{"id":1837,"date":"2011-06-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/ga-farm-worker-story-goes-international.html"},"modified":"2011-06-28T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T13:00:00","slug":"ga-farm-worker-story-goes-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/ga-farm-worker-story-goes-international.html","title":{"rendered":"GA farm worker story goes international"},"content":{"rendered":"Ray Glier wrote for Agence France Press 23 June 2011,\n\nUS farms at risk as workers flee immigration law<\/a>\n
\nATLANTA, Georgia (AFP) \u2013 A controversial immigration law in the US\nstate of Georgia has brought unintended results, forcing farmers to\nreluctantly turn to ex-convicts as Latin American manual workers flee.\n

\nLow-skilled, undocumented workers, who for years have formed the backbone\nof this southern state’s farming economy, have bolted in the lead-up\nto the law taking effect on July 1, fearing deportation if caught\nworking here.\n

\nThe measure’s mainly Republican supporters argue that the state needs\nto enforce immigration laws in the absence of effective federal action,\nsaying schools, jails and hospitals are overburdened by illegal aliens.\n

\nBut as the full cost of the immigration reform emerges in the form of\nan estimated millions of dollars worth of crops rotting in fields, it\ncould alarm other states that have passed or are considering similar\nstrict measures.\n<\/blockquote>\nThe story quotes the figure of 11,000 needed workers,\nand quotes some farmers about that the state’s scheme to\nsend people on probation to work on farms:\n\n\n

\n\n<\/a>\nMelinda James, of Osage Farms in Rabun Gap, admits the “probationers”\nare not her first choice for the jobs, which often involve long hours\nworking in fields under the punishing southern heat.\n

\nBut with the gaping hole in their normal workforce, many reluctant\nfarmers have little choice.\n

\n“We’re going to have to train them — that’s a cost we’re going to have\nto absorb,” James told AFP.\n

\n“If they pass a drug test and they’re drug free, we’ll use them if we\nhave to,” she added, pointing out that many workers they used to employ\n“are scared to come to Georgia.”\n<\/blockquote>\nSo the state is basically taxing farmers by expecting them to train\nprobationers.\n

\nThe AFP story continues:\n

\nOther farmers, such as Dan King of Five Brothers Produce in Rebecca,\nrefuse to hire people on probation despite the shortage in laborers.\n

\n“I don’t need to make it easy for someone to case my place and come back\nand steal from me after hours,” he said.\n<\/blockquote>\nThat would be a further state-imposed penalty on farmers.\n

\nGeorgia could reverse the trend:\n

\nThe new law’s impact is being closely watched in neighboring South\nCarolina, where opponents have slammed a proposed immigration measure\nas a “Draconian racial profiling bill” that would take a similar toll\non the economy.\n<\/blockquote>\nThere’s still time to see reason.\n

\nWe can start by refusing to build a private prison in Lowndes County,\nGeorgia, which would profit a private prison company and its shareholders\nat the expense of Georgia farmers and taxpayers.\nSpend that tax money on rehabilitiation and education instead.\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ray Glier wrote for Agence France Press 23 June 2011, US farms at risk as workers flee immigration law ATLANTA, Georgia (AFP) \u2013 A controversial immigration law in the US state of Georgia has brought unintended results, forcing farmers to reluctantly turn to ex-convicts as Latin American manual workers flee. Low-skilled, undocumented workers, who for […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,202,40,14,15,321,2,178],"tags":[4231,4232,8817,8705,4093,8701,2002,8830,8730,1897,7,2712,60,8749,4233],"class_list":["post-1837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-agriculture","category-community","category-economy","category-education","category-food-and-drink","category-government","category-vlcia","tag-afp","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-cca","tag-education","tag-farm","tag-georgia","tag-hb-87","tag-immigration","tag-incarceration","tag-labor","tag-lowndes-county","tag-rehabilitation","tag-tax","tag-vlcia","tag-worker"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-tD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}