Undocumented Dilemma      

   Inviting workers in; keeping crime out. 

   It's a long-standing problem begging for solution. Almost half our 1.4 million field workers are undocumented immigrants. Lobbying by the agricultural industry has allowed farm workers to be treated differently than others, under both political administrations.

   While America interred 100,000 Japanese during WWII, the government allowed millions of Mexicans to work on U.S. farms. Now, with murder charges against an undocumented field worker in Iowa, there is interest in requiring all U.S. companies to use the E-Verify system for all job applicants. Here's the problem:

   Farmers, ranchers and other business owners say passing an E-Verify bill would cripple their industries. Already, they struggle to recruit Americans to do the backbreaking work, and they operate under constant threat of I.C.E. raids. 

   Some would support mandatory electronic, worker verification but only if coupled with an overhaul of the guest-worker programs. The American Farm Bureau Federation claims that passing E-Verify alone would cause production to fall by $60 billion, while food prices would rise 5 to 6 percent. 

   When state governments took an enforcement-only approach: In Arizona, droves of workers left the state. In Alabama, some 80,000 left. Georgia had $140 million in unharvested crops.  

   Arizona had an average 2 percent drop in gross domestic product every year from 2010 to 2015. Also in 2015, while North Carolina had 489,000 unemployed, 6,500 field jobs attracted just 268 state workers; 163 showed up for work, and only seven finished the season. 

   Farmers say the solution is a nationwide, guest-worker program that improves on the H2A visa program. The Farm Bureau said the program is overloaded with regulations that often require farms to have immigration attorneys on staff just to fill out paperwork. And because the visas cannot be used for year-around workers, dairies, nurseries and livestock ranches are ineligible. 

   It seems that Congress could work this out if it wanted to do so.

USA TODAY

      Jimmy