Where are all the illegal farmworkers?

Here's my input, and perhaps a little off-thread.
My daughter is multi-handicapped and one day we had to go to the Social Security office for a medical review. They wanted to see if she was still disabled. Which of course she is, she is wheelchair bound and doesn't speak, developmentally delayed and medically fragile. But they wanted to make sure, and I have no problem with that.
While we were waiting for the lady to photocopy documents for us, another Social Security employee was interviewing a Asian lady in the next booth. They only had partitions separating booths so it wasn't difficult to overhear the conversation.
Social Security employee:"mame, in order to collect Social Security you have to be in this country for at least 30 days. You've been in this country less than 30 days."
Now, what does that tell you? That foriegners are coming to our country to collect our social security. We on average have to wait until we are about 70 years old in order to collect a full benefit. They are here 30 days and collect.

FiddleKat

They're in Florida building condos!

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"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever." -Thomas Jefferson

We're still in Oregon, but we tore out the berry crops and have pastures and livestock now. Much easier to deal with the gov't regs!

Yes, it's legal to pay piece rate, but the earnings at the end of the day must meet or exceed the legal state minimum wage. And it's illegal for children under 16 to pick crops that will be transported out of state. Oregon commercial strawberries are not bred for fresh market sales, 99% of 'em go out of state as jam or puree. Also, the farmer must GUARANTEE that workers receive legal standardized rest breaks and lunch periods. How many of you have actually seen a strawberry or blackberry field with over 300 people picking all at once? The miracle is that somehow the farmer has filled out I-9's and W-2's for every single person, and is often doing payroll on a calculator in the truck (State and Fed WH, SSI, Medicare, Workers Comp) in order to pay at the end of the day. Don't tell me I'm dreaming, I've done it. Farmers who won't hire a couple of white walk-in's most likely have contracted with a labor service and have had to guarantee availability of the entire crop to the labor contractor's crew. And once again this year, the cost of picking alone is over 1/3 of the cannery's price for the delivered fruit. Forget the land, fertilizer and chemical inputs, fuel, preparation labor, irrigation.

One local farm in our area still makes a concerted effort to hire any teen who wants to work. Strawberries are the first crop, the hardest to pick, and the weather is usually still very wet here in June. Kids who do not pick strawberries are not considered for any other crops. Kids who are motivated and excel are offered further employment. (Very proud day when my daughter ended up driving a tractor for broccoli two years in a row!) You would be amazed at how few kids want to be bothered get up early, work outdoors and last all day. Heck, even my own father says that he can't understand why anyone with brains today would choose to labor when they can make money thinking instead!

This problem really isn't about alien migrant workers, it's about America's unrealistic expectations for personal wealth without hard effort. We demand a constant, cheap supply of food and goods but we look at food-production field work as a last resort to "get by" until something better-paying and easier comes along. From where I live, it isn't that Mexicans work cheaper, it's that they are willing to do the hot/cold/wet/frozen/muddy/strenuous/boring/repetitive work at all! What do they move up to when they no longer pick? In Oregon it's nursery stock. Just as hard, repetitive and out in the weather as picking, but steadier work, and better paid. I see the applications for 2 companies on a regular basis. ONE white guy looking for nursery labor in the last 12 years! Of course, lots and lots of 'em thinking they can "manage" a crew. Don't get me going.

Susan

Oh, my, they are all around here in Missouri. Guess you have to know where to look. A lot of the roofers here are Mexican illegals. I saw a burned out business that was selling it's old brick and beams, illegals were recovering them by hand---no hard-hats or gloves or any kind of safety for them. Our church was going to help a Hispanic church with some of it's needs, but the preacher there said that 90% of his congregation are illegals. I'm told by a business owner that there's a certain corner where you can drive by and pick up workers for the day. I just don't know what all this will do for this country.

Received this some time ago.....


Cow tracking...........is it just me, or does anyone else find it
>>absolutely amazing that the U.S. government can track a cow, born in
Canada
>>almost three years ago, right to the stall where she sleeps in the state
of
>>Washington, and determine exactly what that cow ate?
>>
>> They can also track her calves right to their stalls, and tell you
>>what kind of feed they ate.
>>
>> But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering
>>around in our country, including people who are trying to blow up
important
>>structures in the U.S.
>>
>> My solution is to give every illegal alien a cow as soon as they
>>enter the country.

Oh well, I ain't much for strawberries anyway, and the kids there are probably too lazy to work cause they legally smoke the rope daily.

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We have now officially entered the twilight zone.

Is this from an online news source? I'd like to see how they made the determination to make such a very broad statement.

If all they did was tighten up the borders and not return any illegals, what happened to the ones that were here last year doing the picking? Did they go on up to Canada?

They probably went back down after picking season?

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primrose, this is a bunch of hooey, i live in the area, and the illegals are all working in better jobs than berries. construction boom here and many, many mexicans working in those jobs. they will work for no benefits, just straight wages, landscape workers, basically all mexican, county workers, state workers, home depot, you name it. they have left the berry picking for someone else.
it sounds good for the homeland security, but it ain't true.

Illegals found better paying jobs,simple as that.

Why pick berries when you can paint houses,build houses and work at a steady job??

We need a WHOLE new set of illegals to pick the produce...these illegals have moved on.

I am of course being sarcastic,what we need to do is deport ALL of them and IF the berries or tomatoes or apples aren't being picked for $5/hour the growers will have to raise wages...and the price at the store will go up as well but I prefer THAT to having 12 million people running around here doing who knows what...