A New Florida Immigration Law Is Turning Farm Towns Into 'Ghost Towns'
A New Florida Immigration Law Is Turning Farm Towns Into Ghost TownsFlorida is one of a growing number of states threatening to use E-Verify as a way to intimidate and control farmworkers. As farmers face worker shortages and farm communities lose residents, are GOP lawmakers shooting themselves in the foot?
BY GREY MORANFEBRUARY 7, 2024
(Civil Eats) Moncho had just started building a life in Florida when SB 1718, a broad law targeting both undocumented immigrants and the people in their lives, passed through the state legislature last May. In the weeks that followed, his home stopped feeling like home. He began seeing more cops and state troopers in his town, a predominantly immigrant community. He feared it would only get worse and figured it was safest to leave before the law went into effect in July.
It was a quick decision. Once I learned about the law, I talked it over with my wife and we said, OK, lets get out of here, said Moncho, who is using a nickname. He has lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years, moving between states as a farmworker and construction worker, without getting the chance to fully make any of them his home.
In June 2023, just weeks after the bills passage, Moncho and his wife packed up what they could fit into their car and drovethrough the wildfire smoke that was blanketing the East Coast at the timeto Vermont to seek work in the dairy industry and build a new life for themselves, again.
They are just two of the many undocumented immigrants who have left Florida in the aftermath of the bills passage. In the last nine months, as workers have fled, help wanted signs have reportedly popped up across the state. Crops have been left to rot in fields. Entire communities emptied out and turned into ghost towns. ...............(more)
https://civileats.com/2024/02/07/a-new-florida-immigration-law-is-turning-farm-towns-into-ghost-towns/
Lovie777
(12,274 posts)job opportunity openings.
BonnieJW
(2,265 posts)the price of food is going to rise due to lack of farm workers, food processors, packers and truckers. Then Magats will blame Biden. I hope the Lincoln Project is working on an ad.
Response to BonnieJW (Reply #14)
Name removed Message auto-removed
KS Toronado
(17,252 posts)marble falls
(57,099 posts)KS Toronado
(17,252 posts)NoMoreRepugs
(9,435 posts)RKP5637
(67,111 posts)Scrivener7
(50,955 posts)And then goes and votes R.
No sympathy.
Mr. Mustard 2023
(110 posts)Nah....
wolfie001
(2,251 posts)mitch96
(13,909 posts)Then again they could end their "immigration" problem by just arresting the people who HIRE the undocumented... Farmers, Meat processing plants and people who hire low wage nanny's etc
and they will NEVER do it.
Why? b/c the repukes in charge would not get their cheap labor. No cheap farm labor? Farmers go out of business. No cheap meat packing employees? Meat prices go thru the roof.
Hire low wage under age seasonal undocumented people is how they make money. Business people always complain about labor costs. If you can't have slaves, low wages are the next best thing for them.
If the labor advantages dry up in the US no one will come here. Why come to the US if there is no work?
The border crisis is just a political ploy to stick it to the dems...
Just a fucken game to them with peoples lives at stake.
Same with Ukraine. The ruzzia loving repukes in congress have blood on their hands. They don't care because then just want to stick it to the dems, not legislate or govern for the people they are suppose to serve... At least that's how i sees it..
uff it drives me nuts...
Ok rant mode off
m
DBoon
(22,366 posts)... and still haven't gotten over losing
mitch96
(13,909 posts)Sky Jewels
(7,110 posts)who make it difficult/impossible for him to employ the laborers he needs?
Scrivener7
(50,955 posts)And beyond that, I just can't.
Response to Scrivener7 (Reply #4)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Wuddles440
(1,123 posts)the losses with more child labor and a return to the 19th Century.
Lonestarblue
(10,011 posts)Im sure the law is aimed at allowing children to take some jobs formerly done by migrants. Its just another way of targeting poor kids and preventing them from getting an education because few children can work 40 hours a week and still have the energy to study and learn in school. Its also a way of holding wages down to the minimum because adults cannot survive on a minimum wage.
wolfie001
(2,251 posts)Out to the fields you go..........................
mitch96
(13,909 posts)the up keep..
Sounds like a good deal to me.
atreides1
(16,079 posts)Florida is changing its child labor laws. The bill would remove restrictions prohibiting 16- and 17-year-olds from working more than eight hours when they have classes the next day and from working more than 30 hours a week when school is in session.
I'll bet that there are some MAGAt parents that can't wait to take Johnny's paycheck and have him quit school before graduation...
AllaN01Bear
(18,245 posts)americans cant or wont.
wolfie001
(2,251 posts)Those folks at his rallies look like they haven't worked an honest day since Clinton was Prez.
SouthernDem4ever
(6,617 posts)Fat, dumb and stupid is no way to go through life Mr/Ms Magat. Ok I added the magat part, but it applies.
AZ8theist
(5,470 posts)Sky Jewels
(7,110 posts)will have no one to spoon feed them and change their diapers in their old age.
AllaN01Bear
(18,245 posts)knowledge of english and us history. nobody gives a hoot hoot hoot if they come from cuba or canada or are smuggled in freight shipping containers ., always the southern border.
peppertree
(21,636 posts)He already has the boots for the job.
orleans
(34,056 posts)i'm gonna say as long as it involves shooting, the gop doesn't give a crap who gets hit
case in point: this article
Old Crank
(3,589 posts)Saying it is a grandstanding bill and there will be no real consequences.
Performance art. These guys want to keep the boot on the throats of immigrants.
Grins
(7,217 posts)Backfires!!!! Just like it was predicted after passage. Within weeks laborers were saying Eff that!!! and started to get out. And not just farm workers, but also truck drivers.
Jesus, these bastards are stupid.
JoseBalow
(2,391 posts)Any form of exploitation or slavery is fine with them
IronLionZion
(45,450 posts)Walls don't even stop them
Freethinker65
(10,023 posts)Honestly, where do these conservative retirees driving their golf carts around cul de sacs in places like The Villages think their help and hospitality/service workers (with ethnic sounding names and accents come from)?
FeelingBlue
(681 posts)Telling their supporters not to get vaccinated against Covid.
Republicans seem to give no thought to their supporters, which, in turn, garners them further support. 🤪😝🤡
Martin68
(22,813 posts)They have made us a better state.