Labor at the heart of immigration debate

By James Carlson

The Capital-Journal

As a cotton farmer in southwest Oklahoma, Tom Buchanan sees the immigration debate as much about labor as it is about illegally crossing borders.

And with that state's broad-reaching immigration reform just now going into effect, the impact on the state's workforce is being felt, Buchanan said.

"Legal or illegal, the Mexican community is frightened," he said from his farm in Altus, Okla. "They feel they need to move somewhere else, and they're getting out of here."

Now Kansas businesses are worried that legislation under consideration in the Statehouse could have the negative effects they say Oklahoma businesses are seeing.

Agricultural, construction and landscaping industries packed the Old Supreme Court room in the capital this week to testify in opposition to a host of proposed immigration reforms. At the heart of these measures are penalties for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers.

Companies can have relevant business licenses suspended for up to 10 days for a first offense. Upon a third violation, a company could have its licenses permanently suspended.

Proponents say these provisions strike at the source of the problem — jobs — and that there is no excuse for hiring residents who aren't in the state legally.

But opponents worry the bills hurt businesses trying to do the right thing and will remove thousands of illegal workers, as well as their legal friends and family, from industries already desperate for help.

"If the legal workers leave," said Allie Devine, general counsel for the Kansas Livestock Association. "It's likely to kick Kansas into its own private recession."

Exodus

The meatpacking industry alone employs some 18,700 people, and according to Tom Schroeder, an agriculture economist at Kansas State University, the majority of that number are of Hispanic descent.

He isn't sure how many of those workers are undocumented, but he said with each plant employing as many as 3,000 people, it is logical to think there are some without the right documentation.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you could shut down every plant out there," Schroeder said. Estimates of the illegal immigration population vary widely depending on with whom you talk. Terry Holdren, national director of governmental affairs for the Kansas Farm Bureau, said if 30,000 undocumented workers — one low estimate — leave the state, there is no telling how many friends and family would go with them.

"The impact is there aren't workers available to help with temporary types of situations like bringing harvest in or getting crops to market or cattle from the feedlots to the sale barns," he said.

Devine, Holdren and other opponents of the main immigration bills said they don't condone the influx of undocumented residents. But they say there is nuance to an issue some see as black and white.

With the cattle industry alone pulling in $6.2 billion in 2006, Devine said the impacts could be drastic on all of Kansas. She said the industry is nearing a breaking point where manufacturers could consider moving out of state or country.

"If we lose processors out of western Kansas, we will have a large reduction in both on-farm and off-farm income," she said.

More of a concern

Since the Oklahoma legislature passed similar legislation last year, 80 percent of members in the Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa have lost workforce and two-thirds of the members have increased their costs.

"I'm not here so much to talk about the law of immigration as I am to talk about the law of unintended consequences," Paul Kane, the group's vice president, said when he testified in the Statehouse this week.

Rather than stick around and find out how the law would be interpreted, labor moved to other states, he said. Sam Knipp, with the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, said his members have seen the same issue as some workers in the cotton-growing areas have left.

"Our labor shortage has definitely become more of a concern," he said.

Illegal, period

Illegal immigrants moving out of state is the point, many supporters of the Kansas legislation say. Sen. Ralph Ostmeyer, R-Grinnell, one of the Senate bill's sponsors, worked 37 years as a pork producer. He said he knows it is difficult to find workers.

"I'm not so ruthless that I want to run over people, but we can't condone illegal behavior," he said. Another Senate sponsor, Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, was more blunt. "I hear the general concern that everyone thinks they're using illegal aliens and what will they do," he said. "Well, if you're knowingly hiring illegal aliens today then you're in violation of federal law. Period."

In the construction trade where lowest bid often wins a contract, many companies are crying foul on the issue. Joe Hudson, with the Carpenter's District Council of Kansas City and Vicinity, said businesses using undocumented workers can cut their price, thereby pulling work contracts from companies that play by the rules.

Business will have to operate differently, said Rep. Candy Ruff, D-Leavenworth, who is sponsoring two immigration bills. That could mean higher wages to draw in more American workers.

"If you paid union wages for meat cutters, I guarantee you every white boy in Kansas would want to work out there," she said.

Labor shortages

The immigration debate comes at time when workers are already difficult to come by. The Kansas Department of Commerce told a Senate committee this week that 27 counties in western Kansas have unemployment rates of 3 percent or less.

Terry Holdren, national director of government affairs for the Kansas Farm Bureau, said look at the want ads in the western part of the state to see the labor shortage.

"They're full of ads in agriculture and construction looking for workers," Holdren said. "They're just not out there." He said farmers want to hire legal workers but the federal government hasn't helped the situation. Last year, 75,000 seasonal worker visas were issued for his industry to fill a national need of 700,000, Holdren said.

Reg Robertson, with Custom Lawn & Landscape in Olathe, told a House committee this week all his American applicants want to work year-round, want to be supervisors and don't want to mow grass.

The issue elicited strong words from Robertson who said he thought representatives understood the value of small businesses.

"Instead, I find you trying to make life difficult and drive me out of business," he said.