Immigration crisis at border afflicts heartland harvest

The heated tempers of the nation's border states are driving the debate over immigration policy ...

Immigrant workers who [illegally] slipped over the borders years ago are aging out of the workforce, and their younger, more able-bodied counterparts are being kept from the fields because of the bureaucratic clutter. But the crops and the growing season don't wait.

"We're losing that aging population, but we're also not getting anybody replacing them because of the mess we have at the border and no immigration law," said Manuel Cunha Jr., the president of California's Nisei Farmers League, which represents over 180 types of farms, including those that produce raisins, vegetables and flowers ...

[Mark Gilson, the owner and operator of Gilson Gardens]  "People who are on unemployment don't want to go off unemployment to do this type of work." ...

On top of that, [Chalmers Carr-owner of South Carolina's Titan Farms] ... says the recent influx of children slipping across the U.S. border has clogged the bureaucratic process further ...