ORANGE COUNTY (California) REGISTER

August 17, 2007

Farm growers brace for flow of immigration letters

Under new federal workplace enforcement rules, California growers worry they might see their labor force dwindle.

By AMY TAXIN

The Orange County Register

Tom Nassif isn't shy about admitting that nearly three-fourths of California's farm workers are undocumented immigrants.

And he's not shy about warning farmers to think twice about keeping them on the rolls once new federal rules take effect.

In the wake of the Department of Homeland Security's announcement of plans to step up workplace enforcement, the Irvine-based Western Growers Association – which represents 3,000 farmers in California and Arizona – has been fielding countless calls from growers.

WGA president Nassif said the new rules – which hold employers liable for investigating when workers' names or Social Security numbers don't match records – raise as many questions as answers.

Nassif said he isn't sure how Social Security will keep up with paperwork for employers who re sent "no-match" letters – because of a worker's print error, name change or lack of legal status.

Social Security is sending 35,474 "no-match" letters to California employers for the 2006 tax year, according to the Social Security Administration's web site.

Q. Until now, how have growers hired workers? What has happened when employees' identification fails to match Social Security records?

For the most part, you get a "no-match" letter and there's no follow-up by Social Security or anyone else to look at whether you did anything. Now they're saying you can't do this.

Under the new regulations, if you don't follow procedures and there's a raid at your farm, there's going to be a presumption you had (…) knowledge because you got these "no-match" letters and did nothing about them.

Q. What is the potential impact of this new plan on agriculture?

With the enforcement coming after it (the letter), we'll lose a significant number of our laborers who won't match and who we cant rectify because we know the majority of our workers are coming into this country with false documents.

The problem we have with a 20 to 30 percent (labor) shortage today will be exacerbated.

With the no-match letters, we may only have 20 to 30 percent of our workforce.

Q. How do you believe these rules will affect the workforce?

Every farm worker job creates collateral jobs… fertilization companies, refrigeration companies, cooling, transportation, insurance, chemical companies – all these different companies derive their living from agriculture. Now they're going to have a lot less acreage to farm and less service to provide. They're going to lose out also. We're talking 900,000 or a million jobs and we're exporting them to a foreign country and adding them to a country and its economy. It is a very self-defeating thing for our government to be doing under the guise of national security.

Q. What advice are you giving farmers who call the WGA?

We're first trying to explain to them the law and that seems to be changing as far as opinions go every day and warn them exactly what would happen under each circumstance. We're also saying they ought to take a look at the existing H2A (seasonal agricultural worker) program now even though it's very expensive and very unwieldy.

It would help us if the reform came before the implementation. They should have done the reform, said we're implementing the following which we derived in concert with the industry for H2A reform at the time we're implementing the "no-match" letters.

Q. Which crops do you think will be affected?

Some crops are more perishable than others – those are the ones that are most vulnerable and certainly include fresh fruits and vegetables.

You can't do anything except follow the rules or don't follow the rules. If you don't follow the rules, you risk being raided and having civil and criminal sanctions, and if you do follow the rules, you risk losing your workforce and your business.

Most of our workers sell products under 12-month contracts… If retailers feel because of the shortage of labor you're not going to be able to fulfill obligations, they're going to turn to foreign countries. They're going to start to turn to them for producers from Mexico, from China from South America.