Most migrant workers decided not to look for work in Colorado so prison inmates are picking the crops. But no one is doing the work these workers were doing in landscaping, restaurants, car washes and other service businesses. DP
Immigrants heard Colorado's you're-not-welcome-here message loud and clear. Now the state needs its criminals to fill the workers' former farm jobs.
Roanoke.com: Colorado is a success story of sorts for the camp that believes illegal immigrants are nothing more than criminals who ought to be barred at the border.
The state's tough laws -- which encourage local police to check papers and make sure no one without a fistful of proper documentation receives one penny's worth of social services or a driver's license -- actually worked. Immigrants, both illegal and documented (who don't want the hassle), have stayed away.
In fact, so few migrant workers showed up for last year's harvest that crops were left to rot in the field.
In order to avoid a repeat of that in the future, Colorado has hit on another idea: Use convicted criminals to pick crops.
Farmers can pay convicts piddling wages; the crops will get picked under armed guard; Colorado's farming industry will remain viable; the dregs of society will earn their three hots and a cot; and everyone will be happy.
Well, not quite everyone. Landscapers and the owners of restaurants, car washes and other service-oriented businesses can't fill their low-wage jobs either. But it isn't as if Colorado's ready for prisoners to bus tables or trim residential trees.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment