Farm Workers
“Growers Say U.S. Wrong, Labor Is in Short Supply” (Jan. 5) describes a number of farmers complaining that not enough farm workers are available, due to the INS picking up field hands and deporting them as illegal immigrants. This seems hard to believe, since as part of the amnesty law of 1986 approximately 1 million illegal immigrants were granted amnesty because they were considered farm workers. These individuals did not have to fulfill the general requirements applicable to the other 5 million illegal immigrants who went through the amnesty. The only requirement was to prove that they were farm workers.
I would like to know what happened to all these individuals that all of a sudden a shortage of farm hands is affecting growers in our state.
ALBERT MERCADO
Los Angeles
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