Althouse: "But during this coronavirus crisis, these farmworkers are living with a peculiar irony: they are now considered both illegal and essential."

April 13, 2020

"But during this coronavirus crisis, these farmworkers are living with a peculiar irony: they are now considered both illegal and essential."

"Based on guidelines distributed by the Department of Homeland security, they have been included on the list of 'essential workers' who 'have a special responsibility to maintain [a] normal work schedule.' As a result, many employers have provided farmworkers with letters identifying them as 'essential' in order to protect them while traveling to and from the workplace. Those letters do not, however, protect them from deportation."

From "The Irony of Being Essential, But Illegal/The people who grow, harvest, and process our foods deserve a pathway to citizenship" (Washington Monthly).

If you think that's ironic, think about why it's not ironic at all. It's exactly what you'd expect.

59 comments:

tim maguire said...: Farm workers are essential. Illegal aliens are here illegally. Falling under both categories is not an irony. And it’s not a surprise that some will use this crisis to advance their own agendas.

How’d I do?; 4/13/20, 5:23 AM
Darrell said...: How much do you want to bet that legals can do the work, too?; 4/13/20, 5:37 AM
iowan2 said...: We don't need the illegals. The US issues temporary work permits for seasonal workers. EXPERTS set the number needed for that. Listen to the experts.; 4/13/20, 5:56 AM
Tina Trent said...: Before Bush I stopped enforcing the law at the behest of big businesses, migrant workers with green cards worked legally and went home, living well in Mexico on the wages, or went through the process to become legal and integrate.

Big poultry and big ag lobbied both parties to eliminate border control. Wages dropped through the floor for all such workers.

The vast majority of illegal immigrants don't work in agriculture, and those who do don't do it for long. Such work is also seasonal. Taxpayers pick up the tab for every single aspect of their lives. As soon as illegals can glom onto a social program, they quit doing field or processing work. More arrive by bus daily, do as.much work as necessary to establish themselves, cutting wages further, then have a kid and start collecting bennies. And none of them pay taxes. I know dozens of illegal immigrants.

Big businesses have outsourced the cost of paying their employees to the rest of us and destroyed stable blue collar jobs in building, roadwork, agriculture, county maintenance and restaurants in the process.

At least half of my immediate neighbors in rural North Georgia are transient illegal immigrants. Thanks, patriot Doug Collins! The same was true in downtown Atlanta (thanks, John Lewis!) and central Florida (thanks, Jebby and lil' Marco!). The intellectual and emotional labor required to deny this reality has warped social discourse itself beyond repair.; 4/13/20, 6:27 AM
stevew said...: That word, irony, is overused and often incorrectly so. Not garner level mind you, but annoying in its own particular way.; 4/13/20, 6:28 AM
Ron Winkleheimer said...: Something tells me that if illegal aliens were taking journalists' jobs there would be much less sympathy for them.; 4/13/20, 6:41 AM
Jersey Fled said...: What Tina said.; 4/13/20, 7:02 AM
Fernandinande said...: It's exactly what you'd expect.

Only because the illegal immigrants are working at meat-packing plants because they're not very smart.

The irony lies in the fact that if they were smarter they'd be less likely to be considered essential.; 4/13/20, 7:06 AM
DEEBEE said...: There only happens in minds that are so tiny that they cannot hold the two ideas without them bumping into each other and causing the irony.; 4/13/20, 7:08 AM
Fernandinande said...: meat-packing plants

"stoop labor" might even be worse and dumber; conflated two posts.; 4/13/20, 7:09 AM
Paul Snively said...: It's ironic in the Alanis Morissette sense.; 4/13/20, 7:10 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Labor contractors have been told by DHS or ICE that there will be no enforcement sweeps in agricultural areas, not in the fields or orchards. And an interesting rumor is passing from immigration attorneys to field workers: save all your receipts during this Emergency and there might be a deal in the works to legalize them, and anything they spend to support themselves and their families will be credited toward whatever the eventual fee or fine is to become legal. There are always rumors among the immigrant workers, but this one is intriguing. Had several Zoom and conference calls last week with colleagues up and down the San Joaquin Valley. The mood went from uncertain to optimistic last week.; 4/13/20, 7:14 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: These are skilled crews of 20-50 agricultural workers each that do specialized jobs year round, not the ones who come in for harvest, pick and move on. These ag workers are the ones that prune, tie, plant, graft, irrigate, thin, spray, and maintain farms. Some contractors employ 20,000 or more and they pay well above Fed. minimum wage for these guys and gals. Many are H1A visa holders but we could use a revived bracero program. Many think that’s what is in the works. Interesting that the Times is poking around.; 4/13/20, 7:25 AM
Gabriel said...: Of course they're essential. Otherwise you'd have to hire Americans and people who are here legally, and they'd want more money.

For people who stayed awake in Econ 101, there are two ways to alleviate a shortage in something you wish to pay for at a given price (such as labor); pay a higher price or increase the supply of what you wish to buy at that price.

If the government, by looking the other way, increases the supply of people willing to work for the wages you offer, you avoid the price increase.

Most businesses don't yet get the government moving the supply curve on their behalf, but it's more and more every day. Maybe your turn will come.; 4/13/20, 7:28 AM
rhhardin said...: The advantage of illegals is that they get around labor laws that favor unions over employers. No political legal clout to organize and extort.; 4/13/20, 7:54 AM
Ryan said...: We should have a predictable and legal source of seasonal farm workers, which is especially critical given that they are essential for feeding our people.; 4/13/20, 7:54 AM
Sebastian said...: "considered" illegal?; 4/13/20, 7:58 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Show me the American who wants the job, Mary. I’ve been working with wineries since the ‘90s and in many areas of ag. The Americans I mostly encounter are naturalized Mexicans who started as workers, got their documentation and now run crews or own the companies. There’s a legit path for some of these workers who start out as labor. Some immigrants go on to teach it consult after legalization. They become American. Their children are the blue collar workers in California, service workers. By the third generation the kids are pushed to go to college or learn a trade.

But I’ve never seen an American crew working the fields. It’s hard work. Fasting growing demographic in field workers is FEMALE, because labor has been difficult to recruit lately. I’ve seen Hmong crews around Fresno. I’ve seen three Filipino crews in King City that also do Napa’s harvest and pruning. Never seen a White Kid crew, Mary. No one is keeping Americans out of agriculture. Why? Because even $20/hour ain’t enough to motivate Americans leaving a sector dependent on semi-legal labor.

So the choice is fruit and veggies rotting in the fields or foreign labor. Machines aren’t good enough to select table grape bunches, or harvest Cuties, or pull garlic and trim it, or thin almond trees, or tip stone fruit, or graft anything. Not to mention all the exotic fruits, finger lemons and Buddha hand and sweet lemons and sour oranges take a lot of care. If these rare fruits aren’t continually harvested the trees overload and tear themselves apart. Maybe the situation is a little more complicated than “we don’t need no stinking braceros” and you’re just not aware.; 4/13/20, 8:04 AM
Derve Swanson said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 4/13/20, 8:06 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Apparently rhhardin hasn’t heard of Caesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers.; 4/13/20, 8:06 AM
Lars Porsena said...: Pathway to citizenship?? Then they'd be Americans and Americans don't do that kind of
work.; 4/13/20, 8:07 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Cal-OSHA requires many many accommodations for farm workers. What century is it where you live?; 4/13/20, 8:08 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: Germany is doing the same thing with 80,000 seasonal workers, mostly from Romania.; 4/13/20, 8:11 AM
Derve Swanson said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 4/13/20, 8:11 AM
Derve Swanson said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 4/13/20, 8:13 AM
Derve Swanson said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 4/13/20, 8:16 AM
Howard said...: problem solved with all of the unemployment there are all those jobs available Trump can make that happen in a flip of a switch deport all the illegals and force obese drug-addled deplorables into the fields. That will guarantee the prospects for famine and make everybody less susceptible to covid-19.; 4/13/20, 8:17 AM
Howard said...: Careful Mike Wolfe, you just stuck your neck out.; 4/13/20, 8:20 AM
Derve Swanson said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 4/13/20, 8:21 AM
rhhardin said...: Unions are wrong in the first place. X and Y shouldn't get more rights against Z by joining forces than they have individually. In particular they can't force Z to negotiate with them. Z can hire somebody else.

Against a farmer, who must harvest at a particular time, the leverage of unions is too high to make the business possible.

The out is don't use Americans. It's not that Americans won't do it, it's that labor law would kill the business if you used Americans, at least until labor law gets fixed.; 4/13/20, 8:23 AM
Derve Swanson said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 4/13/20, 8:23 AM
bagoh20 said...: There are a lot of things that are both essential and illegal like speeding on the way to the emergency room.; 4/13/20, 8:23 AM
rhhardin said...: I used to pick cherries in Michigan as a kid. One card punch for each bucket filled. At the end of the day you get money for your punches.

Rules: you must finish every tree you start. No low hanging fruit picking.

You can eat all you want.; 4/13/20, 8:25 AM
Derve Swanson said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 4/13/20, 8:32 AM
Derve Swanson said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 4/13/20, 8:35 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Mary is a psychopath. A bracero program is by definition LEGAL labor. The people I work with pay ABOVE minimum wage, follow Cal-OSHA and legally employ these foreign workers. Taxes are withheld. W-2s issued. You don’t know what you are talking about. Your solution of don’t grow that is stupid. Thank God wiser heads have prevailed and kept the food supply going. You don’t know anything about how I make a buck so fuck off. I’m providing a little info from the real world where answers aren’t simple and slogans don’t get the work done. It’s a complicated country. You can’t command that all jobs be done by Americans unless it’s a job you are willing to do.; 4/13/20, 8:38 AM
Ron Winkleheimer said...: Apparently rhhardin hasn’t heard of Caesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers.

Who wanted the border enforced because whenever he tried to organize a strike, the farm owners would import illegal aliens to break it. I believe he said something about a border being a picket line.; 4/13/20, 8:43 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: “Farm workers are essential. Illegal aliens are here illegally. Falling under both categories is not an irony. And it’s not a surprise that some will use this crisis to advance their own agendas.

How’d I do?”

Doing the work the media won’t do.; 4/13/20, 9:07 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: “I used to pick cherries in Michigan as a kid. One card punch for each bucket filled. At the end of the day you get money for your punches.”

Did the same as a kid in Washington. My first introduction to Mexicans. A mixed bag, as I recall. None named Corn Pop, though.; 4/13/20, 9:12 AM
Mark said...: If you think that's ironic, think about why it's not ironic at all. It's exactly what you'd expect.

Yes, I exactly do expect the media to mischaracterize and misreport the matter. And do a bit of reporting gotcha.; 4/13/20, 9:37 AM
Birkel said...: Mike (MJB Wolf)

I take your argument. I understand it. And I don't care. In effect you are arguing "Things are so out of control that the only path forward is to continue the illegal behavior." No, thank you.

The answer is to stop doing the illegal thing. Period. Full stop.

People work in oil fields in Texas heat and North Dakota cold. It's terrible, physical work. And they manage to employ Americans. What's that? The labor costs in that industry are very high and prices would have to rise? And we wouldn't enjoy the near-zero inflation that we have had these last 2/3 decades? Correct.

Big business has gotten its way and it has proven a poor trade-off for average Americans. We should quit while we are behind.; 4/13/20, 9:49 AM
Original Mike said...: The rejoinder to 'even $20/hour is not enough' is so obvious it's not worth making it.; 4/13/20, 9:55 AM
Ray - SoCal said...: Ca increased the minimum wage and changed the overtime rules, and applied them to farm workers.

Automation was ignored in much of agriculture due to cheap labor, but that is changing.

Cesar Chavez even got legislation to stop the uc’s from researching agriculture automation.; 4/13/20, 10:02 AM
Ken B said...: I disagree. The headline says they are “living with” a particular irony. The irony is *from their viewpoint*. That's why the “living with” is there. And from their viewpoint it is ironic to be told you are essential and forbidden at the same time.

So I think you need the misreading tag.; 4/13/20, 10:17 AM
rcocean said...: I am so tired of the Goddamn farmers and their use of illegal aliens. We have 1 million farm workers of ALL Kinds in the USA. we do not need 12-15 million illegals to supply 1 million farm workers. That's ingoring the fact that "Farmers" were claiming they needed illegals 25 years ago or their crops will rot in the fields.

Either mechanize your farms, or raise your wages - like every other business.; 4/13/20, 10:25 AM
n.n said...: Immigration reform (e.g. refugee crises, illegal immigration, labor arbitrage, Planned Parenthood mitigation) in lieu of emigration reform and human-oriented policies.; 4/13/20, 11:04 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: I am not a farmer or labor contractor. They are among the various people I work with in my capacity. Like wineries. Some wineries have vineyards and some do not. I am strictly interested in the agricultural side of things. I have relayed what I learned and shared it. For that, this psychopath assumes in her fevered imagination I recruit or rely on foreign labor and coercing females to work(!), when I do nothing of the sort. I would prefer an agribusiness that employed 100% Americans but that is not the case, so the next best thing would be regularizing the relationship so that SEASONAL workers could be employed as needed. Again, that isn't what is happening on the ground. And farmers can't just "stop using illegal labor" because you declare it. We have a country full of people manually cutting and sewing masks and yet you think all manual labor could be magically automated. IF they could have they would have. I also know people working on the automation end of things, and knowing when and how to pick fruits is extremely complicated to adapt AI to doing.

I work for an American company, based in Wisconsin. I employ Americans to do that work. But for the fact we have customers throughout the agricultural and service supply chains I would know far less about illegal workers, braceros and H1A visas. Other companies or business units I've run for this employer had completely different channels and concerns, but ironically those factories, especially the medical device makers, were often staffed by Latina's too. Americans, but still Latina. Make of that what you will.; 4/13/20, 11:11 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "Napa Valley wineyards are considered essential businesses these days, eh?

We shut down the public schools for the kids nationally, but you and your imported workers need your essential wine and massaging American labor laws -- and calling for relaxations in times of national pandemic"

It's a fair point. As so many have pointed out, there's an unpleasant subtext to all this. Not just essential and nonessential, but disposable and indisposable. Not attacking Mr. Wolf, but someday there's going to be a conversation about this.; 4/13/20, 11:11 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: The food supply broadly is considered essential. As is liquor apparently. Glad you're not criticizing me specifically, since I didn't write these laws or defend them. I'm just explaining how they work on the ground. I am NOT calling for relaxing the labor laws. It's not a "fair point" and Mary is a psycho for all her erroneous assumptions and vitriol. FARMING is essential.

When you start getting soviet about it and say THESE farmers should be supported but not THOSE farmers then you are meddling in the signals from market to farm, and the mismatch can lead to hunger. See "stalin and famine" on google for tips on how NOT to handle a famine.; 4/13/20, 11:30 AM
Original Mike said...: Mike, don't you know not to respond to Mary, per Althouse's instructions?; 4/13/20, 11:38 AM
Geoff Matthews said...: Birkel

What you said. If your business model is dependent on cheap, pliable labor, it isn't a business model that we should build our immigration policies around.; 4/13/20, 11:47 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Oh that explains it. What a psycho!; 4/13/20, 11:47 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: What you said. If your business model is dependent on cheap, pliable labor, it isn't a business model that we should build our immigration policies around.

Did you miss where I said the contractors pay these skilled foreign workers $18 to $20 per hour*. People are marching for $15 minimum wage for fast food but no American takers of these jobs in the fields and orchards at $18+/hour. So it ain't CHEAP to farm any way you slice it. Your wishing it could be automated or dreaming that Americans will take the jobs offered are way outside of the realm of real world experience. The "business model" is pay whatever it takes to get the job done and comply with the law to the extent possible.

*Does not include the Zoomba classes that Jaguar Labor Contracting (to pick one recent example) holds for their female crews (so they don't have to take public classes with skinny white girls), the free housing some contractors supply to keep workers safe, the nurses they pay to go out to the fields and see the crews because immigrants are too shy to go to American clinics, the Cal-OSHA trailers with showers, eye-wash stations, toilets, shade and drinking water placed in every field where workers are, and the many sponsors who donate scholarships and other goods and services to keep these employees happy and healthy.; 4/13/20, 11:57 AM
Original Mike said...: "People are marching for $15 minimum wage for fast food but no American takers of these jobs in the fields and orchards at $18+/hour."

Those people aren't looking for jobs.; 4/13/20, 12:08 PM
Matt said...: We've been operating under a fake economy for decades thanks to all the illegals. You think we're paying actual market value for our tomatoes? You think produce would be as cheap if it was produced in accordance with labor and wage laws, with inflation? Hotel room cleaning? Construction? Lawncare?

No way. We've all been living above our actual means because we've imported an underclass willing to do our shitty jobs for shitty pay. Did vegetables and fruit all rot before 1965 because no one picked them? Did lawns go unmowed and hotel rooms uncleaned because we didn't have foreingers to mow and clean for us? Of course not.

Illegals are nothing but a drain and a propping up of an unsustainable lifestyle. Deport them all.; 4/13/20, 2:08 PM
Gabriel said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/13/20, 4:33 PM
Gabriel said...: @Mike Wolf:Did you miss where I said the contractors pay these skilled foreign workers $18 to $20 per hour*. People are marching for $15 minimum wage for fast food but no American takers of these jobs in the fields and orchards at $18+/hour. So it ain't CHEAP to farm any way you slice it.

It's generally not cheap to comply with laws, but that's true for all of us. But if Americans and other legal workers won't do your job for $18 there is SOME wage they WILL do it for.

There is not a lot of sympathy in these comments for the rest of us being held to laws your sector gets to flout, so your sector can make more money.; 4/13/20, 4:41 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: “As is liquor apparently.”

Apparently but not actually. Which was MEG’s point. Mary may be graceless, particularly to Althouse (which I don’t understand-some sort of oil and water chick thing going on there), but she’s frequently incisive. Persistent but not psycho.

Not that I’d give her my address.; 4/13/20, 6:09 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: It amazes me that I describe how I describe the LEGAL way in which Mexican nationals are employed under the H1B program and almost every response to me is about illegals and how farmers should “automate.” Well you arrogant people should adjust your whole lifestyle if gray-area labor bothers you. Was it mentioning Napa that triggered you? Is it that grapes are only food if their on your table instead of bottled with a label?

Do you eat bacon? Chicken? Beef? All those packing houses in the Midwest get raided all the time. That won’t pass your illegal-labor purity test. Better lay off meat. Have your nails done? Are those Korean and Vietnamese women working in the stinking salon all legal? Probably not. Hey the NYT did a big series on horrible conditions in almost all nail salons. Did you enjoy dining out? Better not go out anymore once America reopens. After all, the dishwashers and prep cooks are often illegals! Purity! All restaurants who employ alien labor should shut down. Do you attend or work at a university. Why even those cleaning crews are almost 100% Spanish-speaking. Ditto hotel chains. OMG if you are so fucking pure you can’t eat a grape picker by a Mexican how will you ever stomach your clean hotel room? Maybe rethink any construction project in your future either unless you are checking the employee rolls of every subcontractor. If you live in the big city you have even more goods and services delivered by illegal workers.

Goddamn hypocrites.; 4/14/20, 8:07 AM