Jul
3
The death of the current comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate has caused concern for wheat farmers across the US who rely on foreign labor to bring in wheat crops.
The defeat of the immigration bill means that people such as combine operator leader Thomas Murphy will face great difficulty finding enough crew members to cut the wheat.
Almost 2500 legal immigrants from countries such as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand who work in the US as wheat cutters are responsible for almost one-third of all the wheat in a $7.7 billion market. The failure of the immigration bill will result in an already serious labor shortage turning critical.
US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says, “You’ll have labor that simply doesn’t get done. We have a system that doesn’t work very well, so they’re really struggling.”