Endorsements and editorials are made solely by the ownership of this newspaper. As is the case at most newspapers across the nation, The Spokesman-Review newsroom and its editors are not a part of this endorsement process. (Learn more.)

Editorial: Without guest worker visa in place, crops at risk

Thu., Nov. 10, 2011

Widely publicized anti-immigration laws in Alabama and Arizona, and a federal crackdown, have spooked illegal immigrants who are staying away from orchards and farms. But what politicians are learning, the growers already knew: There simply aren’t enough American citizens willing to pick crops.

A recent radio campaign in the Wenatchee Valley touted up to $150 a day to pick apples because freezing temperatures threatened to destroy this year’s crop. As in other states, many of those who did show up quickly discovered they couldn’t hack it.

Because the usual harvesters – 72 percent of whom are illegal immigrants – failed to arrive in sufficient numbers, some desperate growers took the state up on its offer to supply a different set of “illegals” – prison inmates.

Great solution, say those who want to drive illegal immigrants out of the country. Not so, say growers who were supplied about 100 inmates in Grant County.

For one thing, experienced field hands make minimum wage – $8.67 an hour – and can pick about 10 bins of apples a day. Inmates were lucky to pick three or four bins, and they cost the growers $22 an hour, including transportation, housing and security costs. In addition, rookie pickers are more apt to bruise apples and pull off the stems. The job takes practice and finesse.

But even if costs could be whacked and inmates became more productive, there aren’t enough of them. The state needs about 45,000 pickers on a typical day in October, according to the Wenatchee World newspaper. That’s more than twice the number of state inmates, and many of them aren’t physically fit.

The job is massive. The state supplies more than half the apples grown in the United States. It is a $1.5 billion annual business in a state that cannot afford to kill jobs.

That’s why Gov. Chris Gregoire recently traveled to Washington, D.C., with 15 farm group representatives to implore Congress to set aside the rhetoric and carve out a workable program for agricultural guest workers. Instead, they ran into an ill-advised push that would force employers to “E-verify” the status of all hires.

In this rotten economy, the timing just couldn’t be worse.

Such a draconian move would drive many Washington state growers out of business because without immigrants they would be left with a small percentage of the workers they need. Furthermore, the bill is being sponsored by many of the same politicians who otherwise denounce the “job killing” regulations of government.

Given the partisan gridlock, we don’t expect comprehensive immigration reform to be adopted anytime soon. But unless Congress can agree to special guest worker visas for agricultural workers, many state economies will wither on the vine. Alabama, Georgia, Florida and California are just some of the other states suffering from the lack of field workers.

This nation must figure out a way to allow essential laborers to bring in the crops. A political freeze on this issue would be devastating to this state and the nation’s economy.