WHY IMMIGRATION REFORM? Many Pickers Can't Reach Michigan Farms, Orchards
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Asparagus picking in Michigan employs self-propelled cart and hand labor.
Despite low numbers of immigrants, Michigan has a big stake in immigration reform.
Why? The migrants important to vegetable and fruit cultivation and harvesting in west and northwest Michigan aren't showing up in numbers needed by our second industry, agriculture.
Last year for example, much of the asparagus crop was lost -- allowed to rot in the fields -- because there were not enough pickers.
The asparagus season in Michigan normally runs from mid-April through June.
Michigan asparagus, unlike asparagus from other states, is hand-snapped above the ground, yielding a more tender and flavorful product. Workers harvest the asparagus while riding specially-designed picking carts. The job is physically demanding, and workers must have the ability to sit in a bent position for long periods of time, the strength to lift up to 25 lbs., excellent reach and coordination, and a willingness to work outdoors in all kinds of weather.
Asparagus workers typically are paid on a piece rate, with skilled harvesters earning more than $10.00 an hour. Workers are guaranteed to make at least Michigan's minimum wage of $7.40 an hour.
A new study published by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a grantee of our Protecting Immigrant and Migrant Rights initiative, shows that the U.S. spends more on immigration enforcement, $18 billion annually, than on all other federal law enforcement combined.
The in-depth report serves as a compelling response to lawmakers who argue that federal authorities must do more to strengthen enforcement before Congress can consider legalization for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.
The need for more immigrants, not less, was cited in a Business Week article stating: "Beyond the huge importance of immigrants to the U.S. economy today, three forces are making immigration reform more urgent: growing crackdowns on undocumented workers at the state level, which are already hurting farming and are likely to spread to other sectors, including construction; the aging of populations in the U.S. and Europe; and increasing opportunities in the developing world, which are luring home skilled immigrants the U.S. needs most."
Based on the vast resources devoted to monitoring foreigners coming into the country and to detaining and deporting illegal immigrants, immigration control has become ":the federal government's highest criminal law enforcement priority," the MPI report concluded.
A greater influx of immigrants has come to the United States in the past 25 years than at any time in history, engendering a backlash that has stripped large segments of the immigrant community of their rights, according to Vivek Malhotra, director for equality and justice of the Ford Foundation.
This population confronts large-scale immigration roundups, the denial of due process in deportation proceedings, abusive detention conditions, and increased hate crimes and bias attacks.
A growing number of aggressive local measures attempting to restrict every aspect of life, including housing, education and employment, push immigrants into a marginalized existence, according to Malhotra.
In addition, migrants suffer increased violation of their human rights along their routes of travel to the United States and other destination countries such as Mexico.
Last year Michigan farmers found the lack of migrants costly, according to a report from Michigan Public Radio.
"Being a former migrant worker I can tell you that in the past Michigan has had a wealth of workers coming to Michigan. It was destination state," Belen Ledezma said. She's the Director of Migrant, Immigrant and Seasonal Worker Services for the Michigan Workforce Development Agency.
Ledezma says the huge crop diversity in Michigan means migrant workers have a variety of jobs to choose from throughout the year.
"I think we're starting to recognize that the same labor pool that we're used to is no longer coming to Michigan," Ledezma said.
Last year the state tried to help farmers recruit local workers to harvest asparagus. Ledezma's agency hosted a job fair in southwest Michigan in hopes of filling more than 220 immediate openings on asparagus farms.
"We have a hard time sometimes attracting workers into a situation where the schedule is unknown as it in asparagus," said John Bekker, President of the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board.
Bekker says asparagus can grow a half an inch an hour in good conditions. So the window to harvest it can be only hours in some cases. That means workers have to have a super flexible schedule that also depends a lot on the weather.
Michigan ranks third in the nation for Asparagus production producing up to 25 million pounds annually with a total value of about $15 million.
Oceana County, around Hart and Shelby, is the area with the greatest volume of production but there is also substantial production in SW Michigan between South Haven and Benton Harbor.
Michigan growers harvest approximately 11,000 acres of asparagus annually.
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