Alabama forum explores immigration law labor shortage

[struggle4progress]

By Kelli Dugan
MOBILE, Ala | Tue Dec 6, 2011 7:06pm EST

(Reuters) - The problem facing Alabama's agribusiness sector after passage of a tough new immigration law is a fairly straightforward one of labor availability, and employers are looking at a variety of possible solutions.

"Everybody knows, I think, that we've got a problem with agribusiness labor," John McMillan, Alabama's agricultural commissioner, told a crowd of more than 200 gathered on Tuesday in Mobile, Alabama.

With only weeks until nursery and greenhouse owners need to start placing plant orders for 2012 crops, the economic impact of Alabama's new law is already reverberating through the abruptly understaffed sector, still reeling from a fall harvest nearly ground to a halt by enactment of the measure.

Among other provisions the law requires police to detain people they suspect of being in the United States illegally if they cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason. The result has been to cause many undocumented workers to leave the state and others to stay away ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/07/us-immigration-jobs-alabama-idUSTRE7B600R20111207