Utah Farms Rely on Immigrant Workers

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) Utah's agriculture industry delivered a strong message to state lawmakers yesterday.

"If we round up 12-million illegal immigrants and send them back over the border - if that was actually to ever happen, I hope you've got garden plots because your food industry is going to shut down," says Jim Olsen of the Utah Retail Merchants Association.

Jim Olsen of the Utah Retail Merchants Association offered that dire warning to legislators during a discussion of possible immigration reform. Olsen says farmers and food producers in Utah are so desperate for workers, they'll hire "anyone with a pulse."

Lawmakers are considering requiring businesses do more thorough checks for identity and legal status of workers. Chad Rowley of Payson Fruit Growers says 70 to 80 percent of the seasonal workers he hires to harvest are from Mexico. He believes they all have legal work visas.

However, Olsen says the current federal system for verifying legal status of a worker is insufficient.

"All it does is match the name you've submitted with the social security number you've submitted," says Olsen. "It doesn't tell you whether the person who presented those documents to you is that person or whether the documents are counterfeit."

Olsen says Utah farms want a better system for identifying legal workers, but he adds the current labor shortage is forcing most to hire anyone who's willing.

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