How so. Why can't you get pickers?

I picked berries for 10 cents a quart when I was in middle school. There were plenty of pickers and none from foreign countries.

Slick, I miss those days and remember them fondly. All that went away about 35- 40 years ago. A lot of school kids were even semi decent pickers. You won't likely ever see that again.

White folks won't work out under the sun anymore. Can't hire school kids anymore and even if you could you wouldn't want them out there. Homeless folks only want handouts and won't work. Most of them are so messed up with drugs or mental issues you don't want them out there either.

That just leaves you with migrant workers. Many are sitting it out this year for fear of ICE. Just day before yesterday a van load of Guatemalans north of me on their way to a blueberry field got stopped by ICE and taken into custody.

I can imagine that farmer was less than pleased. He will likely lose part of his crop with temps in the upper 90's this week.

The wine grape folks are on pins and needles for the wine grape harvest starting next month.

I guess it's the new reality. I heard Trump saying that he loves farmers....we will see how it all shakes out, but a lot of us will be hurt big time.

We have been paying about $20-$25 hour. Cant pencil out to pay more than that.

White folks won't work out under the sun anymore. Can't hire school kids anymore and even if you could you wouldn't want them out there. Homeless folks only want handouts and won't work. Most of them are so messed up with drugs or mental issues you don't want them out there either.

That just leaves you with migrant workers. Many are sitting it out this year for fear of ICE. Just day before yesterday a van load of Guatemalans north of me on their way to a blueberry field got stopped by ICE and taken into custody.

I can imagine that farmer was less than pleased. He will likely lose part of his crop with temps in the upper 90's this week.

The wine grape folks are on pins and needles for the wine grape harvest starting next month.

I guess it's the new reality. I heard Trump saying that he loves farmers....we will see how it all shakes out, but a lot of us will be hurt big time.

walleye, there is a guest worker thing but it is so bureaucratic and cumbersome that most farmers can't or won't swing it. You have to provide housing, etc. In my dealings with government farm programs I always come out the loser.

The funny thing about ICE and removing people is, they don’t always follow the existing laws. The news services are full of arrests, detentions and removal to prisons of people who are citizens already. Or who have government issued documents to be legally here in the first place. If I looked Hispanic, was born here and had a tattoo ICE didn’t understand, I’d worry too.

BTW, I want to commend you guys for the respectful nature of the comments and inquiries. I appreciate it.

Don’t thank me, I have no respect for anyone who knowingly hires an illegal alien and complains about it when caught!

When a flood comes through town and destroys many businesses and residences, the ensuing cleanup does not generally abide by the same standards present before the flood. Debris is piled on the curb. Glass is not separated from paper, equipment is everywhere, etc. There has been a flood of illegal migrants, purposely allowed into the US the past four years. The cleanup of this flood of illegal migrants can not be corrected by past, “normalized” methods.

Yes, we need immigration - migrants coming into this country. But it needs to be regulated and legal. While the unstemmed flow of illegal immigrants was sometimes justified by “who is going to pick our food” - that was the furthest thing from the truth of the real reason.

I have a friend who, unfortunately for him, is required to live near a city due to his employment requirements. He had employed a lawn care company - all hispanic. No, he had not checked their legal status - they had equipment with the company name all over it and he said they looked legit to him. They had worked for him a couple years when another lawn care company contacted him - also legit looking equipment - and offered the same work at 25% less cost. He told his older lawn care company he was going with a new lawn care company and the old lawn care company - who turned out to be legally in the US - turned in the other lawn care company - also hispanics - for being here illegally. He said his older lawn care company employee spoke worse of the illegal migrant crisis than he did.

A massive two day flood is not cleaned up and the damage repaired in a week. It often takes years. Anyone with any common sense would realize the unstemmed four year flow of illegal migrants will take time to clean up. I am confident this administration can do it, and the methods may seem somewhat draconian - but this administration is not responsible for causing the immigration mess - but they have willingly shouldered the responsibility for cleaning up this mess.

VERY well stated White Cliffs! Tip-O-Hat to your ability to articulate and put thoughts to paper! I wrote Global, technical welding engineering papers quite well but when I try to write something with emotions, it quickly takes me and everybody else to the bottom of the barrel!

Don’t thank me, I have no respect for anyone who knowingly hires an illegal alien and complains about it when caught!

White folks won't work out under the sun anymore. Can't hire school kids anymore and even if you could you wouldn't want them out there. Homeless folks only want handouts and won't work. Most of them are so messed up with drugs or mental issues you don't want them out there either.

That just leaves you with migrant workers. Many are sitting it out this year for fear of ICE. Just day before yesterday a van load of Guatemalans north of me on their way to a blueberry field got stopped by ICE and taken into custody.

I can imagine that farmer was less than pleased. He will likely lose part of his crop with temps in the upper 90's this week.

The wine grape folks are on pins and needles for the wine grape harvest starting next month.

I guess it's the new reality. I heard Trump saying that he loves farmers....we will see how it all shakes out, but a lot of us will be hurt big time.