LAKELAND (Florida) LEDGER

July 12, 2006

Worker Deficit in '06-'07 Feared For Harvest

By KEVIN BOUFFARD
The Ledger

LAKELAND -- Florida citrus officials worried Tuesday that the current shortage of harvesting workers will continue into the 2006-07 season if Central American migrants stay home for fear of being permanently barred from the U.S. labor market.

"If we can't get fruit off the tree, it's a serious issue," said Steve Ryan, the chairman of the Florida Citrus Commission, whose company lost 22 workers recently because of their fears over their future immigration status.

Ryan -- the president of Orange-Co Inc., an Arcadia grower with 14,000 grove acres -- said nobody expects Congress to resolve the impasse over immigration reform before the November election.

"By then, we're picking fruit," he added.

Ryan spoke Tuesday at a meeting of a commission advisory on the citrus industry's future, which he chairs.

He and other growers also worried the industry is losing public support for a guest-worker program that would allow foreign workers in this country to harvest citrus and other crops. They pointed to the proposed ordinance in Avon Park that would penalize local citizens for hiring or renting to illegal immigrants.

"This whole thing has changed in the last 90 days. There's a whole different mood because of the `dastardly' things we do," said a sarcastic Raphord Farrington, vice president of marketing for Ben Hill Griffin Inc. in Frostproof. "If we don't act, Congress is going to give us something that's based on a poll."

Ryan said proposals such as the Avon Park ordinance are being repeated in towns across the country, particularly in Texas, California and other states with large illegal immigrant communities.

The measures are creating a hostile environment in those communities for Hispanic workers, even ones legally allowed to work in the United States, he said.

"If the city (Avon Park) adopts this measure, we could have legals afraid to come because of harassment," agreed John Barben of Barben Groves in Avon Park. Florida growers saw a large flight of illegal immigrant harvesters in the middle of May because of rumors over immigration reform proposals in Congress. That shortage may mean millions of boxes of late-season Valencia oranges may not be picked this season.

The most widely spread rumor concerned the guest-worker program in the U.S. Senate's immigration bill, said Ryan and David Wheeler, a citrus commissioner and president of Wheeler Farms Inc. in Lake Placid, which has more than 4,000 acres.

Many workers were told that they would never be eligible for the future guest-worker program if they were arrested and deported, Ryan and Wheeler said. So they chose to return home and wait until Congress passes a new immigration bill.

The fear is the workers will stay home next fall if Congress fails to agree on an immigration bill.

The discussion on immigration and the labor shortage came at the end of Tuesday's final meeting of the advisory committee. The committee will present its recommendations to the Citrus Commission at its July 19 meeting.