Making a living in Vermont
Toolbox
Published: November 22, 2009
Immigration officials have sent a wave of fear through the dairy industry of Vermont and the Northeast by visiting farms and issuing subpoenas for employment records.
It is no secret that the Vermont dairy industry employs thousands of immigrant workers who are here without proper documentation. Until now enforcement of immigration laws has not been aggressive. But U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has initiated a new effort to visit 1,000 employers across the country to look at their hiring records. Vermont dairy farmers are among those employers.
As soon as word began to spread about the apparent crackdown, dairy industry advocates began to send out the alarm, with advice that farmers could call the state Agency of Agriculture for help. Vermont agriculture officials understand the degree to which Vermont agriculture depends on immigrant labor and the economic blow the state would suffer if federal authorities suddenly uprooted Vermont's farm workers.
Vermont's dilemma highlights the dysfunctional state of U.S. immigration law and the self-destructive effects of unnecessary enforcement efforts. The U.S. dairy industry is already reeling. Milk prices have reached historic low levels, creating an economic crisis that is driving farmers out of business and depressing the state's agricultural economy.
If the federal government takes steps to drive away the labor force on Vermont's farms, it would be a disruptive and costly blow to an industry already teetering on the edge. And there is no good reason to do it. The laws on the books may give federal officials authority to act, but arbitrary and capricious enforcement serves no one.
Vermont farmers did not one day decide they would hire Mexican laborers to replace Vermonters. In recent years they have had a hard time finding local workers who can be relied on to perform the demanding daily chores required on a dairy farm. It is not easy work.
Vermonters who own farms take on the job of twice-a-day milking, husbandry of animals, growing of crops, maintenance of machinery and the other jobs of the farm with the sense that their labor is an investment in their land, their heritage, their legacy. They need hired labor also, though workers without an ownership stake in the operation tend to be less willing to undertake the back-breaking early-morning and all-day work.
There are too many easier ways to make a better living. Mexican workers have stepped in willingly
Perhaps Immigration and Customs Enforcement sees this enforcement action as an economic experiment: Drive away the present labor force and see if local workers, hard-pressed during a recession, will fill the vacuum on the farm. But if there are 2,000 jobless Vermonters eager to go to work on the farm, let's see them. In recent years, they have been hard to find.
In a time of recession, with the dairy industry already under immense strain, it is foolish to carry out such an experiment. Rather, the latest crackdown points to the urgent need to reform the law to make it easier for immigrant workers to take up the slack on the nation's farms.
In response to the news of the crackdown in Vermont, Sen. Patrick Leahy said the immigration system was "broken" and "does not work well for anyone, and especially for dairy farmers and the workers they need to keep their farms running." He has urged reforms in the system of agriculture visas so that U.S. farmers can obtain the labor they need.
Leahy will have an opportunity to press his point in December when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appears for a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. She has authority over immigration, and she needs to hear about the damaging consequences of her department's crackdown on farm labor in Vermont. Leahy, chairman of the committee, ought not to let that opportunity pass.
Meanwhile, farm workers and their employers in Vermont are now living in fear because of an ill-conceived and unnecessary effort to drive away workers vital to Vermont's economy. The announcement by immigration officials of their latest action said they intended to end the unfair advantage of employers hiring illegal workers. Vermont farmers are not seeking an unfair advantage.
They are trying to survive.
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