The House will soon vote on the so-called Farm Workforce Modernization Act. A good summary of why this measure will retard agricultural modernization is an article published at National Review online entitled “Farming Like It’s 1699” by Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).
He writes: At the core of the bill are several indentured-labor schemes intended to tie current illegal aliens and future “temporary” workers to farm jobs for four to ten years before giving them green cards. The reason for the indenture system is that farmers know from experience that once the illegal aliens or visa workers get green cards, almost all will flee the medieval labor system that prevails in much of fresh fruit and vegetable agriculture. . . . So long as American agri-business can rely on a continually replenished supply for foreign labor, it has little incentive to invest in automation.
Read more at nationalreview.com