FLORIDA:...Loud, Harsh Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Bends As Sunshine State Farmers Cry For Workers...New State Law Aimed At Providing Housing For "Foreign" Field Workers...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...And then there came the dollar side of things. Crops in the fields, few, if any, workers out to harvest them. Florida is in an agricultural crunch. Conundrum? Yes. Between a rock and a hard grapefruit. yes. Time to make some not-so-pleasant concessions?

Absolutely.

The State of Florida, a rabid, anti-immigrant state since Republican Ron DeSantis became governor, is now working on getting (get this) better housing for the estimated 52,000 workers it desperately needs and is actively recruiting.

Not from Florida itself, no.

Well, officials say they want "non-immigrant" workers eligible for those special worker visas, but we know who works those fields - undocumented workers, yes.    

"We can grow our crop, but without harvesting it we might as well not grow the crop," said David Hill, an owner of Southern Hill Farms in Clermont. "No one is going to pick the crops that we grow except for the people we’re trying to bring over, in H-2A in particular."

From WUFT, News Service of Florida: [ Florida’s agriculture industry hopes a bill that would limit local regulations on farmworker housing will bolster efforts to bring in more non-immigrant foreign workers.

The bill (SB 1082), which state lawmakers unanimously passed, would prevent cities and counties from taking steps to "inhibit" construction of housing for farmworkers on agricultural land. The bill has not been formally sent to Gov. DeSantis, who can sign, veto or allow the legislation to become law without his signature.

The industry says some growers have cut back on planting this year, and might again next year, in part because of a labor shortage related to the state’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.

The bill could help with bringing in temporary, non-immigrant foreign workers through what is known as the federal H-2A visa program. The program places housing requirements on employers. ]

As seems to happen in these stories, many Floridians do not want immigrant farmworker housing in their backyards. The new legislation mandates that growers build the housing on farmland.

It's somewhat unexpected, as everything the governor has said about immigrants to date has been negative, as in he doesn't want them and as in he will ship them to liberal folks up in Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast as fast as he can.

But the cash crops (citrus, vegetables, strawberries, potatoes, etc., etc.) must be harvested, so hardass DeSantis likely will sign the legislation in as quiet a fashion as he can muster.

I know. It's the same with post-hurricane clean-up, when the state's citizenry and politicians see a large number of migrant workers drive in for the jobs locals just will not do.

What is that they often say about these things...money talks...

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