FRESNO BEE

June 8, 2008

Latin leaders look to aid state farms

They seek an easier path for their people to work in U.S.

By Guy Keeler - Fresno Bee

The president of Honduras and top government figures from El Salvador and Guatemala visited the central San Joaquin Valley on Saturday to learn more about California's farm-labor crisis – and to offer their help.

Summit organizer Manuel Cunha Jr., president of the Nisei Farmers League, told the Central American visitors that small Valley communities depend on agriculture – and farmworkers – for their livelihood.

But Valley growers increasingly have trouble finding enough skilled farmworkers to tend and harvest strawberries, oranges and other labor-intensive crops, Cunha said. Permanent U.S. residents generally won't do the work because it's hard and seasonal, he said.

Honduran President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales said he'll do what he can to make it easier for his citizens to get permission to work in Valley fields. But he and others at the Western Agriculture Labor Summit – held in Fresno – said all the countries involved must work together.

"We know there is a great shortage of farm labor in California and the southern United States," he said, speaking through a translator. "We really do hope this meeting can contribute to finding a solution to this problem."

Also in attendance were Ana Vilma de Escobar, vice president of El Salvador, and Miguel Angel Ibarra, Guatemala's deputy minister of foreign affairs. They met with Valley growers, government officials and representatives of agricultural industry groups to discuss farm-labor needs and how a more efficient guest worker program could benefit their citizens as well as U.S. farmers.

"We are on the brink of disaster," said David Jackson, owner of Family Tree Farms in Reedley. "Ninety to 95 percent of our workers are undocumented."

Jackson was among several growers who told the Central American visitors that the future of their industry depends on creating a more efficient way – either through existing law or immigration overhaul legislation – to enable foreign workers to labor in California fields for up to 10 months while keeping permanent residence in their home countries.

The Valley needs 180,000 seasonal workers every year, Cunha said.

Zelaya said Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala each have the potential of supplying 30,000 to 50,000 temporary workers to the United States.

What is needed, participants agreed, is a system under which the workers can come to the United States legally, with a minimum of red tape, to work during peak harvest seasons and then return home.

Zelaya said he's enthusiastic about allowing citizens from Honduras to work legally in the United States on a temporary basis. But he said the welfare of the workers must come first.

Fresno Mayor Alan Autry agreed. "The issue of farm labor and immigration reform is the defining issue of this generation," he said. "… We're dealing with people – good, hard-working people who are willing to do work that, quite frankly, many Americans won't do."