Not satisfied with 10 figure annual govermment subsidies, the agriculture industry is now demanding that taxpayers subsidize their payroll by immediately making citizens of 1.5 million illegal immigrants.

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation that will put 1.5 million illegal immigrant farm workers and their relatives on a path to United States citizenship by granting them immediate legal residency.

Claiming that they must help provide a labor pool for the country?s multi billion-dollar agriculture industry, the lawmakers proposed a bill that will grant a so-called ?blue card? to illegal immigrants (and their relatives) who have worked in agriculture for 150 days in the past two years.

. . .A large and powerful agriculture trade association called the Western Growers, applauded the ally senators, saying that the industry has been hurt by a growing labor shortage crisis brought about by an unworkable immigration policy. Providing legal status for farm workers, however, would provide a long term solution to the problem.

And what problem, exactly, is it that we are attempting to solve? Employers may consider it a problem that they can’t hire people at the wage they want to hire them at, but that doesn’t make it a problem for society. They just need to suck it up and pay the wages that the market demands, rather than try to fix the deck by radically and unnecessarily flooding the labor market in an attempt to decrease wages.

If they can’t afford to pay the market rate, it means there is something wrong with their business model. We don’t need to keep them afloat with yet another massive subsidy. We have the greatest and most powerful food production system in the world. We’re not going to starve if a few bad business models are forced out. Agriculture needs to learn to stand on its own two feet and stop demanding government handouts. If these people want to become citizens, they should get in line and follow the legal process like everyone else.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS