Farm Workers Also Hold Back on First Day to Seek Amnesty

The application process for legalization of undocumented farm workers began slowly Monday amid widespread anxiety, fear and confusion over the new immigration law and scattered reports of shortages in agricultural labor up and down the state of California.

Like those illegal aliens eligible for general amnesty who have been applying for legalization in a slow and cautious stream since May 5, farm laborers appear to be in no rush for judgment. Most observers say they probably are holding back to see what happens to those who apply first.

“I still hear reports that they’re afraid they’ll get picked up if they come in,” said Mark Hill, chief of the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s legalization office in Oxnard.

Near closing time Monday, only 10 farm laborer application forms had been filed with officials at the office in the heavily farmed Oxnard area. Other INS legalization offices in agricultural areas of the state reported similarly small numbers.

In Orange County, only five farm laborers turned in completed applications Monday. The Santa Ana legalization office, one of three in the county, was expected to receive the majority of agricultural worker applications but received just one, even though employees there have handed out nearly 2,000 forms in the past month.

“They’ve got 18 months to get their applications in,” said Santa Ana office director George Newland. “They’re still getting their documentation together--there’s really no rush.”

The INS said it expects some 400,000 farm workers nationwide to apply for legal resident status, with California, the largest crop producer in the nation, expected to produce the highest numbers. Farm workers have 18 months to apply for legalization. However, those facing deportation proceedings must apply within 30 days.

While general amnesty applicants must prove they have resided in the United States since Jan. 1, 1982, farm workers may qualify by proving they have lived in the country for a minimum of 90 days while laboring in seasonal, perishable agriculture during the 12-month period ending May 1, 1986.

Much of the farm worker application processing is expected to be done by programs set up by organizations, such as growers’ associations and unions.

But some of these groups complain that their efforts have been hampered by inadequate supplies of government application forms. For example, the Alien Legalization for Agriculture centers, a network of offices set up by Western growers to help legalize farm workers, had asked for 100,000 application forms from the INS but received only 100. Similarly, some INS legalization offices did not have a sufficient supply of forms.

Besides general confusion over the complex law, there is anxiety among workers over how they will be able to prove that they were employed. Many had jobs at a number of different farms, in several counties and even in different states--all within an industry that is notoriously poor at record keeping.

There also was confusion about what farm commodities qualify as seasonal and perishable and thereby allow undocumented workers in those crops to seek legalization. Department of Agriculture officials announced their final decisions on that issue Friday, but on Monday even some INS officials remained confused about which crops qualify and which do not.

“We haven’t received approval for cut flowers,” said Hill in Oxnard, where flower growing is a major industry.

Cut Flowers, Not Cotton

Cut flowers, in fact, are included on the Department of Agriculture list of qualifying crops. Cotton, however, is not.

A young farm worker from Mexico City, now living in the Fresno area, who uses the pseudonym Juan Gallosos, worked the requisite three months in agriculture last year, but half of it was in cotton. So, apparently, he will not qualify for legalization. What will he do?

“What can I tell you?” Gallosos asked. “Shall I go? Shall I stay?”

“A lot of workers are going back to Mexico,” maintained J. Roy Gabriel, legislative director of labor affairs for the California Farm Bureau Federation. “They’re not sure this thing is going to work out.”

“People are afraid and don’t know what to do,” said Don Jordan, foreman on a fruit orchard near Winters in Northern California.

He said only cool weather, which slows the ripening process, has prevented a labor shortage in the orchard.

‘Could Wind Up Short’

“We’re scooting by with approximately 60 pickers,” Jordan said. “If the weather would change, we could wind up short anywhere from 20 to 40 to 50 people.”

In Central California, grape grower Don Laub, president of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, reported a similar problem.

“There are isolated shortages around here,” he said. “We don’t know what to do, because the people aren’t coming back.”

In Santa Paula in Ventura County, labor contractor Ralph De Leon, who provides workers for citrus and avocado growers, also has felt the labor shortage.

“I could easily hire 75 to 100 people,” he said. “I’m getting calls from people that I don’t even harvest for . . . and that’s unusual.”

‘There’s No Cushion’

In San Diego County, Peter Mackauf, operator of Carlsbad Tomato Co., says he is not currently facing a labor shortage but notes that the usual “cushion” of extra workers to replace those who migrate north is not available this year.

“It isn’t that we’re down,” he explained, “but we don’t have the standby unemployed, undocumented workers that we’ve seen in the past. There’s no cushion. . . . There isn’t the same rate of replenishment.”

One reason there seem to be fewer workers crossing the border, Mackauf said, is because of misinformation and rumors among farm workers about the new law.

“We’ve heard reports,” he said, “that they’ve been told that if they got caught (entering the country illegally) now that they’d be put in jail for six months.”

Deportation remains the standard penalty for illegal entry.

Border Arrests Down

For whatever reason, the 34,962 arrests in April for illegal border crossings in the San Diego area was a five-year low for the month and represented less than half the number of arrests in April, 1986.

Another roadblock is the new law’s provision that farm workers who returned to Mexico and did not re-enter this country by May 1, must apply for legal U.S. residency status in Mexico.

That would appear to be a formidable task.

Information regarding the legalization program is available in person or by mail at the nine U.S. consulates in Mexico and at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, according to Dona Sherman, spokesman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs in the State Department.

The application, with supporting documentation of farm employment in the United States, may then be mailed to the embassy in Mexico City. But the final interview for the issuance of documents recommending legalization must be done in person in Mexico City, no matter where in the country the applicant lives, Sherman said.

Suit to Shelve Deadline

“Confusion and mess,” chided Ramon Arias, regional counsel for California Rural Legal Assistance in San Francisco. “If you’re in Mexico, how in the hell are you going to get those (employment) records?” he asked. “What are they going to do?.”

CRLA is suing in federal court to set aside the May 1 deadline so that foreign farm workers can enter the United States to apply for legalization.

Of course, not all the Mexican farm workers affected by the immigration law remain in Mexico or went back even temporarily after passage of the law.

Alex Jiminez was afraid to.

Jiminez, 27, from the state of Nayarit, has five children between the ages of 18 months and nine years living with his parents south of the border. Jiminez, who lives in the Fresno area and works the crops in the Central Valley, has never seen his youngest child because he canceled his trip home when the new law was signed last November, figuring that with all the uncertainties it was more prudent to stay in California.

Wants to Bring Children

Now Jiminez and his wife, Leticia, both hope to qualify for legalization as farm workers with the help of El Concilio de Fresno Immigration Project.

Alex is optimistic. After legalization, he wants to become a U.S. citizen and he wants to bring his children to California, even if he has to hire a coyote to smuggle them across the border.

But Leticia is worried about her chances of qualifying for legalization, because the couple’s joint efforts, picking and pruning in the fields, were paid for in checks in Alex’s name only.

Beyond that, Leticia is not enthralled by the idea of eventual U.S. citizenship. Working in California is one thing, she says, but when it comes to living, she would rather be in Mexico.