It's the next immigration fight: Should illegal aliens working in agriculture be granted amnesty, and should the U.S. expand its existing guest-worker program to get new agriculture workers?
Expect that fight to begin as Congress takes up the gigantic farm bill.
But a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies says there's just no need for new workers. In short, the report says judging by economic indicators such as wages, plantings of labor-intensive crops and labor costs as a percentage of prices, there's no shortage of workers.
The report argues: "Mechanization could offset higher labor costs. After the 'Bracero' Mexican guest-worker program ended in the mid-1960s, farm worker wages rose 40 percent, but consumer prices rose relatively little because the mechanization of some crops dramatically increased productivity."
That drew a stern rebuke from the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, which called it a "superficial" study.
"Those living in the real world of agriculture know well the bite of the labor crisis," the coalition says. The group notes "a South Texas grower who lost $250,000 in income when a 35-acre cabbage field had to be abandoned," pear growers in northern California who lost a quarter of their 2006 crop, and Michigan farmers who lost a million pounds of asparagus this spring.
About the only area of agreement between the two is that the government will have to pitch in to help with mechanization. And that means the taxpayers will be on the hook.
— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times
Comments (1)
AMNESTY CONSIDERATIONS
It is very economically advantageous to use cheap Mexican seasonal agricultural guest workers; it is very socially and economically disadvantageous to let them stay after the crop is harvested.
When seasonal guest workers do return to Mexico at end of the growing season, they return with money and experience, to contribute to the development of Mexico; and each year, when a new group of seasonal guest workers comes, they are eager to work for the same low non-citizen wages.
And, when they return to Mexico at end of the growing season, they do not drive down the wages of American workers, by competing for jobs in landscaping, construction, sanitation, and housekeeping; and they do not use American governmental social services.
When seasonal guest workers come from all of the countries of Latin America, on a strict quota system, then every country benefits, not Mexico exclusively; and when they are well treated, the experience is mutually positive.
Mexico is land rich in natural resources; what makes it so socially and economically retarded are its Mexican People; and wherever they immigrate they bring their deplorable civilization with them. It is so inferior than none of them want to return to it.
The Mexican dream of regaining political control over Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California is America's worst nightmare. Starting at all of the border towns, and spreading northward throughout America, like cancers, are thousands of deplorable Mexican neighborhoods.
With each deportation America looks, smells, and sounds less like socially and economically deplorable Mexico. America is presently occupied by 12-15 million Mexicans.
With the deportation of all the illegal immigrants, students will again be able to get good paying summer jobs, to learn responsibility and earn their way through college; blue-collar wages will rise; border towns will not be slums; Spanish will not be a second language; crime will go down; hospitals and prisons will not be overcrowded.
When all of the illegal aliens are deported, the Neo-Lib Democrats and Neo-Con Republicans will lose millions of political supporters, and the vast donations that they receive from the Mexican Lobby; and, those American businesses that exploit cheap Mexican labor will lose their illegal competitive advantages.
No advanced civilization in the World can coexist side by side with a retarded civilization, without a great wall or fence, strict guest labor laws, and armed border guards.
Posted by Jeugenen | December 1, 2007 9:50 PM