2005- immigration enforcement is ended after Western Growers Association (lobby) protest

[underpants]

By MIRIAM JORDAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 11, 2005; Page A1


YUMA, Ariz. -- Shortly before Thanksgiving last year, Tom Nassif did
something few law-abiding citizens would ever think to do: He called the
U.S. Border Patrol here and suggested agents stop manning a highway
checkpoint intended to keep illegal immigrants out of the country.


The checkpoint -- complete with drug-sniffing dogs -- was meant to stop the
flow of illegal immigrants who might have slipped through the regular
border controls. But it was also ensnaring busloads of undocumented workers
who are critical to the task of picking lettuce and other vegetables during
the winter growing season here. Border patrol Public Information Officer
Joseph Brigman says he told Mr. Nassif that "we aren't targeting
fieldworkers; we're conducting normal operations."

Mr. Nassif, head of Irvine, Calif.-based Western Growers, an association of
3,000 farmers who grow, pack and ship about half the nation's fresh
produce, didn't buy that. The next day, he issued a public protest saying
the ill-timed action was provoking an "acute shortage of labor" that
threatened the harvest, which was just getting under way, and the economy
of Arizona's richest agricultural region. Calling for the checkpoint to be
moved, Mr. Nassif demanded a "reasonable application of enforcement now and
in the future."


Shortly after Western Growers issued the public protest in late November,
the checkpoint on I-8 was closed. Mr. Brigman denies that it had anything
to do with the complaint. The checkpoint, he says, has been reopened, on
and off, during the winter, adding: "Any modifications are determined by
field intelligence."

http://www.mail-archive.com/[e-mail]/msg06546.html

A Washington Post article (same day) with much of the same language
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/21/AR2005112101357.html

The WGA's homepage
http://www.wga.com/

[jwirr]

1. The best boycott to stop this nonsense for immigrant workers to

avoid Arizona completely and for citizen who are stopped to sue the Arizona government over harassment. Let the good old boys do their own labor.