Sunday, February 26, 2017

Anxiety Grows in Florida’s Farm Fields: Soaring Strawberry and Tomato Prices Ahead

The Washington Post reports:
As President Trump moves to turn the full force of the federal government toward deporting undocumented immigrants, a newfound fear of the future has already cast a pall over the tomato farms and strawberry fields in the largely undocumented migrant communities east of Tampa....

Any day could be when deportations ramp up; that, to them, seemed certain. No one knew when or where. And so the community here is in a state of suspension. Children have stopped playing in parks and the streets and businesses have grown quieter, as many have receded into the background, where they feel safe.

“It’s all gringos here,” said Maria Pimentel, owner of the community staple Taqueria El Sol, who said she had never heard so much English in her restaurant in her life. Business had plummeted, she said, because her Spanish-speaking customers were “scared to come out of their house.”...

“We look at it like this: The country can either import its workforce or import its food,” said Dale Moore, executive director of policy for the Farm Bureau, which lobbies for easing restrictions to get foreign workers for agriculture.

“We’ve been fighting for this for years, but immigration has a different flavor with Donald Trump,” Moore said.

Growers here rejected Trump’s notion that farmworkers were competing with American workers, and hoped he would see more nuance to the issue.

“You can actually make a good living — $15, $20 an hour if you’re good at this — but the truth is Americans don’t want to do this work,” said one prominent Florida farmer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared Trump’s administration would target him for speaking out....

[Lourdes Villanueva, director of programs for the Redlands Christian Migrant Association] handed out a stack of documents that asked parents to name an emergency contact who would have authority to take custody of their children in case they were sent back to Mexico.

“No matter what, we should be prepared,” Villanueva said.
From Florida to California expect prices of products and services provided with the help of the undocumented to soar if Trump is successful in deporting most of them.

Also see: Fear on the Streets of San Francisco: Trump Deportation Policy

   -RW

4 comments:

  1. “You can actually make a good living — $15, $20 an hour if you’re good at this — but the truth is Americans don’t want to do this work,”

    If I was a teenager I would jump at this. I know I wouldn't be the only one. He is lying.

    "she had never heard so much English in her restaurant in her life."

    Good. We are not a Hispanic colony. I am tired of seeing job ads that say if you do not bilingual and do not speak Spanish, do not apply.

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    1. "I am tired of seeing job ads that say if you do not bilingual and do not speak Spanish, do not apply."

      Prepare to be "tired" for the rest of your life, then. Luckily for America, business tend to respond to the demand for Spanish-speaking clerks, as they do to the demand for English-speaking clerks. It seems entirely pointless to me to whine about that.

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  2. This fear speaks to the power of the media more than anything. The Obama years saw deportations at a record pace and without the media pushing it nobody apparently noticed.

    Also, $15-$20/hr to pick strawberries? If so I may have done that as a teenager. Better money than I made at that age even after adjusted for inflation. And yes, I had jobs where I spent much to all of my entire shift outdoors. So my guess is this is either highly optimistic based on piece rates or a lie.

    "business tend to respond to the demand for Spanish-speaking clerks"
    Not exactly. Outside some customer service jobs and supporting overseas production facilities most companies require Spanish speaking employees because of a large number of existing employees that only speak Spanish.

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    1. Re: Jimmy Joe Meeker,

      ─ The Obama years saw deportations at a record pace and without the media pushing it nobody apparently noticed. ─

      The Media actually did report it. Many times. It was so-called "conservatives" who ignored the reports. There were protests and demonstrations against Obama's immigration policies which led to the D.R.E.A.M. Act and subsequent E.O.s

      ─ Better money [PICKING STRAWBERRIES UNDER THE GAWD-DAMNED SUN] than I made at that age even after adjusted for inflation. ─

      You mean "better" even accounting for air conditioning???


      ─ Outside some customer service jobs and supporting overseas production facilities [... blah blah blah] ─

      Do you claim to *know* the needs of businesses, Jimmy Joe? I don't think you're that clever. I don't think you're omniscient. How about that?

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