There’s much talk about how terrible it would be for agriculture if we ever did stop the illegal mass migration from south of the border. Some claim that if we finish Trump’s wall we will have no one to do our dirty work. But I’ve found the problem isn’t finding someone to hire to do our dirty work, the problem these days is finding someone who knows how to do anything. And if you ever do they turn out to have the work ethic of a 35 year old spoiled child who’s still living at home and has to rely on someone else to wear their jeans out for them.
Look at the faces in the pictures of the illegals and you’ll see that a big chunk of illegal aliens are drug smugglers, gang members, women with children with a few international terrorists mixed in. Granted, there may be some who are willing to give you a day’s work… but they’ll take a week to do it.
These aren’t the hard working immigrants who came to America through Ellis Island who had a sponsor, the work ethic of a pack mule and their required promise they wouldn’t ask for public assistance. Nor are they the talented, hard working Mexicans we’re accustomed to. Let’s just say the new illegals are not people you’d trust with your half-million dollar combine.
Many of the new illegals are folks from Central America who want to get lost in our interior, far away from the border patrol. Many may never find employment and they just want to take advantage of our health and welfare system. Even those seeking work are looking for easier work than agriculture offers and so they end up making beds in hotels, bussing tables or performing some other role in today’s “service industry”.
A farmer in Yuma told me that even with the largest number of illegal border crossings in our history he’s faced daily with a worker shortage. “In the vegetable business it’s Farmageddon out here. Prices are way down and costs are way up. To top it off, good help is becoming increasingly harder to find. I hired a fellow just last week who spends half his time pulling up his pants and the other half talking on his phone. He might make a hand making scam calls but that’s it. I never thought I’d get so excited about mediocrity, finding a worker who gives you a four day work week (even though he’s employed for five). Some might work well under constant supervision but then a rumor circulates that the Border Patrol is in the vicinity and they all disappear faster than a box of donuts at a cop convention. And they don’t come back!”
Another friend owns a moving company in Indio. “It used to be that if we needed extra help moving furniture for a day we’d go to the bus stop where a gathering of hard working guys was always looking for work. Now days there might be one guy looking for work but even he’s halfway hoping he doesn’t find any. So you hire him and he manages to break things. Expensive things!”
The owner of a trucking company told me he can’t find any drivers, legal or illegal. He says, “To stay in business I have to put an illegal behind the wheel of a $150,000 rig and he walks off the job and disappears, leaving my tractor-trailer at a truck stop with 50,000 pounds of live cattle.”
Maybe farmers and truckers are spoiled. They’re looking for workers 25-35 years in age with 40 years experience. But I think a different type of person is invading us from the south. I’ve crawled all over the borderlands and on most every ranch there’d always be a majordomo, a Mexican man, legal or illegal, that practically ran the place. They could do anything and you’d trust them with your life. They were upstanding people who valued family and gave you an honest day’s work. They became part of your family. Sadly, these folks are becoming as rare as an elephant that can type.
I don’t know who said it but it’s true, “The problem these days is the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.”
