21 Apr 2025 9:10 pm
Roughly Half of Hired Crop Farmworkers Lack Legal Immigration StatusCannonpointer » Yesterday, 9:05 pm » wrote: ↑And just so ya know? When I was marketing for a privately owned pizzeria chain on the east coast, I used the H2B Visa system for seasonal help. I would bring about 20 or so young people from various ports of call - mostly Irish and Russian kids - to help me handle the temporary demands of the high season. These were 90 day wonders. Hell, I was so taken by some of the Irish kids that I went and spent a week in the Emerald Isle dropping in on them. One of the Russian kids I brought in was born in Estonia. His only citizenship was Soviet. So even though he was born in Estonia, he was not a citizen of Estonia. When the Soviet Union had gone gently into that good night, he had become a man without a country that very moment. Very interesting fellow. He'd seen some hard times, that one. He'd been to a few important cross roads at an early age.
Oh - also? I sponsored some MORE Irish kids at a boutique hotel on Union Square in downtown San Francisco. I believe there were 8 of them. Used them as room service runners. They were drinkers. Not worth a damn on day shift, but hard runners on swing.
The pretense that people have to sneak into the United States for work is absolute propaganda and poppycock. All an employer has to do is step up and ask - there are agencies that do all the paper work FOR you. I had to sign a few forms that they prepared. THEY decided country of origin. I just took what they sent me. But generally, the majority of my workers in any given season would be from the same country. It was like shopping for people - made me realize how gratifying it must have been for my ancestors when they bought Murdock's ancestors.
The share of hired crop farmworkers who were not legally authorized to work in the United States grew from roughly 14 percent in 1989–91 to almost 55 percent in 1999–2001; in recent years it has declined to about 40 percent. In 2020–22, 32 percent of crop farmworkers were U.S. born, 7 percent were immigrants who had obtained U.S. citizenship, 19 percent were other authorized immigrants (primarily permanent residents or green-card holders), and the remaining 42 percent held no work authorization. The share of workers who are U.S. born is highest in the Midwest, while the share who are unauthorized is highest in California.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-eco ... alifornia.