After Trump’s immigration order, anxiety grows in Florida’s vegetable fields

Trump has made illegal immigrants nervous with his deportation talk and what many believe is going to be actions. And a prominent Farmer claims that pickers can make $15-20 an hour, they still can't get Americans interested in picking produce for a living. (I have never heard that kind of $ for pickers) So they need the illegals help.

The rumors are flying in the fields about deportations. The immigrants are in fear to go to clinics because they are afraid of being caught. ICE is saying that the busts that they have done so far are routine, but there was 42,000 detainer requests up 35% from a year ago.

www.washingtonpost.com... -be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.27ef7f8b8b14
Rumors about deportation raids started to circulate around the fields again, so Catalina Sanchez and her husband began to calculate the consequences of everything they did.

Cirilo Perez, 36, had to go to work because the tomato crop was getting low, and he needed to pick as much as he could as fast as he could. Sanchez’s medical checkup would have to wait — going to a clinic was too risky. What they fretted most about was what to do with their daughter Miriam — a natural-born citizen in the third grade — who they worried would come home one day to an empty trailer.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency arrested 680 people across the country. The agency has also become aggressive about attempting to detain undocumented migrants who have been jailed by local authorities. As of Friday, it has issued more than 42,000 detainer requests this year, 35 percent higher than the year before.

Dale Moore executive director for the Farm Bureau, said we can import labor or it's produce, he lobbies for easing restrictions for foreign workers.
A prominent farmer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of Trump's admin getting even with him, claims someone can make $15-$20 an hour, (I have NEVER heard anyone making this kinda of money picking) but American don't want to do the work.

We look at it like this: The country can either import its workforce or import its food,” said Dale Moore, executive director of policy for the Farm Bureau, which lobbies for easing restrictions to get foreign workers for agriculture.

“We’ve been fighting for this for years, but immigration has a different flavor with Donald Trump,” Moore said.

Growers here rejected Trump’s notion that farmworkers were competing with American workers, and hoped he would see more nuance to the issue.

“You can actually make a good living — $15, $20 an hour if you’re good at this — but the truth is Americans don’t want to do this work,” said one prominent Florida farmer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared Trump’s administration would target him for speaking out.

Maristela Hinojosa, a community coordinator for the Hispanic Services Council organizes meeting to tell illegals of their rights. She also encourages them to not cooperate with ICE, and how to avoid capture.

Hinojosa held the meeting and, not long after Sanchez and Perez took their seats in the back, she locked the doors to make people feel safer. When there was a knock, she responded with, “Quien es?” before opening the door.

This was the sort of lesson Hinojosa emphasized to the attendants. Don’t just open the door. If there is an ICE agent on the other side, don’t open it at all. She told them about their right to remain silent. She handed out tiny cards that were to be handed over to anyone who stopped them, explaining that they did not speak English and would like a lawyer.

When I lived in Texas, pickers could average about $5 an hour, depending on the crop.

For the record, strawberry picking sucks. I'm assuming I was considered American when I was doing that.

So IDK where 10-15 an hour came from.

Wasn't there some type of law somewhere that made hiring illegals to pick... illegal?

Now migrant workers with vistas? Great!

I always get confused when our so-called intellectual superiors (liberals) cannot understand the difference between legal and illegal immigration.

Do they sometimes steal stuff from supermarkets because sometimes it's legal? Occasionally drive at 95 mph because you know.. it's Tuesday so we don't understand the law today?

Weird world, good post and S&F.

a reply to: GreyScale

The farmer said that someone could make good money, $15-20 an hour, I find it hard to believe that is the pay.

And I guess if the immigrants are here illegal, they should be alarmed.

I saw a documentary on picking tomatoes and they were paid 1 cent a pound, and after years of lobbying they are now paid 2 cent a pound.

a reply to: seasonal

Picking cucumbers is $1 per bucket. So 130 buckets would be $130 that is before taxes if done on the up and up.

It is different for each crop blueberry and other non-strawberry crop workers made about $268 a week, but they usually have to work 12 hour a day. Again that is for iis that don't pay taxes.

I am curious as to how much a US citizen could make if they were a legal workforce subject to taxes. I doubt it would be close to $15.

a reply to: seasonal

Yes, and when people start not getting their fruits and veggies, or when they have to pay higher prices for them, perhaps they will realize everything is not as simple as they've been told.

a reply to: Grimpachi

I maybe all wet on this idea but there is a cost to having illegals here. And the farmers don't want the change. This is a system where the contracts that the farmers are signing are razor thin. And there is no $$ to pay labor.

The system is designed to exploit workers and it needs reforms, and no one is making $15-20 an hour.

a reply to: Liquesence

Correct the thing is the costs to having the illegals pick is hidden. Like social services and criminal activity. But $2.10 instead of $1.99 for tomatoes is visible.

This is a hard issue to resolve.

a reply to: seasonal

You automatically equate "illegals" with "criminal activity?"

I feel sorry for you.

It's all going to be automated soon anyway.

Robots Step Into New Planting, Harvesting Roles
Labor shortage spurs farmers to use robots for handling delicate tasks in the fresh-produce industry[/exwww.wsj.com...

originally posted by: seasonal
Trump has made illegal immigrants nervous with his deportation talk and what many believe is going to be actions. And a prominent Farmer claims that pickers can make $15-20 an hour, they still can't get Americans interested in picking produce for a living. (I have never heard that kind of $ for pickers) So they need the illegals help.

That's because you're not an illegal immigrant. Only the illegals get hired. The farmers get zero trouble out of the illegals. You wanna work for that farmer? He'll pay you 8 or 10 bucks an hour just to drive you off ... and the meshkins will laugh at your back while you slough off to where you came from.

A stick & carrot is needed here. You tell the Welfare People, "Report to work and until you get your picking muscles in shape we'll still pay you a little bit of your check. (See ... Carrot & Stick). You tell the farmer, "You hire these welfare people and we'll cover that subsidy (which you feel almost entitle to). You hire one illegal ... and we're taking your farm (and everything that goes with it). See ... Carrot & Stick.

originally posted by: Liquesence
a reply to: seasonal

Yes, and when people start not getting their fruits and veggies, or when they have to pay higher prices for them, perhaps they will realize everything is not as simple as they've been told.

kinda like health insurance prices

Well I can only see it as a good thing in stopping this type of slave labor, if it hits Americans hip pocket to buy American and their own fresh produce while paying Americans a decent amount for picking it, that money is also distributed back into your own country.

originally posted by: Liquesence
a reply to: seasonal

You automatically equate "illegals" with "criminal activity?"

I feel sorry for you.

I think You might have a hard time understanding the word ILLEGAL but I'll clue You in to the fact that it means You are breaking the law.

originally posted by: xuenchen

originally posted by: Liquesence
a reply to: seasonal

Yes, and when people start not getting their fruits and veggies, or when they have to pay higher prices for them, perhaps they will realize everything is not as simple as they've been told.

kinda like health insurance prices

What do the prices of fruits and veggies have to do with healthcare?

originally posted by: jkm1864

originally posted by: Liquesence
a reply to: seasonal

You automatically equate "illegals" with "criminal activity?"

I feel sorry for you.

I think You might have a hard time understanding the word ILLEGAL but I'll clue You in to the fact that it means You are breaking the law.

I have a really hard time, actually. Can you please explain it again?

NO hablo ingles so good.

a reply to: Liquesence

Don't feel sorry, but there is a cost associated with all the good, cheap veg, and bad, hospitals not paid, drunk driver (happened to a co-worker), schools, police, fire and so on.

If they can't get workers they are supposed to raise the wages! Supply and demand of labor. These megacorp farmers hate the market when they have to pay.

I'm supposed to feel bad for these people who typically pay wages that no american could live on without government assistance.

Pickers should be making more than your average government drone sitting in A/C forwarding emails.

Higher wages will push innovation, farm equipment will magically cut the labor force and this issue will dissipate.

If these megacorps can't compete against foreign products then the land can be put to a different use. The highest calorie crops per acre take are already automated.

Modern day plantations, lots of these megafarms typically have their slaves live in overcrowded trailers, hidden away from public view and the law.

a reply to: gps777

I agree, there is a cost associated with every product. The true cost is what we should pay.

a reply to: jkm1864

Now tat is a good point, we have grown immune to the back ground noise illegal aliens. But yes each one is breaking the law on purpose.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: gps777

I agree, there is a cost associated with every product. The true cost is what we should pay.

Exactly.

So where do you stand? Do you want to pay out of the ass, or not? If the former you pay more; the latter you get cheap outsourced s#. What can you afford, what can people who live paycheck to paycheck to afford, and what do the corporations want? Profit, hence outsourcing. .

How do we change this? (Hint, it's not the current proposals)

You try to simplify a very complex situation, a situation that is commercial and social.