ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE

December 6, 2004

Forced labor

Abuse case in Albion underscores need for immigration reform.

It's hard not to wonder the extent of so-called "forced labor" in the Rochester region in the wake of a former farm labor contractor's admission that she treated illegal farmworkers like indentured servants.

Law enforcement officials and farmworker advocates doubt that the problem is widespread. But rather than hope they're right, the case of Maria Garcia should be a catalyst for President Bush and Congress to get serious about immigration reform in 2005.

Garcia, currently a Texas resident, lived in Orleans County when she transported young Mexican men from near the Arizona border to Albion to do farm labor. The Mexican nationals, who were provided false documents enabling them to work, were given little or no pay and were told they couldn't leave until debts were paid off. Garcia was charged under a new federal law after the migrant workers escaped and sought help.

Forced labor? This sounds more like modern-day slavery.

The federal Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention law, used for the first time in the Garcia case, looks like an effective punishment tool. But what's needed to prevent horror stories like this one is substantive immigration reform.

True, President Bush put his plan on the table as the presidential campaign started to heat up last year. But he has said little about it since.

Meanwhile, a compromise measure supported by agriculture organizations such as the New York Farm Bureau and farm labor advocacy groups such as Rural Opportunities of Rochester has been languishing for more than a year.

Bush prefers his proposal over the so-called "AgJobs" bill because it doesn't grant any form of amnesty to illegal workers. He ignores the fact that in a rare display of unity, farmworkers' advocates and farmers support creating a program that would allow illegal workers to gain temporary resident status.

No longer would these workers have to slip back across the border to visit their families.

And no longer would many of the more than 4,000 farm operators in the Rochester region have to worry about an immigration raid at the height of harvest season that could wipe them out financially.