http://www.npr.org/2011/10/17/141413786/the-nation-the-high-cost-of-anti-immigrant-lawsIt was mid-June, and we were in town for the watermelon harvest, but we might as well have walked into a ghost town, thanks to
Georgia's recently signed Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act, otherwise known as House Bill 87. And thanks to HB 87, a copycat law of Arizona's infamous SB 1070, millions of pounds of watermelons were left to rot in the fields this summer—along with peaches, blackberries and cucumbers—as many of the most
dependable and experienced farmworkers steered clear of Georgia and headed north for friendlier states...A similar story is unfolding in neighboring
Alabama, where a federal judge recently upheld most provisions of an even more draconian bill, championed by Governor Robert Bentley as "the strongest immigration law in the country." The ruling spurred frantic midnight evacuations, as
immigrants fled rural towns across the state, leaving a trail of abandoned homes and businesses."How did Georgia come to suffer such a painful, self-inflicted wound? The proximate cause is
the intoxicating power of spreading anti-immigrant sentiment, fanned by incendiary Tea Party–style politics, which have found fertile ground throughout much of the South.
But like most things in the South, the roots of this particular problem run deep, into a long regional history of undervaluing agricultural labor. Georgia's leaders (and much of its agricultural industry) were confident that replacement workers could be hired without a hiccup in the harvest. This particular confederacy of dunces believed their own rhetoric and are now paying the price. And from the look of things, it really hurts when you shoot yourself in the foot.