These U.S. industries can't work without illegal immigrants

[TexasBushwhacker]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/illegal-immigrants-us-economy-farm-workers-taxes/

"Their representation in particular industries is even more pronounced, and the Department of Agriculture estimates that about half of the nation's farmworkers are unauthorized, while 15 percent of those in construction lack papers – more than the share of legal immigrants in either industry."

Let me paraphrase this into something even the dumbest deplorable can understand.

IF YOU EAT, YOU SUPPORT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.

[brush]

1. They still won't get it. They'll blame Hillory and O for crops going unpicked in the field.

[Farmer-Rick]

2. Well, somebody is hiring all those illegal immigrants. Why aren't they held accountable?

And the illegal employers are probobly paying them less than they are worth.

So, if we fine and jail the illegal employers, then we wouldn't have a problem. AND we wouldn't have to worry about the undocumented immigrant, walls, border patrols, caravans or chain migration (like the first nude lady) because 80% of them are working and obviously want to work. So, if illegal employers stop hiring them, then they will go other places to find work.

But RepubliCONS, like Trump industries, want their cake and eat it too. They want to hire illegally but then complain about the workers.

I was a farmer and made a decent living AND I never hired illegally...ever. It is very easy to tell if you are hiring illegally or not through E-Verify. Yes, unscrupulous employers can get around it by hiring so called sub-contractors. But they would hire illegally anyway. If there was jail time and large fines for hiring illegally, you can bet they would be more careful.

[TexasBushwhacker]

6. Undoubtedly, but my point is that we can't do without those workers

While you may have been able to hire only documented workers, some farmers have ended up with crops rotting in the fields when there's been a big crack down at the border. There was NO ONE to harvest their crops, legal or otherwise. A big part of the reason is the seasonal nature of the work. How much would a farmer have to pay during harvest season to get American citizens to want to do the work? I'm not sure any would be able to and I KNOW that we aren't prepared to start paying $5 a pound for tomatoes. In California, farm workers who are paid by how much they pick often earn $12 to $14 an hour for the time they get to work. But they don't get to do that year round, or even for 6 months. They have to move to where the work is, often every few weeks. Someone who makes a living harvesting our food doesn't get to stay in one place, something American citizens have come to expect. Immigrants, of any status, do the work citizens don't want to do. This isn't just an issue in the US. Farmers in England are wondering who will pick their crops after Brexit.

[Farmer-Rick]

9. I hired Americans and paid them $10 an hour or more

They worked almost year round because of green houses but we did have a 60 day slow down around Thanksgiving to mid January (less than 10 hr of sunlight can NOT grow food very well). People worked part time or took vacation and off time or a combination of all 3. If you pay people enough they will do the job for you. They will stay and raise families and bring their experience and expertise to the job.

The problem is you don't want to pay REAL prices for your food. If we actually paid people a living wage to harvest our food the price of food would skyrocket. I sold organic before it was mass produced and I could charge a pretty penny for it. But I still could not keep up with demand even though I hired 5 people....also my small farm could not physically hold anymore.

But instead of subsidizing our farmers so they can produce rich organic foods and lovely healthy animals for the entire country, we subsidized huge corporations and uber rich idiots and use underpaid illegal workers, poisons and dangerous chemicals on foods and animals, all the while destroying our healthy environment. You see how we Americans have made a choice?

We have made the choice to underpay farm labor so much so that we must import socially disadvantaged people from other countries who are willing to be paid so little it hardly impacts the cost of food. This in turn destroys any hope of unionized farm labor and keeps farm labor migrating from farm to farm to avoid the law and to find more work.

But we Americans have chosen to subsidize other things like gas and oil, tax cuts for churches, and the huge giant monopolizing grain industry. (Why do farmers pay taxes on their land? most churches don't.) But the food we feed our children and shove into our mouths to make us the most obese society in the world, that we turn over to socially disadvantage people from other countries. Well, it's a plan of some sorts. Not a smart or good plan but a sort of "free" market for the real farmer and socialism for for the uber rich kind of plan.

Yes, we need the migrant farm worker because our system is crap. And it looks like England will be following in our crappy system too. Here's to your next pesticide drenched and round up covered meal harvested by underpaid migrants. May it not kill you.

[central scrutinizer]

3. Let's say grace

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[Ron Obvious]

4. Gosh. Wouldn't want to force these poor industries to have to raise wages

Whenever somebody says "we can't find Americans to do these jobs", remember to always append "at the wages and working conditions offered".

This used to be obvious to the Democratic party when they still stood for supporting unions and the working classes.

[pintobean]

5. Lip service is all we ever get anymore.

[TexasBushwhacker]

7. It's not just about wages though

The nature of being a harvest worker is that you have to move to wear the work is, often every few weeks. How many American citizens are willing to do that, at any wage? And before you discuss raising the wages, how much are you willing to pay for your food? Double? Triple? Imagine the impact on the restaurant industry.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. I live in chicken country and Tyson and others tried to see if

raising the wage would intice the poor in this state to gut and pluck chickens. Got a few takers, but most didn't stay for long.