Crackdown in US state of Georgia keeps migrants away

[The Northerner]

ATLANTA, Georgia (AFP) – Farmers in the US state of Georgia say they are starting to feel the effects of a tough crackdown on illegal immigration -- a sudden dearth of migrant workers needed to bring in their harvests.

Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, said the labor pool of produce pickers has shrunk by 30 to 50 percent since passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act on April 20.

He said growers have told him that workers are bypassing Georgia to avoid police harassment and going to North Carolina, which is next in line during the growing season.

"We're very worried," said Melinda James, owner of OSAGE Farms in north Georgia.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110528/ts_alt_afp/usimmigration_20110528185259

[TheManInTheMac]

1. Oh, too bad, Melinda,

that you might have to hire legal workers and pay them a minimum wage.

[kevinbgoode]

2. Well, the public should promote a referendum

demanding that the state legislators be loaned out to work at these farms until the harvest season is over - at the same wages as the immigrants.

[annabanana]

3. jeez.. Maybe there will be some serious consideration of comprehensive

immigration policy reform down there in the heart of Dixie... There could be if it were properly framed.

[dkf]

4. Maybe they will hire some Americans and will bring the unemployment rate down.

Should be interesting to see the numbers.

[saras]

5. Lower the minimum wage to what the illegal workers were getting

Then start forcing everyone who receives "government" money, whether unemployment, disability, pension, whatever - to take the jobs.

Oh, and allow the supervisors to use corporal punishment to train the new employees.

Can I be a Republican yet?

[izquierdista]

6. Not to worry

There's plenty of convicts in Georgia prisons. And they get paid even less! Something tells me I'm going to see fewer white vans and clean-up crews on the regular streets around here....