United States Farm Job Corps

The Department of Agriculture is a large government agency. They do everything from crop insurance to farm loans and assistance to rural housing which directly benefits over 2% of Americans (the percent of our labor force in agriculture) across the country. These are important and most should be continued because the free market will not insure farms because of the high risk which would cause premiums to be too expensive for most farmers.

I've done farm work and I know it is neither glorious or well-paying. But it is a job and an important part of the global economy. Because most Americans are very well educated the United States is full of workers who are severely overqualified for such work, since most Americans make more in a year than one can make on a farm (which is minimum wage). The current system means finding enough domestic labor to fill our surplus of jobs is impossible.

The current immigration system requires farmers to make an effort to fill positions before they hire foreigners in this country which given the number of people looking for such work is extremely difficult. For people who want such work they merely have to sign up at http://www.takeourjobs.org/ to get a job as a farmworker immediately. They were interviewed also on the Colbert Report which demonstrated how they are having a really hard time getting Americans to work to work on the farms. It is laborious, time consuming, and expensive for farmers to get the labor they need so many decide to forego the legal requirements and hire foreigners without the paperwork because they can't afford to wait 45 days because their crops need to grow.

Instead of putting burdensome regulations on our farmers across America we should change the system to make it easier for farmers to get the labor they need to stay in business. Instead of making it hard to get workers ICE and The Department of Agriculture could make a program where farmers can choose to post their jobs and are open first to Americans for the first week and then after that period the remainder will turn into visas for those jobs in particular open to foreigners. We might limit these workers to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, which will be politically feasible. The foreigners would apply through the American embassy in their country after which they would go through a background check from the embassy to ensure they are not dangerous at which point they would receive the visa valid for the extent of the position plus one month when they can freely work in the United States. Along with this any dependents under the age of 18 will automatically receive visas so they can attend school and their spouses will also receive a spouse visa. Employers will be required to pay for the transportation of their employees. I propose calling this program the United States Farm Job Corps which will help both small and large farms in our country.

Canada already has system like this called the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program which is a well-run program that protects workers and gives farmers the labor they require, which is something we should work on. This program is not identical however because it will also work for people within the United States and give Americans the first choice at farm jobs which will be politically feasible.

This will fix illegal immigration and create a solution so all farmers can get the labor they need, and illegal immigration will stop being such a major political issue. We should implement this policy soon to protect people and keep our agriculture running efficiently and ensure farmers treat their workers ethically.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-2A_Visa The current farm worker program

A Politically Inconvenient History of Immigration

I am currently taking American History II which spans from 1850-1914 at the local Community College. My book is highly uncensored, talking about all the major aspects of American History, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the politically inconvenient. I have read about my ancestors over the past few weeks, the Irish and German immigrants who settled in the Midwest and East Coast. They also hated the Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the West. According to The Irish Americans: A History 5 million German and 4.5 million Irish immigrants immigrated to America, with concentrations in the Midwest and New England. This was fiercely opposed to by the American "Know-Nothing" party. They used the arguments "steal our jobs," "take over our government" sending us all to the lower class. They wanted a ban on Irish and German immigrants to prevent us from destroying American culture. They didn't work in 19th century business jobs, they worked on farms, and if they were in a city they worked in factories or other low paying hard labor jobs. Their descendants now include most of the powerful people in America who are also descended from people who have been here for hundreds of years.


Fast forward 150 years. There are many immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Many come to work on farms where native-born Americans do not work anymore. They do not work in high-paying jobs and live in poorer areas of America. People opposing these immigrants use the arguments "steal our jobs," "take over our government" sending us all to the lower class. They want a ban on immigrants if not a strict quota to prevent them from destroying American culture.


This is not a new issue. People have been immigrating to America for years to escape poverty and famine or political turmoil in their homeland. Because of this, I am firmly opposed to laws that prevent hard-working people from moving to America. These are recycled arguments, and they are not running out as they should. Somebody in power needs to make this connection in a gigantic speech and destroy the racism that is prevalent in our nation.


There is one difference though between current immigration and historical immigration and it has to do with American foreign policy and economics. In the 1970s America started to cut down on the supply of drugs in America, but people who made the drugs in Central America kept making them. Because the demand didn't drop the cost of the drugs went sky high. In order to fulfill the demand for the drugs drug cartels are transporting drugs at high prices to fulfill the demand. They are the perfect capitalistic businesses, doing anything to fulfill the demand and make a profit. Not to say that drugs are not dangerous, because they are, but the economies of Mexico and Central America are not diverse or strong enough to stand up to the great demand for their dangerous resources. The governments of these countries do not have enough resources to cut down on the cartels and they run rampant.


This would be bad enough, but because we have strict immigration quotas that prevent good workers from migrating on a visa to work here that then as perfect capitalists fulfill the unfilled demand for work here in America they have to come over at places where they will not get their visa. Racist people in the media who oppose any immigration then make a false connection between the drug dealers and the farm workers which causes people to believe that their false connection is the truth. This makes political clout that prevents any reform to fix the problem. That is just what that side of the issue is, racist hence unamerican.


Another issue of this is that the workers on the farms who do not have visas then are not paid the same as their native born competitors which as businesses many farms will want the cheapest  worker to expand their personal income. They do not get any benefits and if any abuse happens they cannot go to any authority to report it because they will be returned to Mexico jobless and impoverished, back to square one.


How do we solve this problem? I think what we need to do is rewrite our immigration policy to allow workers to get visas to do farm work. Another bonus for everyone would be that the workers on visas would pay into social security and income tax, eliminating the argument that they do not pay for their government services. This would allow workers to report abuse on the farms and end their need to come across at unguarded and dangerous spots on the border. The only people who would come across at those spots would be drug dealers. If we write the law so that people coming across who are suspected to be drug dealers have to get their car sensed for drug fumes and then arrested than the problem with the drug trade would diminish. This would make the dangerous parts of Mexico and central American safer because the cartels would not have the money and power that they currently have. Everybody wins, except for the drug cartels.


America, the fate of the hemisphere is in your hands.

Them

"They did it again those no-good, ungodly, sinning Thems. Can you believe as a good Christian American what They did? They want to take Our jobs, leaving Us out on the street. They are going to marry and then rape Our women, They are going to take over Our government, and to top it off They are going to become the leading class leaving Us to the dogs. They are going to be elected President. They are already in Congress. If you ask me, I think we should deport Them all. Send Them back to where They came from I say, and if We want Their land We will take it and They will have less because They are not God-fearing. Not only that but They have already taken over entire cities, entire states that We used to control. They don't even speak the same language as Us with all of Their culture's nonsense words that We don't use. For the sake of Humanity, They must be destroyed."
~ Leader of the West Secure Klan Inc.

Sound familiar? Good, you read your history. Sound familiar? Good, you have been watching the news.

My analysis into the illegal immigration issue.

Immigration is a contentious issue for Americans. Arguments made for having stricter borders include:

1.               They come in and use services without paying back.

2.               They don't have to pay income tax.

3.               We have to pay for it when they get sick.

These are the economical issues and can all be fixed by changing both the tax system and the immigration process. If it was easier for people to become American citizens they would come and pay their taxes like everyone else. Since strict citizenship requirements are doing more harm than good because of illegal immigrant's realistic fear of taken advantage of, the current citizenship requirements that are not necessary should be relaxed because all they are doing is causing this major contentious issue. The major change that should be done to solve this issue is to end the immigrtion lottery. The immigration lottery limits the number of immigrants from each part of the world. This makes farm laborers have to come illegally to fill jobs that otherwise would not be filled. takeourjobs.com shows that Americans don't want to be farm laborers. Also, a lot of people who are sometimes put into this category are drug dealers. They should not be counted in the statistics because they go across the border a lot bringing drugs in and money out. So they are another issue.

Other issues include:

1. Undocumented farm workers can't go to anyone to report abuse for fear of being deported. They are a third class.
2. Crime. Some people classified as illegal immigrants create crimes when they are here, mainly members of drug cartels. This can be be stopped by fighting the drug trade in schools through harsher punishments towards those who distribute drugs illegally and legalizing the consumption and licensed selling of less dangerous drugs that give them fast cash to increase production and distribution. They shouldn't be fought as if they are criminals, which they are, they should be fought as if they were businessmen too. This will do the following effects:
1. The amount of demand for drugs would go down and it would be less profitable to sell drugs in High Schools which will cripple the Cartels from the power they currently had. There is no expensive military intervention required.
3. More dangerous crossing points. If it was easier to come across legally than the drug cartels would be the only ones coming across the border illegally.
4. Racism is a major topic since Arizona's bill has been passed. You can't tell an immigrant from someone who hasn't moved since before that area was given to us in 1848. It is ineffective and racist.
5. Limits on immigrants to America. This only makes the problem bigger because people come despite that law. It causes more harm than good, so it should be removed.
6. Habeas Corpus is REQUIRED to be respected by the Constitution.
7. Green cards should be easier for Illegal Immigrants to acquire because they are here anyways and they don't want to go back to Drug-ridden areas for good reason.
8. Some requirements for green cards should be removed: polygamy, and failing to make payments should be given an extension of one year or six months because of the decreased fear and increased income permanent residency creates.

However, I am sure the most important reasons for people coming to America from Latin America are these: People in Latin America are being killed because of the drug violence from the cartels. Jobs are also a lot harder to find and don't pay as much as in the USA. The way to have fewer people immigrate to the United States of America from Latin America is to fight the drug trade in the schools and have harsh and strict punishments for marketing drugs to people in public High schools and to make drugs temporarily legal and sold to adults in stores. This is the lesser of two evils because:

1. As it is now, people can get as much of the dangerous drugs as they want. They will pay high prices for them and the money will go to the cultivators and drug lords. By legalizing dangerous drugs temporarily, they will be easier to get, but the amount of money that is made on them will be far less. Some money will also go to the government which means that when the people use the drug they will be paying for rehabilitation and it will no longer be lucrative for the cartels. It is evil, but the lesser of two evils.

Another factor in the issue is that the process for becoming an American is long and unnecessarily complicated. It takes a long time and trees of paper work to finish applying for a green card or visa. It is so long that some people, like one of my friend's friends, was deported because his lawyer forgot one piece of paperwork. He is now in Mexico and his family is still in Washington. I am certain that he is not alone with this issue, the process must be simplified so innocent people like him can get what they want and continue to be productive members of society. The only reason for not simplifying this would be that people don't want Hispanics coming to America, and that is racism which is against the modern fabric of every just nation.