Immigrant Farm Laborers

"High Risk Cheap Labor"

This story from CNN discusses undocumented agriculture workers in farms across Washington State. The story includes several interesting pieces of information from various groups and individuals, much of which I found interesting. For example, a farm owner interview said as much as 70% of his workers are undocumented.

What was most intriguing, however, was a claim made by immigration attorney Tom Roach, who stated that the use of the online "E-Verify" tool (which allows employers to verify the social security number of their employees) is not mandatory because federal authorities know that doing so would cripple, at least in part, the agriculture industry. Other statements made in the video also allude to bureaucratic complicity in the hiring of undocumented workers. Specifically, in an interview clip with Assistant Homeland Security Secretary John Morton, the secretary states that despite presidential directives to increase scrutiny on employers as well as undocumented workers, organizations like Immigrations and Customs Enforcement still work closely with employers. To me, this suggests that certain government bureaucracies are not sincerely interested in curbing the employment of undocumented workers. Rather, they pursue individual workers and resort to minor measures such as fines to create the appearance they are taking action, when in fact they wish to preserve the current agricultural system for financial reasons.