WSJ nails the cost of mass deportations. With a surprising statistic.

@SunshineGirl a fellow strawberry picker salutes you !!!!

@hippyjoe1955 you raise a good point. i know a crane operator who makes $120 an hour.

except when it's raining, windy, or some other part of the job site is on strike

@SusanInFlorida Back in the late 60s my older sister became a berry picker for the summer. Brutal work and she was paid by the pound. The more fruit she picked the more money she made. She started picking strawberries but that ended after 3 weeks and then she picked raspberries for the next 5 weeks. She was a tough farm girl but she never went back. She went to college and became a nurse instead. She laughs about it now and said that it was good for a kid learning how to work but it was very hard on the body. By the time she went back to school the berry season was over.

@KatyO83 i believe you are correct. but the official unemployment statistics are hopelessly corrupted:

1 - they exclude people who have given up applying for jobs, and dropped off the welfare roles

2- they exclude people who managed to persuade the system to put them on disability after a job loss over age 55

3 - not sure what the status is for prisoners, parolees, baristas who work under the table, stolen social security numbers, people working with deceased citizen IDs, actors waiting for the next casting call, autoworkers furloughed for 26 weeks, pandemic closures, etc.

@OriginalNedKelly yep.

@TexChik i agree that some (not all) the corporate farms do it legally. they work with a labor contractor to obtain work visas for their people.

but a lot do not. if all the farm workers were here legally, they wouldn't be fleeing at the sight of an SUV full of ICE agents in their strawberry fields.

please understand that I am NOT advocating targetting farm workers, nannies, roofers, lawn crews, dishwashers, etc. This entire debate would be moot if ICE was targeting people with felony warrants.

@SusanInFlorida
They actually are, but unvetted foreigners have no business crossing our borders. They have proven they have no regard for our laws

@ArishMell the link says "if they work the full year". which may or not be possible. but we have a LOT of crops down here. Not only strawberries, but also tomatoes, oranges, corn, melons, peppers, avocados.

about the only thing we DONT have is apples

@SusanInFlorida It was the "if" I had in mind; but thankyou for clarifying it.

NC is one of the largest apple producing states on the east coast (most orchards are a few counties over from me). Within the last 20 years, it's become almost entirely mechanized due to short harvest season (late summer/early fall before frosts)

we're also 6th/7th in country for blueberries, and 3rd for strawberries; again, it's become heavily mechanized. Largest growers use annual plants rather than perennials/everbearing plants due to larger yields and ease of harvesting (digs up entire plant during harvest). Much more productive and cost effecting than paying teams of manual pickers. The growers that invested/researched mechanization early on have pretty much dominated/cornered the market in that regards

And that's always been the case with any crop; loss of cheap labor only drives innovation, it happened with cotton, it'll happen with everything else...

Christmas Trees might be one of the few possible exceptions, although not for lack of locals to do it (and plenty of us do), but simply because it is so labor intensive. Although great strides have been made in mechanizing and simplifying what can be, it's still very labor intensive during harvest season. We certainly don't rely on illegal workers though (too unskilled and untrustworthy quite frankly).

The majority of our "migrant" workforce have now done it long enough that they don't need to be trained yearly, and can either speak english well (or at least understand enough to not need a full time translator), and actually appreciate the opportunity to be here on a path to US citizenship (several of which I consider close friends and sadly to say, are more American than many US born Americans these days...)

Quite frankly, the notion that the loss of illegal migrants will someone ruin these industries is absurd & short sighted; those who rely on it are only driving themselves out of business for failure to improve and innovate. Personally, I find it hilarious when competitors push themselves to obsolescence (more customers and more money for us...)

@ChipmunkErnie harvesting votes is the way every campaign promise or entitlement works:

1 - deportations

2 - student loan forgiveness

3 - tariffs on foreign cars

4 - building a wall and claiming mexico will pay for it

5 - tax rebates on EVs and solar panels

@SusanInFlorida If you don't see the difference between ICE and its tactics and rebates on renewable energy there is no hope for you.