Jay Bookman of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is exactly right: “It might be funny if it wasn’t so sad.”
After enacting House Bill 87, a law designed to drive illegal immigrants out of Georgia, state officials appear shocked to discover that HB 87 is, well, driving a lot of illegal immigrants out of Georgia.
Thanks to the resulting labor shortage, Georgia farmers have been forced to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions, melons and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they’ve done to Georgia’s largest industry.
Well this is shocking. Who could have predicted that illegal immigrants are actually doing vital work in our society? All this time I thought they were here to force us to speak Spanish and to relax in the warm embrace of our social safety net!
Governor Nathan Deal is scrambling now to fix the problem he gleefully created himself, before it destroys Georgia’s biggest industry. Well done, morons.
My father lives in Florida, and whenever he starts an anti-immigrant rant, I ask, “So then, you’re going to pick the tomatoes? Your friends?”
Also noticed he didn’t urge any of his children into that lucrative fruit and vegetable picking career.
Yes, it’s sad, for the immigrants, not the fucking racist south. The revenues they will lose because of these laws is what’s called karma in my book. I can’t wait to hear how Arizona has fucked itself. Good times!
Sounds like a useful civics lesson for people who aren’t capable of abstract reasoning.
Arizona is more of an agricultural state than most people think. Also lots of hospitality. I guess we can all make our own beds now and lay in them.
I think that there’s something deeply fucked up about the fact that we’re all totally ok with the fact that we have a system that apparently absolutely requires the utter exploitation of rather large numbers of people to feed us. Passing draconian anti-immigrant legislation is not the way to address that, but this unintended effect of the new law does provide a striking example of how entrenched the exploitation of farm labor is in our economy.
@2 It’s sad for me too, because I’ve really been enjoying those Vidalia onions in the stores right now (and apparently they really don’t like growing anywhere other than southern Georgia)
@2, except that the fucking racist south is not the fucking racist south throughout. It’s karma for the assholes, except that the governor isn’t going to be economically affected. But poorer people, the ones that Georgians like Shirley Sherrod and Jimmy Carter work to help, are the ones who get screwed most.
The racist south won’t be all that affected, the farmer’s losses will be covered by federal crop insurance, then they’ll all get nice fat subsidy checks in plenty of time to go a tea-bagger party to complain about the government…
lol Thank you for posting this story! People who rely on modern slavery and who disdain the very people who enable their way of life… You DESERVE comeuppance! lol!
So what you are saying is that farmers are going to have to play by the rules and hire people for a decent wage? And I’m supposed to sympathize with farmers and illegals flagrantly flaunting the law?
Riggghhhhhht. I’ll get right on that.
I have little (read: NO) sympathy at all. I’m all for paying market wages to the homeless and lower classes that are currently on welfare rolls, because that field work is beneath them. Now if Georgia enacts requirements to work part time in the fields in order to receive benefits, we’ll have a system of welfare that isn’t just a freebie handout to self entitled folks who have a history of laziness and sloth that has been perpetuated for generations.
I think the Georgia model needs to be pushed out to other surrounding states, including welfare reform requiring them to put some time in a manual labor job.
Win/win/win/win!
Georgia’s unemployment rate is 9.8% with initial claims of 54,843. Just sayin’.
I suspect the resolution to their problem, would be to eliminate all child labor laws.
@11 – I love you.
Yeah, what, they can’t find people to pick the crops?
@10 You forgot the part about skyrocketing food prices. Farmers are still going to try to make money, whether they’re paying shit wages to illegal workers or “market wages” to American citizens. Think they’re just going to eat the cost of increasing their labor budgets? Yeah, right.
That’s the crux of the issue: people in this country expect really cheap food. Joe Minuteman-Teabagger hates illegals but wants his cheap produce at Winco. That’s what has made this issue intractable. Many of the people with the power to make decisions on immigration policy are smart enough to realize that things will go to shit pretty fast (especially for their political careers) if the electorate shows up at the grocery store one day and sees that food prices have doubled.
guess this is what happens when laws are made for political points rather than to address a need.
the feds need to get on this, though it’s doubtful any federal solution would be draconian enough for tea bagging folks and the political hacks they employ
I live in Atlanta, and the situation really is a hoot. Here’s to hoping that it’ll cause the rural areas of Georgia to rethink voting Republican in the future.
Why can’t the GA Dept. of Labor just tell some of those 9.8% unemployed something to the effect of, “Look, we’ve got X number of agricultural jobs available at $Y per hour. If you’re not willing to take these jobs, we’re cutting your unemployment checks by $Z per month”? Obviously, there’s going to have to be some flexibility, since not every unemployed Georgian lives near enough to agricultural areas to make the commute; some are going to be physically unable to do the manual labor, etc., etc. But at the same time, surely there must be a significant percentage of the unemployed workforce who CAN do this work; they’re just too fucking lazy, or else they don’t want to work for the pitiful wages (which probably don’t include employer SS/Medicare contributions, workers’ comp, et al) growers are willing to pay in order to maintain price-point.
So, something’s gotta give if they want their anti-immigration laws: employers have to increase wages (which in turn raises prices), and legally employable workers have to settle for less than ideal wages or face being forced off unemployment. If they can’t handle these terms then they just need to STFU already about them “job-stealin’ illegals”, because they refuse to pay the economic costs associated with not allowing that cheap labor to remain in place.
@6 Walla Walla Sweets my dear.
@18: Sorry, but Walla Walla Sweets != Vidalias.
Sending illegal Mexican workers back to Mexico, just changes where the food is grown, not who’s growing it. The whole question of illegal labor in agriculture comes down to whether or not we want our food grown here or in a foreign country. If we do, the feds have to either keep looking the other way on enforcement or develop new policies such as guest worker programs or increased farm subsidies to pay the higher wages.
This is kind of like what happened in 1492 in Spain, when Ferdinand and Isabella kicked out the Moors and Jews, and promptly saw their economy go to shit.
Only in this case, they lost a lot of their day laborers rather than their merchant/artisan class.
@17, the farmers don’t want the unemployed. They want Mexicans, who take pride in hard work. Americans are lazy, uneducated, and drug-addicted. It’s a problem.
GOOD! GOOD DEAL!
Trash all immigrants because all the good ole boys will SWARM to “take their jerbs” as soon as we run ’em outta town! OH WAIT! That never happens.
Also 1 out of 10 Georgians is under some sort of correctional control too, not a lot has changed since the 1730s
So according to wingnut logic, Georgia should ship in the unemployed to the fields and force them to do the labor — and supply them with housing, how?
Slave shacks behind the mansions worked for you in the past, Georgia.
Rightie wingnuts now or 150 years ago, the same ideas: brown people who do our labor for us, no good!
But we still have to force someone to do it!
@21,
And Uganda when Amin kicked out all the Indians.
I see the vast right-wing conspiracy now. Drive out immigrant farm labor->force the unemployed to do farm labor for miniscule wages->food will also get significantly more expensive->people will be even more desperate to keep their jobs, both so as not to starve and in order to avoid having to do backbreaking farm labor, allowing for lower wages and fewer benefits across the board->causing deflation->meaning that people who hold large amounts of capital see a huge increase in their real level of wealth due to increased purchasing power!
Aaaaaand now I just turned myself into Glen Beck. Someone get me a chalkboard, STAT!
Because more Georgians feel like this:
http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/143…
@22–add this tidbit to pile:
http://savannahnow.com/latest-news/2011-…
@17 here’s part of my letter to GA Agriculture Comm Gary Black. No response, ‘natch:
“Why This Law Now?
Are Georgia employers extremely lax in obeying the standard of Employment Eligibility Verification as per Form I-9 (OMB No. 1615-0047)?
Since the Reagan Administration–11/7/86, to be precise, under the Immigration Reform and Control Act–every U.S. employer has been required to complete and retain a Form I-9 for each individual they hire for full-time or part-time employment in the United States. This includes citizens and noncitizens. The only exception to completing an I-9 is in the case of an independent contractor, subcontractor, or someone hired prior to November 6, 1986.
Are Georgia employers routinely labeling potential hires as “independent contractors” or “subcontractors”?
Simply calling someone an independent contractor does not necessarily make them an independent contractor under Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification and employer sanctions laws. Under form I-9, the definition of an independent contractor is dependent on many factors focusing on how independent the worker really is. The fact the IRS may consider a worker to be self-employed does not necessarily mean that a worker is considered an independent contractor or subcontractor for I-9 verification.
Are Georgia employers conveniently playing “dumb” regarding the legal status of potential independent contractors and subcontractors?
Bottomline: It is illegal to contract for labor any person you know is not authorized to work in the United States. By law “knowing” includes “constructive knowledge”–“knowledge which may be inferred through notice of certain facts and circumstances which would lead a person, through exercise of reasonable care, to know about a certain condition.”
Food prices need to go up. We need to pay for what we get, and that cost should include a decent living wage to those who provide it. Farm work is terrible for people. It is unhealthy and causes all sorts of health problems, and these people don’t even get health care. They need better pay and benefits. Forcing anyone to do it, the unemployed or illegal immigrants is wrong. We need to make it a decent working environment by making it reasonable working shifts at decent pay with decent benefits.
I’m glad farmers stated they’d consider trying to get legal methods of hiring the same workers even though it would cost more. It should cost more. What we should be doing is legally hiring the immigrants and treating them decently and paying them decently.
@27 I’m pretty sure I’m dumber for having read that first article.
I have no doubt that there are folks in Georgia petitioning the state penal system for a chain-gang revival. Georgia, Alabama, Missippi and Louisiana, began renting prisoners to farmers by the day as soon as Civil War Reconstruction ended, in the 1870’s. Since people of color were routinely convicted in kangaroo courts, it was a simple matter to fill prisons just before harvest time, effectively preserving slavery for another 60 to 70 years after emancipation.If there is a continued shortage of willing workers, the unwillling will be made to work. Look for longer sentences and less parole in Georgia, to begin soon. Ask yourself if you will enjoy food picked at gunpoint.
Farm work is physically difficult, labor intensive work that requires long hours out under the hot sun. That’s why most people don’t like it. So it only makes sense that farmers should have to pay more to get people to do that instead of, say, sitting on your behind in an air-conditioned call center for eight hours.
Yes, this law is doing exactly what it’s supposed to: shrinking the labor pool and lifting wages by kicking out the people here illegally who were willing to work for below-market rates. Of course management is squawking. They’re going to have to start competing just a little bit for labor now, which means marginally better wages, benefits and working conditions. That’s the whole freaking point.
So here’s the question for Slog: which do you prefer? Free immigration standards that will result in better lives for people migrating here from poorer countries? Or better wages and labor conditions for working class people already here?
These are two competing interests. I find it interesting that so-called “leftists” have aligned themselves with the former while the “right” is aligning itself with the latter. Fifty years ago, I suspect the roles would have been reversed, which just goes to show how successful the GOP has been at wooing white working class types in the last couple decades.
(And no, you can’t have both, unless you’re willing to have permanent levels of high unemployment and/or lots of under-the-table work done to evade government regulation)
@31
Your informal fallacy aside, do you live in the Deep South? I do. Few things could be farther from the minds of most merchants down here than “better wages and labor conditions for working class people already here.” The concept of collective bargaining is anathema. (Even talking about it on the job can get you fired.) It is considered ‘unAmerican’–most certainly ‘unSouthern.’ The Southern “right” would have us believe we all work for benevolent corporations concerned for the public welfare. These people don’t want to pay higher wages, they want to put parolees in the fields, bring back chain-gangs (albeit shackled individually), and reconsider flogging as a prisoner’s ‘option’ for an earlier release. “Better wages and labor conditions”?
Spare me.
This may be a stupid question (I really don’t know the answer) but; just what percentage of that apple/cabbage/onion cost is labor? If it’s a small percentage: doubling a farm wage Would make a farmer less competitive with peers but if everyone did, it might not raise the price all that much… At least not for many foods ( some more labor intensive than others ).
….and by the way; cheap veg and fruit is not entirely a bad thing when you’re poor. It isn’t fair to pay someone little to work that hard but there is some benefit there too.
Perhaps the government should actually subsidize fruits and vegetable (less than .5% of ag subsidizes go to fruit/vegetables), instead of putting 75% of ag subsidies going to the meat/dairy industry that destroys the people’s health and costing the government tons in medicare/medicaid costs. Although those in meat packing factories have one of the worst job in the country with the lowest factory worker pay, so perhaps just throwing money at the problem would increase wages if greedy CEOs have their way.