(Washington, D.C. April 13, 2011) The widespread use of illegal foreign labor by large agribusinesses results in huge profits for corporate farms, while consumers continue to see rising prices at the supermarket checkout, finds a new report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The report, Illegal Immigration and Agribusiness: The Effects on the Agricultural Industry of Converting to a Legal Workforce, debunks the claims made by the corporate agribusiness that an illegal alien labor force is necessary to the survival of America's food industry.

Already heavily subsidized by U.S. taxpayers, agriculture was the most profitable sector of the U.S. economy between 1998 and 2008. Yet, the wages paid to farm workers is about half of what similarly skilled workers earn in other sectors of the labor market. Illegal Immigration and Agribusiness finds that the industry could substantially raise wages to attract a legal workforce, resulting in little or no increase in costs to consumers, and still maintain healthy profits.

Among the key findings of Illegal Immigration and Agribusiness are:

Legal farm workers accept wages between 18% and 22% higher than those paid to illegal aliens. A wage increase in that range could easily be absorbed by corporate agriculture with little impact on consumers or corporate profits.

Increasing wages to farm workers has been shown to increase the available supply of domestic labor.

Because the agricultural industry enjoys unlimited access to legal H-2A guest workers, they would have no difficulty finding legal workers to replace illegal aliens.

Large agricultural businesses, not family farmers, are the primary employers of illegal alien labor.
"This week, we mark the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War, fought, in part, to end Southern agriculture's dependence on slave labor. One hundred and fifty years later, our nation's agricultural industry is still engaged in exploitative labor practices that are economically unnecessary," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "Like the Southern plantation barons, today's agribusinesses believe that they have a right to workers at the prices they wish to pay and the conditions they wish to provide.

"As our nation has learned, over and over again, doing what is morally wrong and economically expedient for narrow interests, inevitably harms our society," continued Stein. "America's agricultural industry would continue to flourish even if corporate farmers were required to employ a legal labor force at higher wages."

The complete report, Illegal Immigration and Agribusiness: The Effects on the Agricultural Industry of Converting to a Legal Workforce, is available at;

http://www.fairus.org/agribusiness.

this is the heart of the 'immigration problem' not the refugees of its effects or the society that is being ruptured to support this selective exploitation. Everyone except the pirates of industry suffer.

"Ron Paul co-sponsors HR 4759 to REPEAL NAFTA!

Yes, Ron Paul is opposed to illegal immigration, but at the same time he is also for withdrawing from NAFTA.

!!This would allow the people of Mexico the ability to exert more control over their own economy.!!

This is an extremely important point within the immigration debate, and it is something not even the Democrats are willing to admit because they are just as guilty of selling out the Mexican and American working class in favor of cheap labor as much as the neo-cons and Mexican elites are.

Don't kid yourself when they speak of being sympathetic to the plight of immigrants when they are not working to end the subversive trade deals that are causing these people to get up and move in the first place!


http://www.dailypaul.com/node/128522


I see Ron Paul has already signed on to this bill.

Call your congress critters today and ask them to please co-sponsor this bill.

As a factory worker in Ohio I will tell you first hand that NAFTA has been a total disaster for American small and mid sizes industry.

HR4759 - Full Text at Open Congress.org

111th CONGRESS, 2d Session

H. R. 4759

To provide for the withdrawal of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

March 4, 2010

Mr. TAYLOR (for himself, Mr. JONES, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. STUPAK, Mr. ARCURI, Mr. BACA, Mr. BARTLETT, Mr. BRALEY of Iowa, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. COSTELLO, Mr. FILNER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HARE, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. KAGEN, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. KILDEE, Mr. KISSELL, Mr. KUCINICH, Mr. MASSA, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. MICHAUD, Mr. PAUL, Mr. SCHAUER, Mr. VISCLOSKY, Mr. WILSON of Ohio, Ms. WOOLSEY, and Mr. STARK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

A BILL

To provide for the withdrawal of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. WITHDRAWAL OF THE UNITED STATES FROM THE NAFTA.

(a) Withdrawal of Approval- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the approval of the NAFTA by the Congress provided for in section 101(a) of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act shall cease to be effective beginning on the date that is six months after the date of the enactment of this Act.

(b) Notification of Withdrawal- On the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall provide to the Governments of Canada and Mexico written notice of withdrawal of the United States from the NAFTA in accordance with Article 2205 of the NAFTA.

(c) NAFTA Defined- In this section, the term `NAFTA' means the North American Free Trade Agreement entered into between the United States, Canada, and Mexico on December 17, 1992."



http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?235411-Ron-Paul-co-sponsors-HR-4759-to-REPEAL-NAFTA!

I'm sympathetic to the "illegals," but it seems to me that they'd be better off/happier in their own communities rather than doing horrible jobs up here, for which they may or may not get paid at day's end.

And there are reports of Mexican women working in slaughter houses having to have sex with their supervisors to maintain their glamorous jobs.Most women trying to flee conditions in Mexico get raped en route to the U.S.

Repealing NAFTA is an issue that crosses party lines, as Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan have demonstrated in their joint announcements calling for NAFTA to be stopped (more on this below).

On the other side of the coin, support for NAFTA has also crossed party lines as we've seen.

H. Ross Perot's ability and willingness to warn people about NAFTA is probably a major reason why the CIA threatened him in '92, causing him to drop out of the race. No one else was criticizing NAFTA.

I hope NAFTA--and CAFTA--can be defeated. Unfortunately, I worry that too few people are making the connection and understand what's going on. Even if more people were educated about this, I think it would be a huge undertaking. Look at how many unpopular things (e.g., wars) are continuing and continuing.

I wonder if states should start withdrawing from it as a start? (Or even cities?)

I'm not aware of any Americans who are benefiting from NAFTA on the Canadian front either. For example, I keep hearing how movie/TV production is being outsourced to Canada more than ever.

More on Nader and Buchanan agreeing on stopping NAFTA can be found here: http://www.time.com/time/community/transcripts/1999/112899buchanan-nader.html

Here's an excerpt:



Patrick Buchanan and Ralph Nader, The Battle in Seattle

Transcript from Nov. 28, 1999

[snip]

bradknick asks: Have Messrs. Nader and Buchanan discussed WTO-related issues in depth together? Or is it strictly a marriage of convenience - "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" sort of thing?

Ralph Nader: Nonsense. We've discussed this for five years. We've held press conferences. And it's a cooperation of convictions that we must defend and improve our democracy so that we can agree to disagree freely.

Pat Buchanan: Ralph and I have been in this battle for almost six years since the great NAFTA fight. And we stand together firmly on one principle, that whatever the decisions about the economic destiny of Americans are, they will be made by the American people and not by the trans-national corporations in collusion with this embryonic institution of world government.

richardm999 asks: Pat, are there any people in office now that agree with you on these specific issues and who are they?

Pat Buchanan: Well, there must be...you've got 200 House votes on fast track [trade treaty negotiating authority for the President]. Let's take the fast track vote. The defeat of fast track by a majority in the house means that the idea of economic patriotism and anti-globalism is on the rise.

Ralph Nader: And the vote on NAFTA was a very close vote.

Pat Buchanan: We would have won it if they hadn't been buying and selling votes.