Did you read this??? More and more illegals are being STOPPED!!?

Question

LAKEPORT, Calif. — The pear growers here in Lake County waited decades for a crop of shapely fruit like the one that adorned their orchards last month.

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Max Whittaker for The New York Times
Pears rotted on the ground of Nick Ivicevich’s orchard. He lost about 1.8 million pounds of them.
“I felt like I went to heaven,” said Nick Ivicevich, recalling the perfection of his most abundant crop in 45 years of tending trees.

Now harvest time has passed and tons of pears have ripened to mush on their branches, while the ground of Mr. Ivicevich’s orchard reeks with rotting fruit. He and other growers in Lake County, about 90 miles north of San Francisco, could not find enough pickers.

Stepped-up border enforcement kept many illegal Mexican migrant workers out of California this year, farmers and labor contractors said, putting new strains on the state’s shrinking seasonal farm labor force.

Labor shortages have also been reported by apple growers in Washington and upstate New York. Growers have gone from frustrated to furious with Congress, which has all but given up on passing legislation this year to create an agricultural guest-worker program.

Answer 1

There's an easy way to fix THAT problem, sell the pears directly off the trees. Put an ad in the paper that says 'pick your own pears! 2lb. for a buck! Free tractor rides! Bring the kids!' I guarantee that orchard would be stripped clean. People gotta think 'outside the box' on all this stuff....there's more than one way to skin a rat, and farmers can be pretty damn ingenious if they put their minds to...they had to in the past, so they've got lots of practice at it.

Part of the problem is, we've gotten 'stuck on Safeway'. We don't go to the apple tree anymore, we go to the supermarket. We don't plant potatoes on our own, we go to the supermarket. We don't can our own stew, we buy 3 for a dollar at the supermarket.

We've 'modernized' ourselves into the corner. While I don't advocate anyone taking down a steer in their front yard, that's kind of a hard thing to see, it sure wouldn't hurt to skip the mega-mart and go to the local butcher shop...while there still are some...local businesses support the local economy, national mega-chains support other countries and their shareholders...

Answer 2

That is great. There should be a orderly way to immigration. Otherwise we see what happens--the results have hurt many things and people.

-the facts below

I will speak for many farmers-the 80% who don't want illegals here. Your food is covered-most farmers do not support the big corp farms who use illegal migrant workers.

less than 10 percent by Mexico (10%pickers-less10% other farm related)--the other 90% of the farms say your welcome.



"Phillip Martin, an economist at the University of California, Davis, has demolished the argument that a crackdown on illegals would ruin it, or be a hardship to consumers. Most farming — livestock, grains, etc. — doesn't heavily rely on hired workers. Only about 20 percent of the farm sector does, chiefly those areas involving fresh fruit and vegetables.

The average "consumer unit" in the U.S. spends $7 a week on fresh fruit and vegetables, less than is spent on alcohol, according to Martin. On a $1 head of lettuce, the farm worker gets about 6 or 7 cents, roughly 1/15th of the retail price. Even a big run-up in the cost of labor can't hit the consumer very hard.

Martin recalls that the end of the bracero guest-worker program in the mid-1960s caused a one-year 40 percent wage increase for the United Farm Workers Union. A similar wage increase for legal farm workers today would work out to about a 10-dollar-a-year increase in the average family's bill for fruit and vegetables. Another thing happened with the end of the bracero program: The processed-tomato industry, which was heavily dependent on guest workers and was supposed to be devastated by their absence, learned how to mechanize and became more productive."


If every illegal alien here today currently left America, the immediate economic impact would be insignificant and over the long haul, the impact would likely be negligible.

Got it!
If cost go up-for greedy reasons-they will come down-or they go under. No problem for us at all!


Of course those who use them and have money are in the Media limelight. But the truth is they can use legal migrants and legal citizens --and survive. Again American Farmers (80%) do not approve of the big Corp Farms-mainly on border and California who are abusing the system. Let them rot there -they will claim a tax lost--but their ways would have to change in a year or two.
Nice post-no I wouldn't have to pay more-or anyone else for long!

Answer 3

There is an UNLIMITED visa program for seasonal workers. Agribusiness says 'it is too complex', but they didn't propose to streamline it. The propose a deal to make people work three years in agriculture than be able to apply to be residents and burden our schools and healthcare further while agriculture brings in a new wave for the next three years, etc. Their problem, as they say themselves, is that their once steady flow of ag workers are now leaving for more stable jobs that can support an apartment, etc year round. It is the seasonal nature of the job, not the difficulty, that causes the issues.

So they should hire seasonal workers, not bribe them with our schools and health care.

Answer 4

I'd have gone to help. I'm sure many others would also. I'd have done it for free even. (ok...send me home with some pears...)

What we need to do as a country is support the effort. There are a ton of huge farms here. Maybe I should go and find out. Considering we're about 20 miles north of the border....

Answer 5

OK you think like a mule,if you need help then ,help them get the right papers,every one can come just do it the right way,do you know how many tax dollars we spend to keep them here and help them they get papers that are not good and then see what they do, stop taking advantage of them for you own gain that is what you are doing,they want to live here then stop hurting them,you pay then dirt and they work their *** off for you, and you don't have the right to say a word.speak English and learn our ways and help then don't bring them here to be slaves and that id what has happen,do you get it yet

Answer 6

1.who voted for the evil Republicans?
2. and didn't vote for democrats?
this is the cause of many a problem. our country has gone to hell in a hand basket. the Republicans have the make us rich well save you taxes feed the war/ starve the poor
and greed and laziness are the rule its working.
don't worry pretty soon well be a second world county and there will be none wanting to come and no need.
read a book set in Victorian times the difference between classes.
do nothing and make it come true again.
republicans want two classes. Dem's want three or more.

Answer 7

First of all, I am 35 years old and I will speak any way that I wish. I don't recall asking your opinion about the joke that we wrote. I warned people before they read it, "if you don't have a sense of humor, don't read it." Remember? You obviously don't have a sense of humor. It was a joke, if you don't like it...too bad. Here's how it works: you respect me, I will respect you. I give what I get.
And...since you know nothing about me but keep telling me about myself, I am very happy. I have anything that anyone could want. So, when you keep saying that I am not a happy person, you couldn't be more wrong. I bet you didn't know that you could be wrong, did you?

Answer 8

They should have gotten out there and picked them theirselves with family and friends if they wanted them off so bad. The problem is that even the Mexicans are wanting better jobs than picking fruit so they better find another way to handle it.

Answer 9

This Is A Good Thing

Answer 10

I agree with the first four answers. They said it all.