FOREIGN WORKERS

I want you all to know that I understand the need for foreign workers. My husband and I have a custom harvesting company and we require seasonal workers willing to travel most of 7 months of the year. There are no medical benefits, not even for us. We've had trouble finding workers in the US willing to work a seasonal job with no benefits and when we did find them they would quit part of the way through the harvest. About 8 years ago we started using the H2A Visa system to aquire foreign workers from places such as New Zealand, Australia and even Denmark this last year. We found hard workers, many educated or at least trained, they were dependable and it was all done legally. The drawbacks to this program include the expense of the Visas, the requirement by immigration that we pay higher wages than we usually do (another reason why we still would rather hire americans) the need to house and feed all of our workers and just the hassle of the program. We are a small family owned company and we are forced to pay more for our foreign workers. Yet many big companies with much more money and power hire illegal immigrants for pennies on the dollar. It angers me that we are barely scraping by because we do things legally while the big guys get a bargain for them and a burden for the tax payer. The H2A visa program is limited to a small number while millions off 'undocumented workers' come over our borders to work for these less than honest employers. Many people would believe that there isn't much of a difference in the different foreign workers and their roll but I will point out to you that the differences are astonishing and costly.

When our H2A visa workers come to the US they must have appropriate immunizations. These 'undocumented workers' (Oh Come On they are invaders, criminals, leeches) come bringing TB and many other risks to our health due to their lack of immunizations. Our workers must purchase an insurance policy so as not to burden our healthcare system. Every year we pay for the heathcare, births etc. of millions of leeches nicely referred to as undocumented workers! WHen our workers are done with their job, we sign a form stating when they were released and they are booked on flights back to their individual homes and they GO THERE!!! Many Mexican workers with or without a green card fade into our society and live off of our welfare system, benefit from our healthcare system, fill our jails and get educations compliments of the citizens of the US.

Custom harvesters are actually dealt a double wammy when it comes to immigration though. Custom Harvesters from the United States are going out of business every year and at a highly alarming rate because the US allows Candian harvesters to come into the US and take our jobs. That's right, they can come in, offer lower prices since they don't pay our taxes and put Americans out of business and the government does nothing about it.

When we hire foreign workers we must first prove we cannot find an American to take the job yet Canadian harvesters can be hired even if there are American harvesters to do the job, even if it puts American harvesters out of business.

When harvesters go out of business who's going to pick up their tax burden for our Mexican Welfare System?