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Georgia gits tough on illegal immigrants

Bob Morris, on Jun 25, 2011, 10:16 am

"Who would have thought chasing farm workers out of the state would result in a shortage of farm workers?"

And discovers their crops will now be rotting in the fields. Well, duh.

The governor of that fine state suggests that perhaps 2,000 criminals on probation could be hired to harvest the fields. I am not making this up.

Somehow, I suspect that would not be a partnership made in heaven for either party.

Category: News | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)

  • Pat Hartley

    I read about the effects of the new law in an article in the LA Times last week that had the caption: “Labor contractor Don Pedro — like farmers across Georgia — is worried that the state’s tough new immigration law is scaring away an illegal immigrant workforce.”

    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-newlatinosouth-farmworkers-story,0,3768292.htmlstory

    Georgia can revisit its storied past. Cue in song by Sam Cooke:

    (Well, don’t you know)
    That’s the sound of the men working on the chain ga-a-ang
    That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang

  • http://homelessonthehighdesert.wordpress.com Ten Bears

    I picked this up on the thirteenth. Digby wrote about it last week. None of the probationers could keep pace. Pay records showed the best filled only 134 buckets a day, and some as little as 20. They lingered at the water cooler behind the truck, sat on overturned red buckets for smoke breaks and stopped working to take cell phone calls.

    I had to chuckle though, having tried a bit of that myself as a young man, at the one white dog who actually made it through the day…

    By the afternoon, Dawson, 24, on probation for commercial burglary, on his fourth day of fieldwork had sweated through his shirts, and his steps had become labored. His arms and back were sore, but he continued to work after other probationers had quit or were sitting under the shade of the truck. In a quiet sign of mercy, a Latino supervisor helped Dawson fill his bucket and walked it to the truck.

    Again, having done so, I see it not as a quiet sign of mercy but as a measure of respect. He earned it.

    • http://polizeros.com Bob Morris

      Agreed