“The fruits of our labor absurdity”

Green Bluff, Wash., Hidden Acres Farm (Source: Flickr.com Creative Commons License)

“What part of illegal don’t you understand?!”

What part of legal do you understand?

Immigration law is more complicated than tax law, at least a handful of lawyers have told me. And there are clearly no bumper sticker solutions to reform.

Take the hotly debated guest-worker programs, for example, which allow both high and low-skilled foreigners to work in the U.S. temporarily. Seattle Times staff columnist Danny Westneat described in a compelling news-editorial earlier this week that farm jobs in America are going unfilled to such a degree that Gebbers Farms in Brewster (a huge apple and cherry orchard in Okanogan County, Wash.) has turned to flying in hundreds of workers from Jamaica.

Jamaica?!

It’s a direct result of get-tough-on-illegal immigration policies. A federal investigation into the farm’s operations that began late last year forced the business to lay off hundreds of its Mexican workers, who couldn’t prove they were in the U.S. legally. To replace their depleted work force, the farm has posted help-wanted ads for 1,280 jobs picking fruit. Westneat writes:

Must be able to lift 60 pounds, climb a ladder while carrying 40 pounds and endure “wet orchards in temperatures from 30 to 100 degrees.

Pay: At least $9.19 an hour. But because workers are paid by how much they pick, the average last year was $16.48 an hour for picking cherries and $12.19 an hour for apples, according to the state.

I don’t know how many U.S. citizens applied — the state wouldn’t say and the farm isn’t talking. Obviously, not many. Because the first plane load of 50 Jamaican farm workers shipped out from Kingston to the Okanogan earlier this month.

Up to 300 Jamaicans are expected, to be paid the same rates as stated above. In all, this one farm has applied to bring in more than a thousand temporary foreign workers.

Before a farm can use this agricultural guest-worker program, called H-2A, it has to prove there aren’t “able, willing, and qualified United States workers available,” says the U.S. Department of Labor website.

Able and qualified, I’m guessing that’s no problem. But willing?

In this recession, are Americans not willing to work for this kind of pay in a beautiful state like Washington? That is surprising. Or do they not even exist? Some experts argue that’s why labor markets should dictate America’s immigration quotas for guest-worker programs, rather than congressionally-mandated numbers. (Open borders for economic purposes, however, is fairly extremist argument and is likely to depress wages, opponents say.)

That said, this Washington orchard is a stunning example of the need to increase the availability and ease of guest worker programs in the U.S., because the need is clearly there. Do we really need to fly in workers from Jamaica while we simultaneously deport (hard-working!) people from Mexico and other central and Latin American countries? It’s an unfortunate case because in this Washington town, the workers made up nearly a quarter of the town’s population and had been living and working there for years. I can’t imagine what the economic consequences have been for the community. (For a very similar story, see Postville.)

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AP: Phone guides border crossers to water

AP: Phone guides border crossers to water | Garden City Telegram Online.

The above article published in Tuesday’s Telegram is about software being designed by university researchers to direct Mexican-U.S. border crossers to water stations via inexpensive, GPS-enabled cell phones. The argument against their efforts — in addition to their use of taxpayer dollars for their work — is that they’re aiding and abetting criminals:

Immigration hardliners argue the activists are aiding illegal entry to the United States, a felony. Even migrants and their sympathizers question whether the device will make the treacherous journeys easier.

The designers, who have raised $15,000 from a (University of California at San Diego) grant and an art festival award, hope to hand out phones for free in Mexico. The phones sell used for about $30 apiece. It costs nothing to add the GPS software.

Distribution would be tightly controlled by migrant shelters and advocacy groups to keep them away from anti-illegal immigration activists. The migrants would need passwords to use them.

Critics of illegal immigration say the device is misguided, at best.

“If it’s not a crime, it’s very close to committing a crime,” said Peter Nunez, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego. “Whether this constitutes aiding and abetting would depend on the details, but it certainly puts you in the discussion.”

My first reaction to this is with pretty mixed feelings … though my gut tells me it shouldn’t be a crime to save people’s lives! People are always looking for a way to be righteously indignant — especially with their taxpayer dollars — though what should upset them more is that the situation is so dire for some families there are parents willing to risk their family’s lives to make minimum wage and educate their children north of the border. Think of the human costs: According to an August 2006 government report, border crossing deaths have doubled over the last decade, from a few hundred to over 500 per year. If a few tens of thousands of dollars can help someone find water when they are dying of dehydration, why is their such outrage when there should be commendation?! Feel free to post your thoughts below.

Brett Stalbaum, University of California-San Diego Lecturer with Security of Employment, right, checks the compass on his cell phone application that he and Micha Cardenas, also a UCSD lecturer in visual arts, designed to assist border crossers with finding water on Dec. 14, 2009 in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

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Busing ‘em to ‘nowhere’

The U.S. Border Patrol has hit on an idea to discourage undocumented immigrants from entering southern Arizona — the nation’s busiest illegal border crossing — by putting them on a bus and sending them 570 miles away to the remote port of entry between Presidio, Texas, and Ojinaga, Mexico, the least trafficked crossing along the 2,000 miles border. 

Unfortunately, several immigrants interviewed for this NPR story I heard this morning told the reporter(s) they had every intention of trying to cross into Arizona again. 

Listen to the story at npr.org and post your comments below.

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