Growers Hail Parts on Search Warrants, Amnesty : Immigration Law: It Could Have Been Worse

From the flat lettuce fields of the South Bay to the sloping citrus orchards and avocado groves of Fallbrook, San Diego County farmers are breathing a collective sigh of relief these days.

Only a few short months ago, those in the beleaguered agricultural industry were sick with worry over the immigration bill moving through Congress, fearful that it would rob farmers of the migrant workers who are the backbone of the field labor force.

Instead, the landmark legislation President Reagan signed a month ago has left most local farmers murmuring a common refrain: It could have been worse.

“It’s not a perfect bill, and we’re all going to have to make some adjustments to get by in the new ballgame,” said Bob Vice, a Valley Center grower and Del Mar Fair Board member who was involved with the legislation through the state’s farm lobby. “But considering what might have been, I’d say agriculture came out looking pretty darn good.”

In particular, the bill provides the farm industry with a special, surprisingly generous, amnesty program that applies only to agricultural workers. The legislation also includes a long-sought requirement that U.S. Border Patrol agents obtain search warrants before entering private fields and groves to look for people in the United States illegally.

A third important victory, farmers say, is that the bill includes a so-called “replenishment program,” designed to permit an emergency infusion of foreign workers should a shortage in the agricultural labor pool occur.

The law also contains provisions that will make the transition period much easier on growers than on employers in other industries. Farmers may hire illegal aliens to work in the fields without penalty until Nov. 30, 1988; for other industries, the grace period expires in June, 1987.

After the grace period, growers will face relatively stiff penalties if they hire illegal aliens. Penalties range from fines of $200 to $2,000 for a first offense to a fine of $3,000 and six months in jail for a “pattern” of abuse. Merely failing to maintain proper records can bring a farmer fines of up to $1,000 per worker. (Illegal aliens make up an estimated 80% of the roughly 62,000 farm workers in the county at peak season.)

Despite the fact that the bill has several appealing aspects, local farmers and agricultural experts with a statewide perspective agree that the full impact of the law will not be known until the U.S. Justice Department drafts guidelines for its implementation.

These guidelines--covering everything from the amount of proof a worker must present in order to qualify for legal status to the administrative steps an employer must take to make sure a candidate is in the country legally--will determine whether the law lives up to its potential or becomes a bureaucratic nightmare for farmers, according to industry sources familiar with the bill.

“Congress has provided the attorney general with a very bare skeleton, and we’re all watching anxiously to see what sort of meat will end up on it,” said George Daniels, general manager of the Farm Employer’s Labor Service, a Sacramento-based agricultural consulting firm with clients throughout California.

“My greatest fear is that the various agencies involved in writing these regulations will interpret the law too restrictively. If that happens, it will be a disaster for all concerned.”

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) says that many uncertainties remain and that he sympathizes with the farmers’ uneasiness. He believes, though, that government officials will consider the concerns of agriculture in drafting the regulations and will produce a “sensitive” and “workable” system.

“There are a lot of unknowns right now, and our farmers are understandably nervous,” said Packard, whose 43rd District includes most of the farmland remaining in San Diego County. “But in the end I think they will view the law as a positive thing allowing them to finally get the labor they need legally.”

The federal guidelines will be prepared over the next six months by the Justice Department in consultation with the U.S. Departments of Labor and Agriculture and with other agencies affected by the immigration bill.

Perhaps the greatest worry expressed by local farmers is that these regulations will create an unwieldy bureaucratic system that will make them difficult and costly to administer. If that occurs, growers say, farmers will either be forced out of business or decide to ignore the law and continue to use illegal labor despite the risks.

“Elements of this bill have the potential for creating a paper blizzard, and that scares me,” said Charlie Wolk, an avocado and citrus grower with 200 acres in Fallbrook. “We could end up with a system that makes it so onerous, expensive and cumbersome to comply with the law that people will either go under trying . . . or break it.”

Among the questions about the impact of the bill that are in the air at forums, seminars and brainstorming sessions under way in agricultural circles throughout San Diego County and elsewhere are:

- To what degree will growers be required to monitor their own labor forces?

- What sort of proof will farmers be required to show that they have checked workers’ identification cards and believe them to be official?

- Will growers be penalized for accepting fraudulent identification cards, which are already selling briskly in border towns?

- Will the paper work required by the Immigration and Naturalization Service be simple or will it demand an lawyer’s training to complete?

- What kind of proof will an illegal alien be required to show in order to convince authorities that he qualifies for temporary residency status?

- Where will the Immigration and Naturalization Service establish centers to screen workers who may qualify for temporary work permits?

- The amnesty program for agricultural workers applies only to those who work on “perishable crops.” What will that category include?

The answers to these questions, which farmers consider the keys to being able to survive under the new law, will not be available for some time. If the legislation is interpreted in their favor, it could have a positive effect on the agricultural industry, many San Diego County farmers say.

And if the interpretations do favor them, it will be no accident. The farm lobby, worried that the bill could cripple or even doom their industry, mounted a well-organized and well-financed campaign for a law that would be sensitive to their needs.

Farmers from California and neighboring Western states, working through an organization called the Farm Labor Alliance, fought for months against a version of the bill that would have imposed sanctions on employers but done nothing to guarantee a stable supply of field labor.

Most farmers agree that the effort, though expensive, was quite successful. The most obvious victory for agriculture is the amnesty program for farm workers who harvest “perishable” crops.

Agriculture--more than 200 commercial crops are produced on roughly 85,000 acres of farmland--ranks fourth in terms of gross sales among industries in the county, behind tourism, government and manufacturing. The total value of the county’s farm crops in 1985 was $550 million, and San Diego County is the state’s 13th richest in agricultural production.

The amnesty provision covering all industries allows all aliens who have lived in the U.S. continuously from before January, 1982, to apply for temporary resident status and for work permits. Under the section that applies only to agriculture, temporary legal status can be obtained by anyone who can demonstrate that he or she has done seasonal farm work for a total of 90 days between May 1, 1985 and May 1, 1986.

Further, a farm worker may apply for permanent resident status if he or she has worked in agriculture for a total of 90 days in each of the three 12-month periods prior to May 1, 1986.

“We were the only industry that got (the special amnesty program), and I’ll tell you we worked hard for it,” said Vice, who owns a wholesale nursery and attended numerous meetings in Washington during the congressional debates on the bill. “After all, it was a life-or-death issue for us.”

The search warrant requirement--which the Reagan Administration and many lawmakers opposed--is another big victory for farmers. For years the agricultural industry had complained that it was unfair to allow law enforcement agents to enter their property unannounced while a warrant was required for access to other employment centers.

“It always grated me. I thought it was downright un-American,” said Wolk, whose crop includes avocados, citrus fruits and fuyu, a member of the persimmon family. “It was a civil rights issue, really, a symbolic thing. If people obey the law and we do, indeed, have a ‘legal’ labor force, then these warrants won’t even be necessary.”

Growers say another positive result of the law will be a change in workers’ living conditions. Once the fear of La Migra is gone, they predict, farm employees will be able to integrate more easily and comfortably into society.

“The common perception is that the growers make their workers live in hovels and spider holes,” Vice said. “Actually, the workers live that way because they are in fear of being apprehended by the Border Patrol. Once the farm worker gains status, he won’t need to live that way and you’ll see a quantum improvement in social conditions.”

That’s good not only for the field hand but also for growers: “It will be nice to see my men coming to work bright-eyed in the morning rather than exhausted from a night in the outdoors spent worrying about a Border Patrol raid,” said Steve White, a partner in Cal Flavor Inc., an Escondido-based grove management and packing firm.

Workers’ rights advocates agree that the bill could usher in both improved living conditions and pay increases for workers, most of whom now receive little more than the minimum wage. They dispute, however, the argument that foreign laborers are now living in substandard conditions by choice.

“I don’t have any sympathy for the grower who fails to provide decent shelter and leaves his worker no option but to live in a cave,” said Charles Wheeler, director of the National Center for Immigrants’ Rights in Los Angeles. “If an employer can’t ensure his workers have adequate living conditions, then he shouldn’t be in business.”

Wheeler believes that improvements in the farm workers’ lot will come from competition in the marketplace inspired by the new law. Once laborers have legal status, they will seek out jobs providing the best pay and the best living conditions.

“It’s a dollars-and-cents question, really,” Wheeler said. “If people are not afraid of immigration agents, they will be able to demand a little more and will feel more secure about finding the best job available.”

The provision allowing for the replenishment of the farm labor supply is another important aspect of the immigration bill. Beginning in 1990, the Secretaries of Labor and of Agriculture will make annual assessments of the supply of agricultural workers. If there is a shortfall, a sufficient number will be recruited from a workers’ pool established south of the border.

Although farmers considered it vital, conservative lawmakers fought such the idea, arguing that Americans could be recruited to fill the jobs if migrant workers became scarce.

Although they are pleased with the provision, some growers fear that, if left in the hands of the federal government, it may not be effective in bolstering a dwindling labor supply during peak periods.

“The replenishment program looks real good, but it has to be run effectively and deliver workers on quick notice to be of use,” said Charles Badger, who runs a Rancho Santa Fe grove management business and serves as president of the San Diego County Farm Bureau.

If the program gets mired in “government inertia, the guy who’s desperately looking for help to pick strawberries or plant tomatoes in a hurry is going to get hurt,” Wolk said.

A related worry is the fear that agricultural workers, once they qualify for general amnesty, might flee the fields for less strenuous, higher-paying jobs.

“Almost the minute a green card is issued to someone in agriculture, he finds greener pastures,” said Charles Woods, executive secretary of the San Diego County Farm Bureau. “It’s hard work for low pay. A smart fellow looking for a better wage might rather make autos in a factory or work in a fast food restaurant.”

If those running the replenishment program cannot quickly provide new workers to take the place of those who have moved on, the resulting labor shortage will cut the supply of produce and ultimately drive up consumer prices, Woods warned. It also will put more pressure on growers, who already face high land and water costs and competition from foreign producers who do not have to worry about pesticide laws and other regulations.

“We may well end up with a labor shortage, and it will be just one more difficulty farmers will have to overcome to compete with foreign producers and try to stay alive around here,” said Woods, a veteran grower who now tends an apple crop in Julian.

Officials who aid foreign workers were skeptical of growers’ fear that laborers may flee the fields once they become legal residents.

“People do not stay in agriculture because they are undocumented, but rather because they lack the skills or connections to find jobs that pay more in the city,” Wheeler said.

Still, Wheeler believes that many workers may have trouble qualifying for the special agricultural amnesty. They may either lack sufficient proof or find it hard to “convince their employer to cooperate in signing the forms, which may reveal that the farmer failed to pay minimum wage or didn’t make proper reports to Social Security.”

Those farm workers who do obtain residency status and employment permits, however, are apt to pressure the agricultural industry for improvements in wages and conditions, which could result in the price increases forecast by some growers, he said.

“Assuming that employer sanctions cut off the option of hiring undocumented workers, then farm workers will raise pay through strikes and other types of labor organizing,” Wheeler said. “That would mean an across-the-board increase for everyone.”

One other concern is echoing through the groves and tomato fields of San Diego County as farmers attempt to come to grips with the immigration bill. Many growers are convinced that, although the bill applies to all employers who use illegal labor, agriculture will be singled out for enforcement.

“They’ve always picked on us before--because our open fields make us easy targets--so I don’t see why that would change,” Wolk said.

“After all, do you really believe the Border Patrol is going to stomp into Beverly Hills and check those mansions to see if their maids and butlers have got legal status? Somehow I doubt it.”