Things fell apart in record time as migrant workers flee felonies for working undocumented in Florida!
Before the Florida Legislature, at DeSantis’ behest, passed the laws that severely punish people who hire, drive or assist undocumented immigrants with felonies, the irrigation contractor, builders, farmers, medical facilities were simply doing what a lot of agricultural, service and construction businesses do: ignoring the immigration status of his laborers. Looking the other way. Getting jobs done. FURIOUS AT DESANTIS Now, he and other business owners have lost experienced workers — and they can’t hire any new migrants, either. Not only would many newcomers also fail to pass the status test — but they’re nowhere to be found.(www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-)
Immigration leaders concerned about worker shortages, produce supply due to new Florida immigration law. It's been almost four months since Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., signed a new immigration law that has caused a lot of pushback from the state's farming communities. Now, some are worried about our produce supply. This is essentially Douglas Turner Ward's play A day of Absence which became the film A Day Without A Mexican in real life!
In fields across Florida, ripe tomatoes, lettuces, and strawberries are rotting away under the sun's relentless glare. Around the state, untold numbers of farmworkers have stopped showing up for work, fearing discrimination and deportation in the wake of a new state law that aims to crack down on illegal immigration. The Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929 would update the existing Registry statute so that an immigrant may qualify for lawful permanent resident status if they have lived in the U.S. continuously for at least seven years before filing an application for lawful permanent resident status.
Americans generally agree that immigrants – whether undocumented or living legally in the country – mostly do not work in jobs that U.S. citizens want, with a majority saying so across racial and ethnic groups and among both political parties. This is particularly true when it comes to undocumented immigrants. About three-quarters of adults (77%) say undocumented immigrants mostly fill jobs U.S. citizens do not want, while 21% say undocumented immigrants fill jobs U.S. citizens would like to have, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
Among Florida's top agricultural products are oranges, greenhouse and nursery products, cane for sugar, and cattle and calves. Florida's recognized signature crop is citrus. The 2017 Census of Agriculture shows 502,886 acres in orchards (known as groves in Florida), second only to California. The average life expectancy for migrant farmworkers is 49 years, compared to 73 for the general U.S. population (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).The most common ethnicity among Florida farm workers is Hispanic or Latino, which makes up 64.7% of all farm workers. Comparatively, 25.2% of farm workers are White and less than 4% of farm workers are Black or African American.
The state's orange trees have suffered from hurricane winds and a mounting epidemic of disease this year, caused by climate change accelerating a 20-year decline in citrus production. Florida has long produced the majority of domestic juice oranges, meaning a smaller crop squeezes the available quality and supply and raise prices. For 2023 Florida will see the smallest crop since the Great Depression! In a little over a decade, Florida has lost more than half of its orange crop, according to the University of Florida's Citrus Research and Education Center. “We lost the majority of this year's crop. We've been cut in half on a production level because of disease this cuts that half in half,” one orange producer said. Why are Florida orange Groves dying? One of the main blights is Citrus Greening Disease...We're down to a 16 million box crop, from 220 million down to 16 million is a huge number.
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