From GPB.org, Georgia Public Broadcasting, Jeanne Bonner, 13 Dec 2011. Atlanta, GA — Officials at one Georgia company are hiring more staff and investing heavily in the future. That’s because its business – finding legal foreign workers for farms – is suddenly in demand. AgWorks of Lake Park, near Valdosta, applies for foreign visas on … Continue reading
From VCStar.com, Ventura County Star, Ruben Navarette, 8 Oct 2011. Who says you can’t teach an old elephant new tricks? Republicans like to pitch the fairy tale that illegal immigrants take jobs from American workers, and then use that as an excuse for deporting the undocumented. Are we supposed to believe that a political party … Continue reading
From NPR.org, NPR Staff, 8 Oct 2011. Whatever you think about the immigration policy in the United States, there is clearly the law and then there is reality. The immigration issue is often debated in terms of justice, rights and the protection of our borders, but there’s a business story to be told as well. … Continue reading
From TheHill.com, Grace Meng, researcher in the US program at Human Rights Watch, 7 Oct 2011. I met “Sonia,” a farmworker in upstate New York, in August. She and her husband had managed to scrape together $3,000 for a down payment on a house. After two years of making mortgage payments, they discovered the seller had … Continue reading
From NYTimes.com, Kirk Johnson, 5 Oct 2011. OLATHE, Colo. — How can there be a labor shortage when nearly one out of every 11 people in the nation are unemployed? That’s the question John Harold asked himself last winter when he was trying to figure out how much help he would need to harvest the … Continue reading
From TheRepublic.com, Lisa Rathke, Associated Press, 4 Sept 2011. MONTPELIER, Vt. — A federal program intended to identify and deport illegal immigrants is raising fears in Vermont, where Mexican farmhands, many without immigration papers, are a staple of the $560 million dairy industry. Opponents say aggressive enforcement of the Secure Communities initiative could harm the … Continue reading
From LaVozColorado.com, David Conde, 9 Aug 2011. A few days ago, I had an opportunity to travel to El Paso from Colorado for a family event. Right before crossing into Texas on I-25, a white patrol car trimmed in green and black decided to follow the Chevy Suburban carrying our family for about 10 miles. … Continue reading
From NYTimes.com, Jesse McKinley and Julia Preston, 30 Jul 2011. PATTERSON, Calif. — Farmers across the country are rallying to fight a Republican-sponsored bill that would force them and all other employers to verify the legal immigration status of their workers, a move some say could imperil not only future harvests but also the agricultural community’s traditional … Continue reading
From Blog.AL.com, Bob Lowry, The Huntsville Times, 16 Jul 2011. MONTGOMERY [AL] – Supporters of the state’s new immigration law called it a jobs program when it was being debated in the Legislature, but some economists predict it will put the stigma of the 1960s back on Alabama. In enacting what has been described as … Continue reading
From DemocratAndChronicle.com,Diana Louise Carter, 4 Jun 2011. [Rochester, NY] — In Mexico, it’s cheaper for a tortilla manufacturer to buy corn from the United States, where government subsidies keep corn prices low, than to buy from unsubsidized Mexican farmers. The Mexican farmers, as a result, go out of business or send their young men and … Continue reading
