VIDEO: Immigration enforcement could kill American farms

The drumbeat for stricter immigration enforcement sounds like a war chant to some.

In an editorial published Thursday, The Christian Science Monitor opines that enforcement-first policies could drive America’s small family farms out of business.

From the Monitor:

Enforcement-only immigration policies will further devastate immigrant communities, ravage labor-intensive agriculture, and take away countless jobs beyond the farm sector. If elected officials want US fruit and vegetable farms to survive, they need to implement smarter immigration reform.

Last week, the Supreme Court provided yet another sign that the drumbeat of immigration enforcement continues unabated. And with the nation on the cusp of summer, nowhere is the harmful impact of enforcement-only policies more evident than on America’s fruit and vegetable farms.

The central economic question for US legislators: Should our country continue to produce fruits and vegetables? If so, our representatives need to protect experienced farmworkers who are already here and ensure that growers can hire immigrant laborers to do the seasonal farm-work that Americans don’t want to do.

Earlier this week, 11 undocumented migrant farm workers were arrested in Morgan County about 80 miles from Denver. ICE determined that 53 of the Wildcat Dairy’s employees lacked authorization to work in this country. Nine more workers are still being sought, reports Fox News.

Here, Suffolk University Professor Benjamin Powell quickly debunks what he calls “common myths” about immigration.

Scot Kersgaard has been managing editor of a political newspaper, editor and co-owner of a ski town newspaper, executive editor of eight high-tech magazines (where he worked with current Apple CEO Tim Cook), deputy press secretary to a U.S. Senator, and an outdoors columnist at the Rocky Mountain News. He has an English degree from the University of Washington. He was awarded a fellowship to study internet journalism at the University of Maryland's Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. He was student body president in college. He spends his free time hiking and skiing.

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