The State - News from Oct. 21, 1985

Farm workers who hold green cards allowing them to commute to the United States from Mexico must pay Social Security taxes on their U.S. wages, a federal appeals court has ruled. In doing so, the three-member panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by farm labor contractors that they weren’t required to deduct Social Security taxes from wages of hundreds of Mexican workers they supplied to growers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Michigan. The opinion by U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster of San Diego said federal law exempts some foreign workers from Social Security, including those who were admitted to the United States “on a temporary basis to perform agricultural labor.” However, commuter or “green card” workers who obtain visas as legal immigrants, can accept non-agricultural jobs and can “take up permanent residence” after their work is done, he said.