Boost in border patrols threatens migrant workers, regional farmers

Article from the D&amp;amp;C about migrant workers. Source: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080525/NEWS01/805250368/-1/archive1 <!--break--> Boost in border patrols threatens migrant workers, regional farmers James Goodman Staff writer Even on sunny days, Rosa Guiterrez keeps the windows covered on her mobile home in the Sodus area. Guiterrez ventures out to work in the apple orchards of Wayne County and makes occasional trips to the grocery store, but she is always on the lookout for federal border agents. &quot;I live in fear they'll come to the door,&quot; said the 22-year-old Guiterrez, a native of Mexico who has lived here without a visa for four years. Her fears are well-founded. Deportations in upstate New York have increased by 38 percent since 2005, and the number of border patrol agents along Lake Ontario has more than doubled in recent years. Border patrol officials declined to give specific numbers. Guiterrez is among the estimated 16,000 farmworkers who work in the fields of Monroe and the five surrounding counties during the course of a year. How many of these workers are, like Guiterrez, undocumented is unknown, although experts estimate that as many as half of them are. What is known, however, is that these workers — documented or not — are critical to harvesting crops and milking cows on local farms. A heightened sense of anxiety also is apparent among local farmers, who fear their crops will be left to wither and die in the fields for lack of people to harvest them. In the face of stepped-up enforcement, the farmers increasingly are turning to a special federal program, called H-2A, which allows importation of workers on a temporary basis. &quot;We can't afford to lose them,&quot; said Ontario County farmer Eric Hansen, 27. He recently used the program to bring 12 temporary workers from Mexico to help plant and later pick cabbage on his family farm in the town of Seneca. But the program is costly, since farmers must pay the expense of transporting the workers here and returning them to their homeland. In addition, H-2A is being applied more restrictively in New York, and farmers often find themselves mired in red tape. Also, the program has been prone to bureaucratic delays, which last year added an estimated $50,000 to the total expenses of five Seneca County grape growers using the program. Despite an initiative in Ontario County for farms to hire from the local workforce, farmers say that there are nowhere near enough local residents in the traditional work force willing to put in the long hours and do the strenuous work required of farmhands. Farmworker advocates say more has to be done, including offering higher pay, to make these jobs attractive to a local work force. They also say that undocumented workers should be provided an opportunity to become citizens. Meanwhile, the national debate over immigration reform has fizzled, and the undocumented population is being driven even further underground. &quot;This is a never-never land — an inexcusable lack of leadership at the national level in the White House and Congress to solve a problem that is crying for attention,&quot; said Stuart Mitchell, president and CEO of the Rochester-based Rural Opportunities Inc., a nonprofit group that helps farmworkers with jobs and housing. The migrations Farmers, both here and across the United States, have long depended on migrant workers to help harvest their crops. During both World War I and World War II, the federal government implemented programs that allowed workers to come to the United States temporarily to work in the fields. Some ended up staying. Undocumented workers were helped by the provisions in the 1986 Immigration and Reform Act, which resulted in about 3 million applying for amnesty. In western New York, most of the farmworkers initially came from Florida after World War II, with some resettling in Rochester as part of its growing African-American community. Today, Latinos, mostly from Mexico, make up much of the migrant stream. Although estimates vary, the Cornell Farmworker Program calculates that an agricultural work force of about 60,000 is needed to help with production of the $3.7 billion worth of agricultural goods sold annually in the state. About one-fifth of the state's 35,000 farms used the bulk of this labor force, with about 900 Wayne County farms employing about 4,000 workers alone. About 3,000 are currently used on the estimated 600 farms in Monroe County. Mary Jo Dudley, director of the Cornell program, said that about two-thirds of the farmworkers now live here year-round — compared with about a third two decades ago. Increased enforcement Farmers began feeling the pinch of more aggressive enforcement in 2006 in a very direct way. On an August morning almost two years ago, Debbie and Rodney Brown wondered why four farmhands didn't show up to help milk cows at their Half Dutch Farm in Clifton Springs, Ontario County. Then Rodney Brown visited their home. &quot;The TV was on. The food was on the counter. The lights were on — but nobody was there,&quot; said Debbie Brown. The couple soon learned the missing workers had been detained by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency because they lacked documentation showing they were here legally. Some migrant workers say an informal network has developed to report sightings of immigration and border patrol agents. &quot;I'm always living in fear,&quot; said Heriberto Rivera, 27, who is Guiterrez's boyfriend and lives with her in the mobile home. Like Guiterrez, Rivera came here without a visa in search of a better life. He said he's willing to put up with the aches and pains from working years on a ladder in orchards, filling a big bag strapped over his shoulder with apples, but feels the strain of constant worry. Scott VanDeWalle, who runs a 400-acre apple farm in the Wayne County town of Sodus with his brother Marshall and father Kenneth, similarly felt the reach of federal enforcement last season. He started with 15 local workers, who were helped by another 23 workers — 20 from Jamaica and three from Mexico — brought in under the H-2A program. By the fall, VanDeWalle said, 12 of the 15 local workers had been arrested for not having proper documentation. As a result, the farm this year planned to bring in 31 workers from Jamaica. Six have arrived; six more are expected next month. The H-2A program permits farmers to bring in workers on a seasonal basis at a set wage, now $9.70 an hour, if it can be shown there are no domestic workers to do the job. The number of workers authorized under this program in New York has nearly doubled in recent years — to almost 4,000. Hiring hassles But VanDeWalle's recent request for 19 more workers initially was not accepted. As with anyone using the H-2A program, VanDeWalle first had to advertise for workers who are citizens or are here legally. None applied. Still, his request was rejected. The letter that he received last month from the U.S. Labor Department faulted him for including in the job qualifications that workers have a minimum of six months' experience and be able to operate farm machinery. &quot;We have certain things that we want. They are telling us we don't need that,&quot; said VanDeWalle. VanDeWalle appealed the denial. Just before a judge was to consider the case earlier this month, he got a call from a lawyer at the Department of Labor saying his application had been accepted. Meanwhile, New York Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith said that Puerto Rico has threatened to sue the state because of the island's concern that Puerto Ricans are not being adequately considered for farm jobs in New York. Smith plans to meet with officials from Puerto Rico to make sure the applicants truly are interested in New York farm jobs. She also said farmers must advertise for the &quot;least necessary qualifications to get the job done.&quot; Farmers worry not only that they won't have enough workers but also that the workers will not have the skills to do the job. &quot;We are very concerned that we won't have the workers we need to bring in the crops in the fall,&quot; said Peter Gregg, spokesman for the New York Farm Bureau. Going underground Federal agents, say farmworker advocates and farmers, are much more visible these days, not only at bus and train stations but also in the parking lots of grocery stores frequented by farmworkers. But the surest sign of stepped-up enforcement has been the sharp spike in both deportations and border patrol agents in the Lake Ontario region. Deportations have risen from 2,095 in 2005 to 2,884 in 2007 for the region that includes upstate New York. Arrests by these border patrol agents, who can operate 100 miles inland, increased more than fivefold, from 400 in fiscal year 2005 to 2,191 last federal fiscal year. The deportation total includes undocumented immigrants detained by border patrol agents as well as those arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Accusations that federal agents are singling out Latinos for questioning have also surfaced. On May 4, for example, members of the Church of the Epiphany in Sodus said they saw two border patrol agents detain a man from Mexico on a bicycle across the street from the church. &quot;There was not any other reason to stop him,&quot; said the Rev. Jesus Flores, migrant ministry coordinator for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester. Immigration and border patrol officials say they don't randomly question anybody, but base their inquiries on evidence that someone is here without proper documentation, be it a visitor's visa or citizenship papers. &quot;We don't do racial profiling,&quot; said Ramon Rivera, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Federal officials are urging farmers to be more thorough in checking the documentation of the workers they hire. But farmers say that there's no certain way of doing that. &quot;Our problem is not his problem. His problem is to find illegals. Our problem is to keep the farm working,&quot; said Jamie VanArsdale, an owner of the Southview Farm in Castile, Wyoming County, after attending a recent presentation by Special Agent Robert Lucas in Groveland, Livingston County. And as deportations have shot up nationally as well as upstate, the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States have become more hidden. For Guiterrez, a day's work now usually means stints in the apple orchard lasting 10 to 12 hours at an hourly rate of $8 or $9. The amount can increase to $12 to $15 an hour during the fall harvest when workers often are paid by how much they pick. But with stepped-up enforcement, the windows are likely to remain covered on the mobile home Guiterrez rents with four other adults from Mexico and two of their children. Finger Lakes Migrant Health, which has community clinics in Geneva, Sodus and Port Byron, Cayuga County, has increased its visits to the homes of migrant workers who are fearful and sometimes unable to get to medical centers. &quot;We have found that these people won't come to the clinics,&quot; said Mary Zelazny, executive director of the organization. A home visit was clearly welcomed by Jose Gomez, a 54-year-old undocumented farmworker living in Williamson, Wayne County. He patiently sat in the kitchen of the home he rents while Brenda Cooley, a nurse practitioner working part time with Finger Lakes Health, took his blood pressure and tested him for diabetes. &quot;She is doing us a big favor,&quot; Gomez said. JGOODMAN@DemocratandChroicle.com

<p>Article from the D&amp;amp;C about migrant workers. Source: <a href="http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080525/NEWS01/805250368/-1/archive1">http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080525/...</a></p> <!--break--><p>Boost in border patrols threatens migrant workers, regional farmers</p> <p>James Goodman<br /> Staff writer</p> <p>Even on sunny days, Rosa Guiterrez keeps the windows covered on her mobile home in the Sodus area.</p> <p>Guiterrez ventures out to work in the apple orchards of Wayne County and makes occasional trips to the grocery store, but she is always on the lookout for federal border agents.</p> <p>"I live in fear they'll come to the door," said the 22-year-old Guiterrez, a native of Mexico who has lived here without a visa for four years.</p> <p>Her fears are well-founded. Deportations in upstate New York have increased by 38 percent since 2005, and the number of border patrol agents along Lake Ontario has more than doubled in recent years. Border patrol officials declined to give specific numbers.</p> <p>Guiterrez is among the estimated 16,000 farmworkers who work in the fields of Monroe and the five surrounding counties during the course of a year.</p> <p>How many of these workers are, like Guiterrez, undocumented is unknown, although experts estimate that as many as half of them are.</p> <p>What is known, however, is that these workers — documented or not — are critical to harvesting crops and milking cows on local farms.</p> <p>A heightened sense of anxiety also is apparent among local farmers, who fear their crops will be left to wither and die in the fields for lack of people to harvest them.</p> <p>In the face of stepped-up enforcement, the farmers increasingly are turning to a special federal program, called H-2A, which allows importation of workers on a temporary basis.</p> <p>"We can't afford to lose them," said Ontario County farmer Eric Hansen, 27. He recently used the program to bring 12 temporary workers from Mexico to help plant and later pick cabbage on his family farm in the town of Seneca.</p> <p>But the program is costly, since farmers must pay the expense of transporting the workers here and returning them to their homeland.</p> <p>In addition, H-2A is being applied more restrictively in New York, and farmers often find themselves mired in red tape. Also, the program has been prone to bureaucratic delays, which last year added an estimated $50,000 to the total expenses of five Seneca County grape growers using the program.</p> <p>Despite an initiative in Ontario County for farms to hire from the local workforce, farmers say that there are nowhere near enough local residents in the traditional work force willing to put in the long hours and do the strenuous work required of farmhands.</p> <p>Farmworker advocates say more has to be done, including offering higher pay, to make these jobs attractive to a local work force. They also say that undocumented workers should be provided an opportunity to become citizens.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the national debate over immigration reform has fizzled, and the undocumented population is being driven even further underground.</p> <p>"This is a never-never land — an inexcusable lack of leadership at the national level in the White House and Congress to solve a problem that is crying for attention," said Stuart Mitchell, president and CEO of the Rochester-based Rural Opportunities Inc., a nonprofit group that helps farmworkers with jobs and housing.</p> <p>The migrations</p> <p>Farmers, both here and across the United States, have long depended on migrant workers to help harvest their crops. During both World War I and World War II, the federal government implemented programs that allowed workers to come to the United States temporarily to work in the fields. Some ended up staying.</p> <p>Undocumented workers were helped by the provisions in the 1986 Immigration and Reform Act, which resulted in about 3 million applying for amnesty.</p> <p>In western New York, most of the farmworkers initially came from Florida after World War II, with some resettling in Rochester as part of its growing African-American community. Today, Latinos, mostly from Mexico, make up much of the migrant stream.</p> <p>Although estimates vary, the Cornell Farmworker Program calculates that an agricultural work force of about 60,000 is needed to help with production of the $3.7 billion worth of agricultural goods sold annually in the state.</p> <p>About one-fifth of the state's 35,000 farms used the bulk of this labor force, with about 900 Wayne County farms employing about 4,000 workers alone. About 3,000 are currently used on the estimated 600 farms in Monroe County.</p> <p>Mary Jo Dudley, director of the Cornell program, said that about two-thirds of the farmworkers now live here year-round — compared with about a third two decades ago.</p> <p>Increased enforcement</p> <p>Farmers began feeling the pinch of more aggressive enforcement in 2006 in a very direct way.</p> <p>On an August morning almost two years ago, Debbie and Rodney Brown wondered why four farmhands didn't show up to help milk cows at their Half Dutch Farm in Clifton Springs, Ontario County.</p> <p>Then Rodney Brown visited their home. "The TV was on. The food was on the counter. The lights were on — but nobody was there," said Debbie Brown.</p> <p>The couple soon learned the missing workers had been detained by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency because they lacked documentation showing they were here legally.</p> <p>Some migrant workers say an informal network has developed to report sightings of immigration and border patrol agents.</p> <p>"I'm always living in fear," said Heriberto Rivera, 27, who is Guiterrez's boyfriend and lives with her in the mobile home.</p> <p>Like Guiterrez, Rivera came here without a visa in search of a better life. He said he's willing to put up with the aches and pains from working years on a ladder in orchards, filling a big bag strapped over his shoulder with apples, but feels the strain of constant worry.</p> <p>Scott VanDeWalle, who runs a 400-acre apple farm in the Wayne County town of Sodus with his brother Marshall and father Kenneth, similarly felt the reach of federal enforcement last season.</p> <p>He started with 15 local workers, who were helped by another 23 workers — 20 from Jamaica and three from Mexico — brought in under the H-2A program.</p> <p>By the fall, VanDeWalle said, 12 of the 15 local workers had been arrested for not having proper documentation.</p> <p>As a result, the farm this year planned to bring in 31 workers from Jamaica. Six have arrived; six more are expected next month.</p> <p>The H-2A program permits farmers to bring in workers on a seasonal basis at a set wage, now $9.70 an hour, if it can be shown there are no domestic workers to do the job.</p> <p>The number of workers authorized under this program in New York has nearly doubled in recent years — to almost 4,000.</p> <p>Hiring hassles</p> <p>But VanDeWalle's recent request for 19 more workers initially was not accepted. As with anyone using the H-2A program, VanDeWalle first had to advertise for workers who are citizens or are here legally. None applied. Still, his request was rejected. The letter that he received last month from the U.S. Labor Department faulted him for including in the job qualifications that workers have a minimum of six months' experience and be able to operate farm machinery.</p> <p>"We have certain things that we want. They are telling us we don't need that," said VanDeWalle.</p> <p>VanDeWalle appealed the denial. Just before a judge was to consider the case earlier this month, he got a call from a lawyer at the Department of Labor saying his application had been accepted.</p> <p>Meanwhile, New York Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith said that Puerto Rico has threatened to sue the state because of the island's concern that Puerto Ricans are not being adequately considered for farm jobs in New York.</p> <p>Smith plans to meet with officials from Puerto Rico to make sure the applicants truly are interested in New York farm jobs. She also said farmers must advertise for the "least necessary qualifications to get the job done."</p> <p>Farmers worry not only that they won't have enough workers but also that the workers will not have the skills to do the job.</p> <p>"We are very concerned that we won't have the workers we need to bring in the crops in the fall," said Peter Gregg, spokesman for the New York Farm Bureau.</p> <p>Going underground</p> <p>Federal agents, say farmworker advocates and farmers, are much more visible these days, not only at bus and train stations but also in the parking lots of grocery stores frequented by farmworkers.</p> <p>But the surest sign of stepped-up enforcement has been the sharp spike in both deportations and border patrol agents in the Lake Ontario region. Deportations have risen from 2,095 in 2005 to 2,884 in 2007 for the region that includes upstate New York.</p> <p>Arrests by these border patrol agents, who can operate 100 miles inland, increased more than fivefold, from 400 in fiscal year 2005 to 2,191 last federal fiscal year.</p> <p>The deportation total includes undocumented immigrants detained by border patrol agents as well as those arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.</p> <p>Accusations that federal agents are singling out Latinos for questioning have also surfaced. On May 4, for example, members of the Church of the Epiphany in Sodus said they saw two border patrol agents detain a man from Mexico on a bicycle across the street from the church.</p> <p>"There was not any other reason to stop him," said the Rev. Jesus Flores, migrant ministry coordinator for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester.</p> <p>Immigration and border patrol officials say they don't randomly question anybody, but base their inquiries on evidence that someone is here without proper documentation, be it a visitor's visa or citizenship papers.</p> <p>"We don't do racial profiling," said Ramon Rivera, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.</p> <p>Federal officials are urging farmers to be more thorough in checking the documentation of the workers they hire. But farmers say that there's no certain way of doing that.</p> <p>"Our problem is not his problem. His problem is to find illegals. Our problem is to keep the farm working," said Jamie VanArsdale, an owner of the Southview Farm in Castile, Wyoming County, after attending a recent presentation by Special Agent Robert Lucas in Groveland, Livingston County.</p> <p>And as deportations have shot up nationally as well as upstate, the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States have become more hidden.</p> <p>For Guiterrez, a day's work now usually means stints in the apple orchard lasting 10 to 12 hours at an hourly rate of $8 or $9. The amount can increase to $12 to $15 an hour during the fall harvest when workers often are paid by how much they pick.</p> <p>But with stepped-up enforcement, the windows are likely to remain covered on the mobile home Guiterrez rents with four other adults from Mexico and two of their children.</p> <p>Finger Lakes Migrant Health, which has community clinics in Geneva, Sodus and Port Byron, Cayuga County, has increased its visits to the homes of migrant workers who are fearful and sometimes unable to get to medical centers.</p> <p>"We have found that these people won't come to the clinics," said Mary Zelazny, executive director of the organization.</p> <p>A home visit was clearly welcomed by Jose Gomez, a 54-year-old undocumented farmworker living in Williamson, Wayne County. He patiently sat in the kitchen of the home he rents while Brenda Cooley, a nurse practitioner working part time with Finger Lakes Health, took his blood pressure and tested him for diabetes.</p> <p>"She is doing us a big favor," Gomez said.</p> <p><a href="mailto:JGOODMAN@DemocratandChroicle.com">JGOODMAN@DemocratandChroicle.com</a></p>