Fear is a motivational tool, for good or ill. If it gets rid of the need for a guest-worker program that would create a permanent underclass, similar to what has happened in Germany with Turkish workers, I'm all for a little extra hardship now for farmers.
However, it is saddening to see federal authorities strong-arm the workers and basically apologize for slowing down work to the owners. It's like a scene from Catch-22.

I have no sympathy. Illegal aliens SHOULD be afraid. As should any law breaker. Have the growers ever thought maybe of recruiting kids from the inner city to earn some money picking produce?

I agree there are a number of terrible binds here, but that doesn't obviate some clear problems with using false identification, fake SS numbers, and employers hiring undocumented workers. All of this argues for reform of our immigration process; but too much of the debate is centered on punishment and/or blanket legalization, neither of which holds long term benefit. The people hiding "in the shadows" need a registration process and a path to citizenship; but at the same time, we need to be clear that there is a process, that it is going to be enforced and people need to follow it. One without the other doesn't get us anywhere. And the real point in the Iowa case is that nothing really can change by summarily arresting workers. We don't have the resources to arrest, jail and deport anywhere near the numbers of actual people actually working in these situations.

while it doesn't surprise me, i'm still left wondering what the reasons are for businesses to scale-back, reduce profits and invest in machines "rather than increase wages to a level where native-born workers will take these jobs." this isn't the only case of businesses potentially losing money rather than grudgingly accepting on pragmatic grounds a position they've opposed for so many years. it used to be CW that businesses were amoral entities concerned only with profit, but they're looking more and more lately like immoral entities concerned only with the status quo.

There's so much wrong with this Dana Goldstein post I'm have Kate Sheppard flashbacks.

1. Growers should mechanize; a supply of cheap labor and lobbying for same has kept them from doing that.

2. Those workers probably got off easier than U.S. citizens who'd committed the same crimes would have. At least we know who's side Dana Goldstein is on.

3. Many stories from growers are simply false or the MSM doesn't tell you the facts. For instance, see this.

There are many more things I could say, but I think the reader gets the hint: Dana Goldstein has no clue what she's talking about.

We will continue to have illegal immigrants working in this country until we start punishing employers.

BTW, my wife has been waiting for over a year for a visa. She is froma visa free country, speaks fluent English, graduated from one of the best colleges in the world, and can't work legally in this country.

Yet, all the news is about illegal immigration. Why should it take more than 12 months to get a spouse into this country?

"There are many more things I could say, but I think the reader gets the hint: Dana Goldstein has no clue what she's talking about."

Coming from an obsessed troll like you, that's pretty much a confirmation that Dana Goldstein's piece is accurate. Thanks for verifying that.

"Some farmers [have] ... switched to crops that they can harvest using machines ... Those technological changes are costly and thus will be difficult to reverse"

Is Dana arguing that we should NOT increase worker productivity - for the sake of undocumented immigrants and their 'right' to work here in the US illegally?

Dana should understand that one of the main reasons the US retains an edge in the global economy is due to our superior worker productivity. This edge is responsible for our historic advantage in GNP growth and is responsible for the very high standard of living in the US for ALL persons here - undocumented immigrants included.

What Dana argues for here - abandoning technological advances that enhance our ability to compete globally - is, umm, odd?

Is Dana arguing that we should NOT increase worker productivity - for the sake of undocumented immigrants and their 'right' to work here in the US illegally?

What Dana argues for here - abandoning technological advances that enhance our ability to compete globally

that's a stretch. read her post again. she's pointing out that farmers are making hard-to-reverse choices that 1) preclude native-borns from taking the jobs left by undocumented workers and 2) preclude there being jobs to come back to for guest-workers were such a program to eventually exist. she makes no argument for abandoning technological advances and simply points out that many farmers are abandoning that pesky problem of hiring people to do a job when they can't do it illegally.

besides, if you're going to pose a gotcha question fox-news-style, you can't also answer it yourself.

a change in B has resulted in an uptick in A, which in this case, leads to C.

is Dana saying we should give up A? A's been good to us. Dana's telling us to abandon A! the horror!

I'm not going to delve once again into the idiocy that is this post, but the NYT article gets its proper treatment here.

Let's face it: a century ago, Dana Goldstein would have been crying about all those ChildLaborers who were forced out of work.

People committing fraud, whether Americans or illegals, should of course be punished, and to deny that is to deny the rule of law and ultimately the basis for society per se. As TLB observes, these illegals probably even got off lighter than citizens would have. Law-breaking employers absolutely should be punished too, and it is clear that the slave masters running Agriprocessors warrant nice long prison sentences. Yet, the government only makes token efforts against business and instead sides with business in almost every conceivable way. It will take intense democratic pressure from the American people and creative strategies such as lawsuits against employers to see justice done. In the meantime, progressive nihilists and corporate fat cats conspire against American workers and American culture to import unlimited numbers of illegals against the democratic will of the American people.

I was just surprised the farmers were chopping down cherry trees. Apparently that's more economic than paying a better wage and possibly attracting legal labor. Mechanized agriculture is expensive with gas prices as they are!

Phelan: the "go after employers" is just a dodge Dems use, and if the gov went after employers the Dems would find some way to try to block it.

For instance, when an AZ DA went after a company that sends money, he was sued by a non-profit that a) had received money from that company, b) is linked to the MexicanGovernment, and c) is linked into the IL machine.