ICE raid leaves mushrooms rotting on Chester County farm after workers leave

[jpak]

https://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/ice-raid-leaves-mushrooms-rotting-on-chester-county-farm

The owner, who voted for President Donald Trump, says the government "is taking my already-depleted labor force away."

WRITTEN BY JOSEPH N. DISTEFANO
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

During the week of June 24, President Donald Trump tweeted recently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement “will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States.”

Three days before he made that promise, I drove uphill between the concrete and wood structures of a cluster of Chester County mushroom farms, pungent from composted manure and compressed sawdust, in an intensely farmed southern corner of the county, “America's Mushroom Capital.” It's a place where workers are already scarce, foreigners take the hard jobs, and growers wonder why their government seems to be pushing them away from their family businesses of filling the produce aisles.

In one farm office, the manager showed me a new letter from the Department of Homeland Security, which runs ICE. The assistant special agent in charge wrote that ICE agents had stopped by recently to copy employment records. Over the next four weeks, they had checked those documents, and found that some of the workers "appear, at the present time, not to be authorized to work in the United States.”

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[beachbum bob]

1. the typical common GOP/conservative view that illegal immigrants do not provide any meaningful

contributions to america and only take benefits..both 100% false. As business and farmers start to fail again because the loss of workers, perhaps they will have a wake up call


or not

[GeorgeGist]

16. The owner must be a genius ...

not to know this.

[Midnight Writer]

29. I have never met an immigrant of any status that did not have a job.

[Nay]

2. Frankly, I love it when Trump voters feel the pain of their votes directly, as this farmer

has.

[OnDoutside]

11. +1

[Botany]

3. I wonder how many of the owners and managers of those mushroom operations voted for Trump?

[dem4decades]

4. Why don't those morons that waited 2 days to get into Trump's rally go pick them.

They seem to have plenty of time on their hands.

[ooky]

5. Oh well...

you wanted "less government".

[tanyev]

6. "All those other illegals are the problem!"

"The ones that work for me are great, and that guy who sells breakfast tacos is cool, but all the other ones in the country need to go!"


*not intended to be actual quotes from the article

[mainer]

7. If you want Americans to pick mushrooms, you need to pay $20 an hour

Which will raise the price of mushrooms to $20 a pound. Then no one will buy them, putting farms out of business, or inflationary food prices will force farms to keep raising farmworker pay higher and higher.

We owe our cheap produce to immigrant labor. Either we welcome and nurture that labor force -- or we accept the fact our produce is going to be expensive.

[Historic NY]

13. This isn't a new concept....

there is lots of work Americans won't do. Its been that way with the waves of immigrant coming here, legally and illegally. The Italians, Irish, Germans, etc. They worked the fields, hauled the stone, labored in brick yards, worked in the hot sweaty factories, guarded the outposts , many built the hundreds of major public works projects we still now use. Some were here many years before they were naturalized.

[mainer]

21. That's what I was trying to say

We have to acknowledge the need for immigrants. Or we have to accept the fact many things will cost more than some are willing to pay.

[graeme_macquarrie]

17. I'm not sure I understand your point

Are you suggesting we should continue to exploit migrant labor to maintain low food prices, or pay them living wages and pay a higher price for that product?
If the wage is high enough you will find plenty of people willing to do the job.

[fleabiscuit]

24. Non Sequitur. nt

[brewens]

8. Time for someone to introduce a bill creating my old "Harvest Corps" idea.

I sent an email to Idaho Gov. Phil Batt when he was in office and illegal immigration was a big issue.

If we were going to kick out all the illegal farm workers, we would need a draft to get people to harvest the crops. My proposal was that any able bodied American 16 and over that was not officially employed would be subject to the draft. The main feature was that your economic status would not be an issue. Rich kid, retired early or whatever, if your number was drawn, your ass would be on a bus to go pick crops!

Not a chance of that being seriously considered, but think of the attitude adjustment it would be for some!

[TeamPooka]

19. America has forced people to work in the fields before....didn't work out great.

[brewens]

20. I'm just thinking of some trust fund baby doing his patriotic duty and serving his country.

Or we could continue to have the migrant farm workers do it.

[safeinOhio]

9. No cheap labor, time for

Trump’s workers to unionize.

[mbusby]

10. tRump supporters are like mushrooms....

....kept in the dark and fed a lot of bullshit.

[yaesu]

12. i knew this was going to happen, all over the country and it's what tRump wants

yet, the farmers love him. This, plus the constant rain, will drive prices up on everything, but what really matters is the kids, many US citizens, who must be going through hell wandering if mom, dad or both are going to be taken away. The fascist repugs are good at child abuse.

[malaise]

14. You think that matters to a moron who serves hamberders

at a WH dinner

[hatrack]

15. Just tragic. Crying here, really for this poor, unfortunate Trump-voting farmer . . .

[TeamPooka]

18. I feel bad for the migrant workers who are losingtheir freedom and income but not the Trump voters

[ProudLib72]

22. Go pick them yourself, shit for brains

[Blue Owl]

23. That's rich -- a mushroom farmer dicked by a mushroom dick

n/t

[SHRED]

26. Hiring illegally

Do they expect to break the law by hiring illegally and not suffer anything?
Bonus that it's a Dump supporter.
Fuck em.

[roamer65]

27. May his crop rot and he go bankrupt.

Fuck him.

[alwaysinasnit]

28. I wonder why 45's golf resorts aren't being raided by ICE. (sarcasm)

[JustAnotherGen]

30. Well I'm not doing it

I'm not doing that job so they better figure something out.