Farm labor shortage in Yuma gives rise to cash pay
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER
Dec 18, 2005

SAN LUIS, Ariz. — A shortage in farm laborers has given rise to a controversial cash pay system in the Yuma agricultural industry.

Some area growers and farm labor contractors, competing for workers from a diminishing pool of labor, offer workers "la tira," Spanish for "the throw," a daily cash advance of $20 to $50 that is to be taken out of workers' paychecks.

The employers say the system is a necessary evil and the result of companies competing for fewer and fewer workers amid a shortage, which growers say is being exacerbated by enforcement efforts of the U.S. Border Patrol.

But opponents of the cash advance say the pay system fosters a tax-evading, illegal work force. They say cash in hand at the end of each day for farm workers promotes the poverty cycle for workers, and makes it next to impossible for workers to file complaints against employers and contractors.

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Most agree cash payment attracts the undocumented
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER
Dec 18, 2005

A daily cash advance pay system offered by some Yuma-area growers and labor contractors could attract undocumented or falsely documented workers, opponents say.

The system, known as “la tira,” gives those undocumented workers the security of cash in hand at the end of the day, when the possibility of deportation makes it undesirable to wait around for weekly or biweekly paychecks.

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Many options, no easy solutions

Susan Carroll
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 19, 2005 12:00 AM

ON THE BORDER WEST OF DOUGLAS - From the dirt road that parallels the U.S.-Mexican border, a lush, green valley stretches out from southeastern Arizona into Mexico. On the desert floor, dozens of foot trails snake north toward the United States. The barbed-wire fence droops to the ground. It doesn't even keep the cattle from wandering across.

Not all the 1,951-mile border is like this. In big cities such as San Diego and El Paso, and even some smaller towns, including Nogales, the federal government has built towering steel and concrete-post walls and doubled then tripled the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents. They made 1.17 million arrests in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

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Fox to Americans: Don't forget your immigrant roots
Sun Dec 18, 2005 3:56 PM ET
By Alistair Bell

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Angered by a bill in the U.S. Congress aimed at cracking down on undocumented workers, Mexican President Vicente Fox urged Americans on Sunday not to forget that many of their ancestors emigrated to the United States.

The legislation, which foresees building a high-tech fence on parts of the U.S.-Mexican border to stop illegal immigrants, neared passage in the U.S. House of Representatives last week.

The legislation, which has divided Republicans, would also make it harder for U.S. employers to hire illegal aliens and make it a felony to live in the United States illegally.

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Deported immigrant speeds back to Colorado
By GARY HARMON The Daily Sentinel
Sunday, December 18, 2005

When Federico Ortega was deported to Mexico in November, it was, in the words of a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement spokesman, “in order that he didn’t go back onto our streets.”

Within a week after he was sent across the border, according to law enforcement officials familiar with him, Ortega, 30, was haunting the dusty back roads of Delta County, packing a loaded .45-caliber handgun, two clips, a packet of methamphetamine and a pipe for smoking it.

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Minuteman-inspired groups gain popularity
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. - The Minuteman Project started earlier this year amid fears that racist extremists would confront and possibly injure illegal immigrants crossing into Arizona.

But there were no significant confrontations - no fights, and rarely any excitement - when hundreds of people traveled to the Arizona desert during April to watch for border crossers and report them to immigration agents.

Since then, the movement has taken hold with Minuteman-inspired organizations springing up in several states, including Texas, and even critics acknowledge the participants are more than just a band of misfits, bigots and extremists.

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USCIS ISSUES CITIZENSHIP AND NATURALIZATION FACTS

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Read the latest entry from VDare.com
“Human Directionals”—The Cheap Wage/Expensive Land Economy Personified

By Steve Sailer

America's proud history as a middle class country rests fundamentally on two advantages of settling a mostly empty continent: a small supply of labor and a large supply of land.

This meant relatively high wages and low land prices, so Americans could afford to buy their own farms and homes.

In turn, this virtuous cycle encouraged Americans to invent labor-saving devices like the reaper, the washing machine, the assembly line, and the semiconductor.

Which made Americans even richer and more independent.

Sadly, immigration has created a wasteful abundance of cheap labor and contributed to a shortfall of cheap land.