Hate Politics and its Price Tag

It’s not often that hate politics slaps back so fast and so hard. But the ice-coated, estimated $3 billion loss of the California citrus industry packed a wallop. The fruit, say farmers, couldn’t be harvested in a timely fashion or as needed due to pending treacherous weather “because of a lack of labor.” And where were the needed pickers? In deportation facilities or hiding for fear of the same.

What brought us to this state of “oops”? Anti-immigrant campaigns designed to placate nativists and those who prefer to blame the vulnerable rather than hold politicians accountable to pass immigration legislation designed for the country’s wellbeing and for fair treatment of labor.

As a nation, we depend on thousands of undocumented workers to supply most of our food from planting to picking, to cooking, to serving and washing up afterwards. To a great extent, U.S. families can’t eat without immigrant labor. So why are both ends of this survival chain starved for enlightened labor laws that disregard borders of origin in favor of mutual need and supply? 

For one thing, undocumented workers are constantly fed to political appetites. With public support for the war in Iraq plummeting and an election looming, last fall, politicians and TV hucksters like CNN’s Lou Dobbs turned to a convenient whipping group. Dobbs didn’t have to venture far from his home base. Exploitable labor, it seems, is in demand everywhere. He and others struck a familiar drumbeat and threw in the fear of terrorism, no matter the lack of threat to document it.

This country’s undocumented immigrants are convenient, voiceless victims of sudden deportation sweeps. For the first time in more than two decades, they hit here in Austin. Soon even simple daily chores elicited panic. Principals reported that mothers were sending their children to school with grocery lists in hopes that someone would help them shop. Mothers feared they would be seized and separated from their children. Families fret until fathers returned at night after long hours for little pay.

Today, farm workers in California face a new threat in a hostile environment.

As ice-coated fruit spoils, nearly 80 percent of the citrus is insured and farmers can expect some disaster relief, typically about 50 percent of their uninsured crops’ market value. Those migrant farm laborers who are citizens can turn ...