Labor Secretary's Farming Regulations Will Benefit Illegal Aliens
by PETER GADIEL
December 8, 2011
Hilda Solis.
Pres. Obama has continually ignored his duty under the Constitution to enforce our laws against illegal immigration. He has also ignored the Constitutional requirement that he protect the States against invasion.
Because of these continuing violations of his oath of office the campaign to protect Americans from invaders has been moved to the States. This is entirely appropriate given the States inherent power to protect their citizens from violence, as well as their duty to the federal government and the Nation as a whole to enforce valid federal laws. Consistent with their obligations to their citizens and the federal government many States have attempted to pass their own statutes that would codify how their police and bureaucrats will execute the laws Obama has chosen to ignore.
There have been many state immigration enforcement bills proposed: to require employers to utilize the federal E-Verify program to ensure that employees are legally authorized to work in the U.S.; to require police to enroll in the federal Secure Communities Program to ensure that the records of illegals who are arrested are turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; to deny drivers' licenses to illegals as well as in-state tuition rates and public colleges; deny them subsidized housing and mortgages. The list is a long one since the list of benefits currently available to illegals is also long.
In working with activists across the country who have lobbied for State legislation intended to support federal immigration law I have found that among the most effective enemies of national security are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Farm Bureau. This year alone, in well over a dozen States the power of the Chamber and Farm Bureau to block efforts to protect U.S. national security and sovereignty have been insurmountable, with the result that these bills have been defeated.
Long ago, the Farm Bureau jumped into bed with the illegal alien lobby to maintain a supply of cheap, illegal alien labor. So now it's amusing to see this group of sellouts now becoming the victims of that lobby.
For reasons unclear to me and irrelevant to this discussion, there has remained a significant number of farm jobs for which American teens rather than illegal aliens have been the preferred labor pool. Now, with the backing of the illegal alien lobby, Obama's Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, is proposing new regulations that would stab the farm lobby in the back: the new regulations would have the practical effect of prohibiting most teenagers from working on farms.
The proposed regulations, contained in 57,000 words on 50 pages of the Federal Register (available on the net here) would, according to the Farm Bureau, require that teens complete at least ninety hours of classroom instruction before they could be hired for farm work. It would also prohibit teens from operating any power-driven equipment, implements or devices; prohibit them from herding animals on horseback, and effectively prevent them from climbing into haylofts that are over six feet above ground (which is to say, all haylofts.)
It would also end teenage participation in corn detasseling in which corn tassels are manually pulled from the tops of the plants after machines have removed the majority. This massive job, requiring thousands of workers is to rural families and teens many things: a rite of passage, a first job, a lesson in the work ethic, an essential service to farmers, and a source of income (up to $12.50 per hour).
The alleged purpose of the proposed regu;ations is to "protect" children, but as with everything else in this administration, in order to find the real reason for a decision you first have to identify who it is that is being paid off. In this case the payee is the illegal alien lobby; by eliminating job opportunities for tens of thousands of American teens, those same jobs will instantly become available to the only other group competing for this work: illegal aliens. The Washington Times quotes a single Iowa farmer saying that the proposed regulation will eliminate between 1,200 and 2,000 teens from his work force. Multiply that by tens of thousands of farms and you begin to see the monumental scope of the sacrifice American teens will have to make in order fund Obama's gift to illegals.
More evidence that this is a cynical political payoff is discerned by looking at the promoters if this scheme. Surprise! The people pressing for this just happen to be the same groups that represent the interests of illegal aliens. The groups that comprise the "Child Labor Coalition," which provides the camouflage for Secretary Solis's assault on farm families include: Dialogue on Diversity; El Centro Latino of Western N.C.; Farm Labor Organizing Committee; Latin Council for Latin American Advancement; Hispanic Federation; League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC); Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF); Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC); Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee; American Assoc. of University Women (AAUW), and on and on.
The vast, overwhelming majority of the kids who will be deprived of work will be white American teens in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska and other States. So far as anyone can tell, the gangs at LULAC, AAUW, MALDEF, etc have never before been on record as being concerned with anything that promotes the welfare of white, middle class teen agers. To the contrary, these groups have only supported measures that promote "rights" for illegal aliens at the expense of white, black and brown American citizens.
Thus, it cannot be believed that LULAC and MALDEF, et al. are now suddenly concerned about the welfare of Americans. Nor is it believable that illegal alien farm workers are merely the unintended beneficiaries of the Obama-Solis scheme.
Now, let us return our attention to the American Farm Bureau, itself a lobby representing family owned farms. I have spoken in States from New Hampshire to North Carolina to Kansas on numerous issues: implementation of E-Verify, drivers' licenses for illegals, etc and everywhere been opposed by the Farm Bureau in collaborating with the pro-illegal alien lobby. I am therefore amused to see that the Bureau has become the latest victim of their longtime allies. The illegal alien lobby has driven millions of Americans out of agricultural, factory, and construction jobs. For whatever reasons, whether it be the nature of the work, the time of year the work is to be done or the flexible schedules these jobs permit, there remains a segment of the agricultural job market that remains attractive to a portion of the American population at wages that are also attractive. The illegal alien lobby, with the connivance of its White House pals now intends to prevent those Americans from taking those jobs from illegals.
Farmers, for centuries the heroes and beneficiaries of Jeffersonian mythology, long ago threw in their lot with the illegal alien lobby, the enemy of the American laborer. Farmers were responsible for the first drive to import cheap, illegal labor. Their 'success' in replacing American labor with foreign was so impressive that manufacturers and builders, bankers, lawyers and leftists, seeing a whole new source of power followed in their furrows. The illegal alien mob, now far stronger than ever has turned on the farmers who were its first source of political muscle. I cannot resist the temptation to point out that "you reap what you sow."
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Peter Gadiel is the president of 9/11 Families for a Secure America. Since the murder of his son in the World Trade Center on 9/11 he has devoted his life to working for secure borders and enforcement of immigration law. The views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of 9/11 FSA.
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