Immigration policy concerns
state dairy farmers
As Wisconsin dairy farmers turn the page on a new calendar, one of the things many of them are concerned about is immigration policy.
As dairy farms in the state have grown larger, many have begun to rely more heavily on a foreign-born labor force. And concerns abound about how that labor force is treated by authorities.
Several recent sessions concentrated on the issues related to immigration reform.
At the December meeting of the citizen policy board for the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), Jose Olivieri, an attorney with Michael Best and Friedrich, presented a briefing on immigration policies.
"We deal with dairy farmers on a regular basis and they are worried," he said. "As I see the dairy industry, a very significant portion of our employees are not authorized to be here.
"There is enormous demand to come to the United States to have a better life. The pull is tremendous."
One federal program allows immigrants to come here to enroll in college. Olivieri said there are 65,000 visas available in this category every year and sometimes they are filled on the first day.
"This is all employer-driven," he said.
One of the issues for employers is using an electronic database (E-verify) to check the status of people they are about to employ. It was set up as a voluntary program and now some states are requiring employers to use it.
One state prohibited employers from using E-verify because the data contained in it was so unreliable.
Some state laws are also getting local police involved in immigration actions.
"We've gone from 1986 when there were no laws on this to today when states like Arizona and Alabama are requiring school districts to ask if children are authorized to be in the United States. People have fled those states," Olivieri reported.
In Oregon, a law was passed to prohibit use of state resources to enforce immigration laws.
An Arizona case that has been placed on the docket for the U.S. Supreme Court will provide some guidance going forward, Olivieri said. "Five or six states have enacted Arizona-like laws and we'll know next year if they're constitutional or not."
A Utah law, introduced by conservatives, created a state commission to promote citizenship of immigrants who work and stay out of trouble. That state law also created a temporary worker program and a program to link one Mexican state with Utah in order to bring additional workers north legally.
"It was done to deal with the shortage of workers in the interest of agriculture and other business in Utah," Olivieri said. "To me, Utah's approach stands out."
At the federal level, more undocumented people are being removed from the United States than ever before, he said, and there are more workplace investigations than ever, along with criminal prosecutions of employers.
In the past there were years when there were only a total of three prosecutions of employers across the entire country, he said.
"In some of the significant cases employers knew full well that their workers were undocumented," he said, noting some of the investigations involved criminal investigative techniques, like taped conversations between employers and others.
Even with the serious downturn in the economy, the demand for foreign workers remains high, Olivieri said.
One challenge for dairy farmers is that the main federal programs that allow employers to bring in guest workers (H2A and H2B) were designed for temporary, seasonal workers, and dairy doesn't fit that bill.
Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl is a co-sponsor of an Ag Jobs bill, which includes a mechanism to get dairy workers into the state, but many Capital-watchers agree that any immigration reform is unlikely to get passed in a presidential election year.
"It's one of those things that always seems like it might happen, but I think it's unlikely it will happen," Olivieri said.
Waiting in line for legal immigration can take a long time. A Mexican brother of a U.S. citizen has to wait 10 years to come here legally.
Immigration policy was also a hot topic at the recent Dairy Business Association (DBA) meeting when State Rep. Don Pridemore (R-Hartford) was asked to talk about his legislative proposal that would create a state policy similar to Arizona's.
Pridemore said his Assembly Bill 173 was born out of frustration with the federal government's inaction on what should be a federal issue.
If police stop anyone and that person can't provide identification, the person could be held in jail for 48 hours, under this bill. The measure would also require local authorities to give information to immigration authorities.
"Some cities, including Madison, have 'sanctuary status' and it's like 'don't ask-don't tell.' This bill would overrule those city statutes," he said.
Representative JoCasta Zamarripa, a South Milwaukee Democrat, told the DBA audience that she is "absolutely opposed" to Pridemore's bill.
The "Arizona copycat" bill is going to cost the state money and local authorities shouldn't be burdened with this role, she said.
"Litigation costs in Arizona are enormous. It is costing that state $1.5 million to defend that bill and that's not including the millions in tourism dollars they are said to have lost as a result of this bill," she said.
"In Alabama and Georgia, where similar bills were passed, farmers lost millions as food rotted in the fields," Zamarripa added.
Not only illegals but also lawful residents fled Georgia when that bill was passed, she said. "I foresee that same nightmarish scenario if this bill passes."
Zamarripa represents the largest Latino district in the state. Even she, as a third-generation Mexican-American, could be held for 48 hours under this law, she added.
"I believe strongly that immigration reform needs to be implemented at the federal level," she stressed. "We need tough, fair, comprehensive immigration reform."
Shawn Pfaff of Capital Consultants, who moderated the panel on which the two lawmakers spoke, noted that a recent state survey found that about 40 percent of the state's farm workers were undocumented.
A few years ago a similar survey found that number to be even higher - from 50 to 70 percent.
Pridemore found the DBA audience to be fairly hostile to his proposal during a question-and-answer period.
Farmer Tim O'Harrow, who has a 1,600-cow operation near Oconto Falls, said that "75 percent of the food we eat is on the backs of immigrant labor."
Another farmer said it's "illegal to drive Mexican in Manitowoc County" as Mexican workers stopping for gas are asked for identification even without speeding or committing any crime.
Don Niles, with a 2,800-cow operation in Kewaunee County, said workers have been deported after being stopped for having a taillight out on their car. "I don't think the punishment fits the crime."
Another panelist, Todd Doornink of Jon-De Farms in Baldwin, has an operation covering 2,000 acres and 1,700 cows. The fourth-generation dairy farmer said his family had 80 cows in the 1990s when most of their labor was family and local high school students.
But even then scheduling was difficult, he said.
When their first immigrant labor came to the operation, he found them to be hardworking, reliable and responsible.
"They want to work. That's the bottom line," said Doornink.
He disputed the myth that dairy farmers pay low wages to foreign-born workers. His operation pays workers well and offers them housing in a state-inspected dormitory on the farm.
"We look at it as an investment in our dairy," he said.
Laurie Fischer, executive director of the DBA, said many of her members are concerned about what will happen to their farms if their labor force is gone.
Pfaff told DBA members that they are leaders in their community and they need to make their lawmakers know how important this issue is to them.
"You are going to be the ones to turn the tide," he said.
