The need for immigration reform [amnesty for illegal aliens] ripens
Article CAIRCO note:
If illegal alien labor was not used to undercut wages, Americans would be able to work for a fair living wage
Article publisher:
Washington Post
Article date:
27 August 2018
Article category:
Colorado News
Medium
Article Body:
... There are three reasons why the family farm I run with my three brothers didn't have enough workers this year. First, the local workforce is aging out of the industry. In the period between 1998 and 2002, 14 percent of foreign-born farmworkers across the nation were over 45, but that percentage nearly doubled between 2008 and 2012, according to research by New American Economy, a nonprofit organization focused on immigration reform (and which provided me with technical assistance in drafting this piece). Every year, more of my best guys retire or find less strenuous work. The number of field and crop workers in Colorado, Nevada and Utah declined by nearly 37 percent between 2002 and 2014.
Second, there's no fresh supply of new workers to take their place. We used to be able to count on 15 to 20 "walk-ins" - people who would show up to work the season - in addition to my regular full-time crew of 15 people. This year there were none....
Finally, we lack an efficient, farmer-friendly guest-worker program. The current one for temporary H-2A visas was created more than three decades ago; it's outdated and can't cope with increasing demand for workers. The labor shortage is so severe that farmers have overwhelmed the system, which had to issue nearly 135,000 visas for seasonal agricultural workers in 2016. That's nearly double from five years ago.
It's also expensive. In addition to wages, farmers have to pay, on average, $2,500 per worker every season in visa-processing fees, transportation and housing costs....
CAIRCO Notes
The author forgot the fourth, and most important reason for this so-called "labor shortage": agricultural employers demand cheap foreign labor in order to undercut American workers. No wonder Americans won't "walk-in" to work at substandard wages.
By making e-Verify mandatory and universal, illegal aliens will not be able to work in America, and will voluntarily return home to reunite with their families. This will uniformly affect all employers; none will be inequitably burden with having to pay realistic wages to American labor.