Political fix to nonexistent 'crisis' could devastate farm economy

Imagine you are a commercial tomato grower in California with hundreds of acres ready for harvest when you realize you’ve lost more than 44% of your workforce to some crazy scheme implemented by the government in response to the so-called border crisis. Chaos ensues with the result that almost half of your crop lies rotting in the field. Financial ruin becomes a distinct possibility if you can’t harvest all of your tomato crop and get it to market.

Imagine the same scenario but you are a tart cherry grower on the Leelanau Peninsula near Traverse City and you rely on documented and undocumented workers to help at harvest time. The federal government estimates around 44% of the farm workforce nationwide are undocumented workers and around 25% are documented.

Alas, government agents have swooped in and rounded up almost half of your workforce and they are sent back to their home country. Again, crops — this time cherries — are rotting on the trees and will not be turned into cherry pies or other treats to sate America’s sweet tooth and help drive the economy.

If Donald Trump prevails and wins a second term in the Oval Office the above scenarios could well become reality, as he has promised in speech after campaign speech that he will round up and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants to address a non-existent problem This "solution," if actually implemented, would have an enormous negative impact on this country’s economy.

According to a recent poll about half of Americans, including 42% of Democrats, support mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, including the 44% who make up a good portion of America’s farmworkers. Imagine, almost half of us support a program of deportations to rid the country of a workforce that is vital to the economic engine that drives this country. Talk about willingly cutting off your nose to spite your face to address a non-existent problem.

There is no border problem in this country. I repeat there is no problem with folks flocking to our country in search of jobs nobody in this country actually wants. This country now, as in the past, has always relied on immigrants to help grow the economy by taking those jobs — such as migratory laborers in agriculture — the rest of us don’t want but are vital to keeping our economy at a functioning level. Take those folks out of the equation and you are inviting economic chaos.

Immigration is strictly a political issue that both sides of the aisle game to their own advantage by spreading lies and misinformation about immigrants; both legal and illegal.

The time is long past to stop viewing migration as a “problem” in need of being “fixed” and accept it as a necessary fact of life, especially given that our labor force is stagnating as birth rates here continue to decline. In order for our economy to continue to grow we need an infusion of ready-to-go workers to fill jobs that will otherwise go unfilled due to an aging workforce.

Immigrants, just like in the past, will continue to fill that gap. Love 'em or hate 'em immigrants are vital to our well-being and are here to stay, regardless of what you or I think of them. Trump has used his lies to demonize immigrants, calling them murderous thugs and criminals who are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Nothing could be further from the truth if you are willing to look beyond his vicious words and hatred at the so-called “other” — code for people who are different from you and me. In other words, who are not white and privileged.

Canada is savvy enough to understand an influx of migrants is essential to its economy and for the past several years has been actively conducting a campaign to attract foreigners to fill jobs that are currently going unfilled due to the country’s aging population. America would do well to pay attention to what our friends to the north are doing as their population levels off, much as is happening here.

Sooner, rather than later, we need to expand our efforts and financial resources toward creating an easier legal pathway for immigrants to this country, rather than demonizing those who dare to make a new life for themselves here. We must stop treating them like political pariahs.

It is well beyond the time to put out the welcome mat to attract migrants to the United States, even if it is for our own reasons of filling those jobs that are necessary for a strong and robust economy. Let’s do it in a sane and fair way to encourage migration as a vital economic piece we continue to rely on.

— Michael Jones is a columnist and contributor for the Gaylord Herald Times. He can be reached at mfomike2@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Trumped up 'border crisis' creates a different kind of threat