Immigration Reform Hasn’t Dried Up Pool of Farm Labor

Many California farmers feared they would have a hard time finding enough workers after tougher federal restrictions against using illegal aliens took effect last winter.

As with many fears, this one has not materialized, at least not yet.

A weekly farm labor report from the state Economic Development Department consistently lists labor surpluses in most agricultural areas of the state.

Several counties along the coast and in the Sacramento Valley reported surpluses of between 100 and 200 workers, and some San Joaquin Valley counties showed surpluses of up to 400 workers. Areas in-between harvests reported even higher surpluses--1,000 in Monterey County, 2,500 or more in Imperial County and 5,000 to 7,000 in Riverside County.

“The picture we are seeing now is pretty much the picture we have been seeing all along,” said Suzanne Schroeder, an Employment Department spokeswoman in Sacramento. “The immigration law has not made the impact that we’ve been able to document on any kind of major scale.”

Report Started 3 Years Ago

State employment officials began publishing the report three years ago to keep tabs on the labor situation during harvest months under the immigration law’s tightened sanctions against hiring undocumented workers. Each employment office in agricultural areas reports surpluses or shortages each week.

“We first started putting out the report because of publicity that we would have massive shortages in people to harvest California’s various crops,” Schroeder said. “We haven’t seen any evidence of that materializing.”

Schroeder said she does not have an explanation for the continuing surpluses in the fields but noted that they favor growers while shortages would give employees better opportunities for jobs at better wages.

“From the growers’ perspective, they always like to see a surplus, always like to have as many workers as they need,” she said. “From the farm workers’ point of view, they want to be at a place where they can do some work and not have a time when their skills and services aren’t needed.”

The state’s findings are confirmed by a survey that California Farmer magazine conducted among about 500 farmers, ranchers and agricultural service companies. That poll indicated that immigration reform has not yet significantly affected employment, pay or crop production.

Farmers who responded to the 46-page questionnaire said if immigration reform eventually does reduce the amount of seasonal help available, they probably will turn to farm labor contractors for more of their work force, letting the contractors absorb more of the paper work.

2nd Phase of Program

Any future trend toward a shortage in field help may be eased by the second phase of the immigration reform program that starts in October. The first phase, special agricultural workers or SAW sign-ups, was conducted last year to legalize the status of aliens who had worked on U.S. farms long enough to make them eligible to remain in the United States.

The new program is dubbed RAW for replenishment agricultural workers. The number of such workers allowed to enter the United States will be based on estimates of need nationwide provided by the secretaries of labor and agriculture. They sent the Immigration and Naturalization Service a letter last month indicating up to 50,000 RAW workers will be needed in the next fiscal year, said Howard R. Rosenberg, an agricultural labor management specialist for UC Cooperative Extension.

Ironically, the rules as tentatively laid out may indirectly encourage applicants to enter the United States illegally to avoid the more difficult task of applying from abroad by obtaining a registration card from a “qualified designated entity,” Rosenberg said.

Better Odds Cited

“What it all means for the RAW eligible in Mexico is that odds are going to be a lot better,” Rosenberg said. “There’s a lot more incentive to illegally cross now and be able to file that registration from within the United States than to try to follow the rules down there.”

He added that once people become eligible under that program to work on farms in the United States, they can work in California even if the state has a surplus of help.

“Under the free-market system, they can go anywhere in the United States where they can get a job,” Rosenberg said.