over the rest of the country at this point. Too many have personally seen or have experience and knowledge about the negative effects of illegal aliens.

People that have live in the border areas disagree with you and they have already documented and videoed what they have had to put up with.

You are calling those who are demanding lawful entrants only bigots because that is all you have to try to whine people into sympathizing with you.

 

[usmbguest5318]

"California Farmers Backed Trump, but Now Fear Losing Field Workers"

What is there to say? Be careful of what you ask for. You may get it.

As he looked out over a crew of workers bent over as they rifled through muddy leaves to find purple heads of radicchio, he said that as a businessman, Mr. Trump would know that farmers had invested millions of dollars into produce that is growing right now, and that not being able to pick and sell those crops would represent huge losses for the state economy. “I’m confident that he can grasp the magnitude and the anxiety of what’s happening now.”

He's more optimistic about Trump's capacity for grasping things than am I.

 

[Fishlore]

MERCED, Calif. — Jeff Marchini and others in the Central Valley here bet their farms on the election of Donald J. Trump. His message of reducing regulations and taxes appealed to this Republican stronghold, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest bases of support in the state.

As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trump’s pledges were mostly just talk. But two weeks into his administration, Mr. Trump has signed executive orders that have upended the country’s immigration laws. Now farmers here are deeply alarmed about what the new policies could mean for their workers, most of whom are unauthorized, and the businesses that depend on them.
...
Mr. Trump’s immigration policies could transform California’s Central Valley, a stretch of lowlands that extends from Sacramento to Bakersfield. Approximately 70 percent of all farmworkers here are living in the United States illegally, according to researchers at University of California, Davis. The impact could reverberate throughout the valley’s precarious economy, where agriculture is by far the largest industry. With 6.5 million people living in the valley, the fields in this state bring in $35 billion a year and provide more of the nation’s food than any other state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ..................................... The assholes should be forced to hire AMERICAN CITIZENS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ILLEGALS ARE HERE ILLEGALLY, KICK THEIR ASSES OUT OF THIS COUNTRY.

People who hire, use, employ, or otherwise help ILLEGALS are breaking the law. Anyone caught hiring, housing, feeding, or otherwise helping or assisting ILLEGALS, should be put in prison for life without the possibility of parole. That would solve our problem with ILLEGALS. If businesses want to stay in business, let them hire American workers, or they can fold and close the doors. I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens. If they want to hire ILLEGALS, then they should move their businesses to the country where the ILLEGALS are originally from.

I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens

Wouldn't it be nice if those stoop crops could be picked by movie extras from L.A. or software engineers from Silicone Valley? I can understand hatred of Mexicans without papers but the reality of Mexican labor in the US goes back 150 years and is not an issue in places where it has been part of the local economy since time out of mind.

What has happened in the past generation or so is that a small number of Mexicans have started showing up in places where they were not seen before, often in places with very little history of immigrants of any kind. That is where the fear and the bigotry are coming from, not Anglos whose families have lived in the Southwest for generations. America's bigotry and racism have their roots in the Appalachian ridge.

You have a problem as California's policies for protecting the illegal class is not going to rule over the rest of the country at this point. Too many have personally seen or have experience and knowledge about the negative effects of illegal aliens.

People that have live in the border areas disagree with you and they have already documented and videoed what they have had to put up with.

You are calling those who are demanding lawful entrants only bigots because that is all you have to try to whine people into sympathizing with you.

America is a big place. The OP references the Central Valley, a very large agricultural area where 70% of the farm workers are undocumented. Have you ever asked yourself why this situation has existed for generations? Why are the citizens who live there not outraged and alarmed as you are? Is there a possibility that not all Americans share your perspective?

 

[Wyatt earp]

From tomatoes to autos, the products we Americans buy come from international supply chains that serve a global market. Block or tax imported car parts from Mexico and the price of US vehicles at home and around the world goes up. In a tight, price conscious global market, that's a big hit. Send those Mexican farm workers home California agribusiness will collapse. Food prices will go up and Mexican farmers will get rich.

Trump has no experience in manufacturing or agribusiness. He runs motels and golf courses. Like his fans, he has a picture of world trade that became obsolete over thirty years ago.

Wages goes up, simple case of supply and demand..

 

[Toronado3800]

CA dems have been waging war on the central valley for yrs....locking up their water or dumping it into the ocean

A bit of a side track, but are you referencing the Feds forcing water to be left in the Colorado or is there more to it?

 

[RodISHI]

MERCED, Calif. — Jeff Marchini and others in the Central Valley here bet their farms on the election of Donald J. Trump. His message of reducing regulations and taxes appealed to this Republican stronghold, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest bases of support in the state.

As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trump’s pledges were mostly just talk. But two weeks into his administration, Mr. Trump has signed executive orders that have upended the country’s immigration laws. Now farmers here are deeply alarmed about what the new policies could mean for their workers, most of whom are unauthorized, and the businesses that depend on them.
...
Mr. Trump’s immigration policies could transform California’s Central Valley, a stretch of lowlands that extends from Sacramento to Bakersfield. Approximately 70 percent of all farmworkers here are living in the United States illegally, according to researchers at University of California, Davis. The impact could reverberate throughout the valley’s precarious economy, where agriculture is by far the largest industry. With 6.5 million people living in the valley, the fields in this state bring in $35 billion a year and provide more of the nation’s food than any other state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ..................................... The assholes should be forced to hire AMERICAN CITIZENS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ILLEGALS ARE HERE ILLEGALLY, KICK THEIR ASSES OUT OF THIS COUNTRY.

People who hire, use, employ, or otherwise help ILLEGALS are breaking the law. Anyone caught hiring, housing, feeding, or otherwise helping or assisting ILLEGALS, should be put in prison for life without the possibility of parole. That would solve our problem with ILLEGALS. If businesses want to stay in business, let them hire American workers, or they can fold and close the doors. I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens. If they want to hire ILLEGALS, then they should move their businesses to the country where the ILLEGALS are originally from.

I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens

Wouldn't it be nice if those stoop crops could be picked by movie extras from L.A. or software engineers from Silicone Valley? I can understand hatred of Mexicans without papers but the reality of Mexican labor in the US goes back 150 years and is not an issue in places where it has been part of the local economy since time out of mind.

What has happened in the past generation or so is that a small number of Mexicans have started showing up in places where they were not seen before, often in places with very little history of immigrants of any kind. That is where the fear and the bigotry are coming from, not Anglos whose families have lived in the Southwest for generations. America's bigotry and racism have their roots in the Appalachian ridge.

You have a problem as California's policies for protecting the illegal class is not going to rule over the rest of the country at this point. Too many have personally seen or have experience and knowledge about the negative effects of illegal aliens.

People that have live in the border areas disagree with you and they have already documented and videoed what they have had to put up with.

You are calling those who are demanding lawful entrants only bigots because that is all you have to try to whine people into sympathizing with you.

America is a big place. The OP references the Central Valley, a very large agricultural area where 70% of the farm workers are undocumented. Have you ever asked yourself why this situation has existed for generations? Why are the citizens who live there not outraged and alarmed as you are? Is there a possibility that not all Americans share your perspective?

I was born and raised in California so I am fairly familiar with what happened there concerning illegals and the trash that followed. There are different kinds of illegal aliens. The ones that came for the harvest were fed by a program dear and near friend for years to help prevent them from starving to death when they got stuck in So. Ca. after the harvest or could not connect to get to the locations that needed workers. My friends were from Mexico originally and their youngest son hated the Chicano gangs that came in as they were destroying the neighborhoods with their trashy ways.

I moved my children out of California and into another state where farmers also used illegal aliens. In a short twenty years they also trashed the cities with gangs and crime in the cities. Those farmers also claimed they needed those illegal workers but the fact was they were getting paid on several fronts with tax payer funded programs to hire them. They simply lied and shuffled paperwork to enrich themselves with money intended to assist the disadvantaged. How do I know these things happened I drove truck during the harvest for a few years and my husband could not get a job with any of those farmers as he did not qualify in order for those farmers that abused the programs to get that extra cash. over thirty years later we are once again in another state which is heavily agriculture based and I see illegal activities not only in the farming industry concerning these illegal aliens but also in areas where young American workers should have a chance to make a living for themselves; from equipment operators and bridge contractors to housekeeping and restaurants jobs are being stolen from young people and from companies that would only hire legal workers and American citizens first. We also spent several years traveling across the country from the west to the east and south. A few of those years we sought employment in areas we thought we may like to stay in for the winters. Those jobs were also being given to illegal aliens.

Like I said previously the Dems had their chance to set forth a program to expedite work permits for migrant workers that work on the harvest. They failed to use their ability to do that. Instead they were too busy cramming all sorts of other bullshit onto the people.

 

[leftwinger]

Give good illegal workers proper work visas' keep the good. Get rid of the bad. Seasonal. No welfare. Leave the kids and sick old relatives down south.

Or Rent convicts to the farms. Bus them 3AM, back by lunch. Chain gangs. Restitution.

Even HS students could do weekends?

It ain't rocket science. Unless u invent more automation equipment?

Pay more for your broccli & tomato, it is not a right.

 

[Fishlore]

MERCED, Calif. — Jeff Marchini and others in the Central Valley here bet their farms on the election of Donald J. Trump. His message of reducing regulations and taxes appealed to this Republican stronghold, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest bases of support in the state.

As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trump’s pledges were mostly just talk. But two weeks into his administration, Mr. Trump has signed executive orders that have upended the country’s immigration laws. Now farmers here are deeply alarmed about what the new policies could mean for their workers, most of whom are unauthorized, and the businesses that depend on them.
...
Mr. Trump’s immigration policies could transform California’s Central Valley, a stretch of lowlands that extends from Sacramento to Bakersfield. Approximately 70 percent of all farmworkers here are living in the United States illegally, according to researchers at University of California, Davis. The impact could reverberate throughout the valley’s precarious economy, where agriculture is by far the largest industry. With 6.5 million people living in the valley, the fields in this state bring in $35 billion a year and provide more of the nation’s food than any other state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ..................................... The assholes should be forced to hire AMERICAN CITIZENS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ILLEGALS ARE HERE ILLEGALLY, KICK THEIR ASSES OUT OF THIS COUNTRY.

People who hire, use, employ, or otherwise help ILLEGALS are breaking the law. Anyone caught hiring, housing, feeding, or otherwise helping or assisting ILLEGALS, should be put in prison for life without the possibility of parole. That would solve our problem with ILLEGALS. If businesses want to stay in business, let them hire American workers, or they can fold and close the doors. I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens. If they want to hire ILLEGALS, then they should move their businesses to the country where the ILLEGALS are originally from.

I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens

Wouldn't it be nice if those stoop crops could be picked by movie extras from L.A. or software engineers from Silicone Valley? I can understand hatred of Mexicans without papers but the reality of Mexican labor in the US goes back 150 years and is not an issue in places where it has been part of the local economy since time out of mind.

What has happened in the past generation or so is that a small number of Mexicans have started showing up in places where they were not seen before, often in places with very little history of immigrants of any kind. That is where the fear and the bigotry are coming from, not Anglos whose families have lived in the Southwest for generations. America's bigotry and racism have their roots in the Appalachian ridge.

You have a problem as California's policies for protecting the illegal class is not going to rule over the rest of the country at this point. Too many have personally seen or have experience and knowledge about the negative effects of illegal aliens.

People that have live in the border areas disagree with you and they have already documented and videoed what they have had to put up with.

You are calling those who are demanding lawful entrants only bigots because that is all you have to try to whine people into sympathizing with you.

America is a big place. The OP references the Central Valley, a very large agricultural area where 70% of the farm workers are undocumented. Have you ever asked yourself why this situation has existed for generations? Why are the citizens who live there not outraged and alarmed as you are? Is there a possibility that not all Americans share your perspective?

I was born and raised in California so I am fairly familiar with what happened there concerning illegals and the trash that followed. There are different kinds of illegal aliens. The ones that came for the harvest were fed by a program dear and near friend for years to help prevent them from starving to death when they got stuck in So. Ca. after the harvest or could not connect to get to the locations that needed workers. My friends were from Mexico originally and their youngest son hated the Chicano gangs that came in as they were destroying the neighborhoods with their trashy ways.

I moved my children out of California and into another state where farmers also used illegal aliens. In a short twenty years they also trashed the cities with gangs and crime in the cities. Those farmers also claimed they needed those illegal workers but the fact was they were getting paid on several fronts with tax payer funded programs to hire them. They simply lied and shuffled paperwork to enrich themselves with money intended to assist the disadvantaged. How do I know these things happened I drove truck during the harvest for a few years and my husband could not get a job with any of those farmers as he did not qualify in order for those farmers that abused the programs to get that extra cash. over thirty years later we are once again in another state which is heavily agriculture based and I see illegal activities not only in the farming industry concerning these illegal aliens but also in areas where young American workers should have a chance to make a living for themselves; from equipment operators and bridge contractors to housekeeping and restaurants jobs are being stolen from young people and from companies that would only hire legal workers and American citizens first. We also spent several years traveling across the country from the west to the east and south. A few of those years we sought employment in areas we thought we may like to stay in for the winters. Those jobs were also being given to illegal aliens.

Like I said previously the Dems had their chance to set forth a program to expedite work permits for migrant workers that work on the harvest. They failed to use their ability to do that. Instead they were too busy cramming all sorts of other bullshit onto the people.

I have had long-standing personal experience with federal programs for the legal hiring of foreign workers for agriculture. Our orchards have employed Jamaican apple pickers every fall for over twenty years. The Dept. of Agriculture has been running the operation far longer than that. To my south, tobacco growers in the Connecticut River valley have been using contract labor from Puerto Rico even longer. These programs run smoothly nation-wide. They require us to pay the "prevailing wage" as well as to provide housing, kitchen facilities and workman's comp. The fact that these programs have been used for so long is a good sign that the motive is not cheap labor -- those Jamaicans cost a lot more than high school kids -- but reliable seasonal help at harvest time when it is so critical. If you think you can get Americans to do this work, you have never talked to one of us who has actually tried.

 

[rdean]

Same thing that actually happened in Georgia a few years back. Bummer for them.

Not just Georgia, but a bunch of Republican states.

Alabama Illegal Immigrant Crackdown Destroys Farm Business

The worker shortage facing America's farmers

Farmworkers on Edge After Trump Elected President - Modern Farmer

Immigrant Dairy Workers Changing Rural Kansas – Daily Yonder

Trump's minions think he will help find them jobs and lower prices.

When it fact, the cost of everything will skyrocket and without education (something Trump NEVER talks about), they will never get a decent job. Trump's minions are so screwed.

Hope they enjoy the back door body slam.

 

[Sonny Clark]

GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ..................................... The assholes should be forced to hire AMERICAN CITIZENS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ILLEGALS ARE HERE ILLEGALLY, KICK THEIR ASSES OUT OF THIS COUNTRY.

People who hire, use, employ, or otherwise help ILLEGALS are breaking the law. Anyone caught hiring, housing, feeding, or otherwise helping or assisting ILLEGALS, should be put in prison for life without the possibility of parole. That would solve our problem with ILLEGALS. If businesses want to stay in business, let them hire American workers, or they can fold and close the doors. I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens. If they want to hire ILLEGALS, then they should move their businesses to the country where the ILLEGALS are originally from.

I'm sick and tire of anti-America business owners, that are too damn greedy and selfish to hire U.S. citizens

Wouldn't it be nice if those stoop crops could be picked by movie extras from L.A. or software engineers from Silicone Valley? I can understand hatred of Mexicans without papers but the reality of Mexican labor in the US goes back 150 years and is not an issue in places where it has been part of the local economy since time out of mind.

What has happened in the past generation or so is that a small number of Mexicans have started showing up in places where they were not seen before, often in places with very little history of immigrants of any kind. That is where the fear and the bigotry are coming from, not Anglos whose families have lived in the Southwest for generations. America's bigotry and racism have their roots in the Appalachian ridge.

You have a problem as California's policies for protecting the illegal class is not going to rule over the rest of the country at this point. Too many have personally seen or have experience and knowledge about the negative effects of illegal aliens.

People that have live in the border areas disagree with you and they have already documented and videoed what they have had to put up with.

You are calling those who are demanding lawful entrants only bigots because that is all you have to try to whine people into sympathizing with you.

America is a big place. The OP references the Central Valley, a very large agricultural area where 70% of the farm workers are undocumented. Have you ever asked yourself why this situation has existed for generations? Why are the citizens who live there not outraged and alarmed as you are? Is there a possibility that not all Americans share your perspective?

I was born and raised in California so I am fairly familiar with what happened there concerning illegals and the trash that followed. There are different kinds of illegal aliens. The ones that came for the harvest were fed by a program dear and near friend for years to help prevent them from starving to death when they got stuck in So. Ca. after the harvest or could not connect to get to the locations that needed workers. My friends were from Mexico originally and their youngest son hated the Chicano gangs that came in as they were destroying the neighborhoods with their trashy ways.

I moved my children out of California and into another state where farmers also used illegal aliens. In a short twenty years they also trashed the cities with gangs and crime in the cities. Those farmers also claimed they needed those illegal workers but the fact was they were getting paid on several fronts with tax payer funded programs to hire them. They simply lied and shuffled paperwork to enrich themselves with money intended to assist the disadvantaged. How do I know these things happened I drove truck during the harvest for a few years and my husband could not get a job with any of those farmers as he did not qualify in order for those farmers that abused the programs to get that extra cash. over thirty years later we are once again in another state which is heavily agriculture based and I see illegal activities not only in the farming industry concerning these illegal aliens but also in areas where young American workers should have a chance to make a living for themselves; from equipment operators and bridge contractors to housekeeping and restaurants jobs are being stolen from young people and from companies that would only hire legal workers and American citizens first. We also spent several years traveling across the country from the west to the east and south. A few of those years we sought employment in areas we thought we may like to stay in for the winters. Those jobs were also being given to illegal aliens.

Like I said previously the Dems had their chance to set forth a program to expedite work permits for migrant workers that work on the harvest. They failed to use their ability to do that. Instead they were too busy cramming all sorts of other bullshit onto the people.

I have had long-standing personal experience with federal programs for the legal hiring of foreign workers for agriculture. Our orchards have employed Jamaican apple pickers every fall for over twenty years. The Dept. of Agriculture has been running the operation far longer than that. To my south, tobacco growers in the Connecticut River valley have been using contract labor from Puerto Rico even longer. These programs run smoothly nation-wide. They require us to pay the "prevailing wage" as well as to provide housing, kitchen facilities and workman's comp. The fact that these programs have been used for so long is a good sign that the motive is not cheap labor -- those Jamaicans cost a lot more than high school kids -- but reliable seasonal help at harvest time when it is so critical. If you think you can get Americans to do this work, you have never talked to one of us who has actually tried.

Who does "imported labor" actually help in the long run? Answer: It helps the "imported labor". We have a very large workforce in America, why not put Americans to work, producing what America uses and consumes? In other words, why place our workers in unemployment lines, enroll them in government assistance programs, and add to the number of "non-self-supporting members of society, while we allow "imported labor" to take our jobs?

Unemployment cost taxpayers plenty. Unemployment is a drain on our economy, a drain on tax dollars that could be used for infrastructure and other much needed issues, and promotes poverty and homelessness. There are no positives to importing labor. Our "economic killers" are imported labor, illegal immigrant labor, and our unfair, unjust, and one-sided foreign trade agreements and policies. Over the past 50 plus years, we've closed our plants and factories in favor of supporting foreign economies. And, along with that anti-America practice, we continue to allow imported labor and illegal immigrant labor to replace American workers, adding insult to injury.

"IF" imported labor weren't cheaper, then why do you think so many businesses hire imported labor? I worked for the U.S.D.A. for 10 years, inspecting fresh fruits and vegetables all across this country. I have heard the conversations between farmers, and those conversations were bragging about cheap illegal immigrant labor, and how easy it was to cheat them and take unfair advantage of them. Those farmers, growers, made a ton of money by using illegal immigrant labor as opposed to hiring American workers. They're too damn cheap to pay what an American worker would have to have in order to do the work. If they can't get the work done for half price, then they scream about not making any money and possibly going out of business. And, they live in mansions, some have their own private plane parked behind their mansion, and drive expensive vehicles. I have seen all of this with my own eyes.

You can not justify hiring imported labor, nor illegal immigrant labor, when American workers are idle, unemployed, and surviving off of unemployment checks and government assistance programs. And, we, the taxpayers, are footing the bill for all of it.