Local farmers say a combination of tight immigration controls
and the lure of less labor-intensive jobs has created one of the
worst migrant farm worker shortages in years, and is threatening
California’s position as the world’s biggest food supplier.
Hollister – Local farmers say a combination of tight immigration controls and the lure of less labor-intensive jobs has created one of the worst migrant farm worker shortages in years, and is threatening California’s position as the world’s biggest food supplier.
Farmers believe federal programs need to be put in place in order to ease the shortages by making sure that those who want to work in the United States are allowed to get visas. Without such legislation, labor shortages will get worse, they say.
While local row crop farmer Joe Tonascia, who runs Tonascia Farms, was able to harvest all of his crops this year, he foresees problems in the future.
“There is definitely a shortage coming,” he said. “For some reason people don’t like doing physical work, so we are more reliant on people from across the border.”
Tonascia believes immigrants are more likely to take other, less labor-intensive jobs at fast food joints, restaurants and hotels – which offer similar wages for much easier work.
“You can’t blame them for taking other jobs, but you can’t pay them any more,” he said. “You have to look at more mechanical stuff and try to find ways to get better yields from each acre.”
Raising wages is nearly impossible for Tonascia and other farmers who have to compete in a global marketplace where profit margins are slim and other countries have less restrictive labor laws that enable them to hire workers at far lower wages, he said.
With the Department of Homeland Security regularly sweeping big farms in the San Joaquin and Imperial valleys, laborers critical to California’s farms are being sent home and intimidated out of heading north for work.
San Benito County apple grower Ken Perry has also had problems securing workers this year.
“This has to be the worst year I’ve ever seen,” he said. “A lot of it is that the people are being grabbed by the construction industry because they pay more.”
Perry has tried raising wages, but it hasn’t attracted more laborers. In fact, it has created more problems.
“As you raise the wages, they want to work fewer hours,” he said. “They only want so much money.”
While the shortage is already making it tough for farmers up and down the state who rely on the low-cost laborers to harvest their crops, without federal legislation to ease the shortage they say it’s going to get worse. Luawanna Hallstrom, who farms in San Diego and is co-chairwoman of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, said that if workers can’t get to the fields, the fields will go to them.
“We’ve got a huge crisis on our hands,” Hallstrom said. “People think that if we just close the borders, we won’t have any problems, but the food that is put on the plates of Americans every day is from labor outsourced to people from outside this country. People need to understand that the crops will be harvested by that labor whether it happens in this country or another country.”
Hallstrom, who is also affiliated with the California Farm Bureau, said California and Arizona are about 37,000 workers short for the upcoming winter vegetable harvest and the state’s citrus growers are in similar straits. There are a number of bills circulating on Capitol Hill, but getting them passed since Sept. 11 has proved impossible.
According to the Associated Press, many of the efforts are led by Republicans. GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona propose letting immigrant workers enter the country for two years, followed by a one-year break. Workers could repeat that pattern two more times, but then have to return home.
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., back legislation that would let illegal aliens work in the U.S. for up to six years. After that, they would have to be on track to obtaining legal residency or leave. Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel has proposed giving undocumented workers legal status if they pass criminal background checks, have lived in the U.S. for at least five years, have paid taxes, can demonstrate a knowledge of English and pay a $2,000 fine.
But even with the support of President George W. Bush, who has said he wants to crack down on illegal immigration but give work visas to people who already have jobs, there are serious doubts that any legislation will get passed in an election year.
Perry is keeping his eye on Bush and hoping new laws will help solve the labor shortage problem.
“(The government) needs to come up with a program that works,” he said. “Let the (migrant laborers) come and work and let them go back.”
Hallstrom said relief will come only when people understand that a closed border is against the country’s best interests.
“This is very complicated. There are national security issues and an economy that depends on this labor,” she said. “We need to stop looking at this as a border control issue and face the reality of the situation. When people are willing to do that we will find a solution that makes sense we can then be responsible for who’s in this country and why.”
Staff Writer Matt King contributed to this report.
Brett Rowland covers agriculture for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
