What's the Harm? (Part V)

It prevents economic development in the "developing world."

A lot of these fruit and vegetable farming operations that want a guest worker program knowingly hire illegal immigrants and have been doing so these past 20 years since the 1986 immigration act was passed.


Let's transfer these farms to the developing world where people are eager to do the work at wages the farmers will be willing to pay. The people need these jobs and will work hard.

(a) In August of 2006, the Lakeside Organic Gardens farm in Watsonville, California was featured in a news story as experiencing a severe labor shortage because the Bush administration was stepping up border enforcement: “The situation is so bad Peixoto has been forced to tear out nearly 30 acres of vegetables, and has about 100 acres compromised by weeds. He estimated his loss so far to be about $200,000 -- worse than anything he's seen in his 31 years of farming.” This farm is owned by the Peixoto family. I called the farm and was able to speak with a member of the family. He confirmed the news story and told me that he would hire anybody he could and he was not checking documents at that time. Barbassa, Juliana. “Organic farmers hurt by worker shortage,” Associated Press, 14 August 2006.

[It is pretty obvious that the Peixoto family has never been checking documents- that's why border enforcement caused them to have a severe labor shortage!!!!]

(b) González, Daniel. “Shortage of workers imperils Yuma crops Farmers point to lack of a guest-worker law.” The Arizona Republic, 21 November 2006. “The shortages are not just limited to the Yuma region. Vegetable growers in Colorado, pear growers in northern California, and apple growers in Washington, all have lacked workers.”

(c) In the fall of 2006, in Arizona, an onion farmer 150 miles from the border said he expects to plant 100 acres next year instead of 200 because he didn't think he'd be able to hire enough harvesters. (Lelyveld, Joseph. “The Border Dividing Arizona,” New York Times Magazine, 15 October 2006).

If you can't get American workers to pick your crops at the wages you are willing to pay, then you need to transfer your operations to a country where people are willing (actually VERY EAGER) to do the work at the wages you are willing to pay. That is a legitimate case of outsourcing, and it is how poor countries develop-- by having economic activity site itself in those countries in order to benefit from the low costs. Illegal immigration is actually preventing poor countries from developing!


Also, since the U.S. based farmers have been knowingly hiring illegal immigrants these past 20 years, why should they be rewarded with a guest worker program? They should actually be severely fined for their blatant illegal activity.