Nov 3, 2011Growers say E-Verify will destroy the ag industry, but Congress has yet to offer a fix
With quick strokes of the blade, workers cut romaine heads from a Gonzales field on a brisk October morning. They precisely shave off the greenest exterior leaves and pass the crisp romaine hearts to an apron-clad bagger, who methodically sprays each handful of three with chlorinated water, then slides them into a retail pack. She tosses each full bag up to a platform, where a worker seals it and packs it into a carton. He hands off the full boxes to another man who loads a truck bound for a cooler, from which the lettuce will ship to grocers across the country.
Of this crew of 18 workers, 12 are probably undocumented immigrants.
From this lettuce field, the political throes of Washington might seem remote. But if the stalled federal immigration reform debate creeps forward – and it seems to be sputtering on, even in a gridlocked Congress – Monterey County’s $4 billion agricultural industry fears it could be plowed under. Montery County Weekly
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