Hire them but what will happen when they get here?

Image from the State of Oregon Archives

It is no surprise that there is a shortage of farm workers - there have already been efforts in California, Arizona, and Colorado to arrange the recruitment in Mexico.

The workers entering the country with proper documents -but they are still bringing themselves, meaning they will mostly be identifiably immigrants - ready to be plucked off the street by a Sheriff's Deputy - especially if they go to Arizona. Why would anyone want to get a temporary job in one of these states? In Arizona they would be stepping into a war zone.

You can be sure that most of the recruits have desperate reasons to come here - most likely their families are barely (if that) making enough to survive. How else could the recruited workers justify taking such a risk?

here is an excerpt from the text that accompanied the picture above:

"Migrant workers from Mexico also eased Oregon's farm labor shortages. Their entry into the United States was made possible by a wartime farm labor agreement between the U.S. and Mexico that created the "Bracero Program." By 1943 these contract workers were garnering praise from Oregon farmers...One farmer's wife summed it up: "We sure like these new Mexicans. They want to work all the time." But the braceros also experienced discrimination, wage disputes, poor housing, and other problems. Some observers thought that the labor force should be changed yearly. Otherwise, they argued, the men could become "too lonesome for home..." From 1942 to 1947 over 15,000 Mexican men worked on Oregon farms, ranches, and orchards as bracero." *see below for citation

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Union and states try recruiting farm workers from Mexico

By GARANCE BURKE

The Associated Press
Washington Post
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; 4:55 AM

HURON, Calif. -- Weary of waiting for Congress to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, the United Farm Workers hopes to recruit Mexican laborers to pick crops on U.S. farms.

The union's efforts to import temporary workers under an existing government program follows similar moves by lawmakers in Arizona and Colorado, who are also trying to create new pathways to bring in foreign field hands without approval from Washington.

This month, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez signed an agreement with the governor of the Mexican state of Michoacan to help recruit local residents to apply for temporary jobs on U.S. farms, all of which would be covered under union contracts.

Under the new pact, government field staff in Michoacan will distribute information on U.S. labor protections, especially in rural towns known for sending a large number of their residents north.

In exchange, the union will negotiate contracts with U.S. growers willing to guarantee that legal workers' rights will be respected on both sides of the border, UFW International Director Erik Nicholson said.

The UFW got involved after hearing that Mexican recruiters were charging people as much as $5,000 for short-term contracts under the existing, but rarely used federal guest worker program, Nicholson said.

"Agriculture is a global industry, so we're building an international infrastructure to advocate for these global workers," Nicholson said. "Workers need to know about their rights on both sides of the border."

Immigration raids and employer penalties have led to a shortage of workers in the nation's largest farm states, leading many in the agriculture industry to conclude that growers can't get their products to market without a stable supply of workers from abroad.

But with Congress deadlocked over immigration reform, the question is under what conditions the workers will be hired _ legally or illegally.

The farm labor force in the U.S. currently numbers about 1.6 million people, 70 percent of whom are thought to be undocumented, according to people in the industry. Only about 70,000 farm workers were brought in from abroad last year for the short stints permitted under H2-A visas issued by the U.S. Department of Labor...

for complete WP/AP article click here

*Cited from Oregon Archives, "Life on the Home Front" - exhibition on labor and WWII. Source: Erasmo Gamboa, Mexican Labor and World War II.