"Edgar is at work," said Brenda, his ten year old sister.
I blinked twice before answering, "This is the first day of summer school. Where is Eliazar?"
Brenda nodded at the door directly in front of me, "In the bathroom."
Little Sarai clung tightly to her sister's pant leg. I reached out to pat the child's head but she was too quick and disappeared behind Brenda's legs.
Eliazar emerged, freshly bathed like his sisters. "You not goin' to summer school, Eliazar?"
He shrugged sourly and sat on the couch. Finally he looked at me and mumbled, "Can't. Gotta help Brenda or go to work with my mom and Edgar."
"Edgar is in the fields." I heard the flatness of my voice and felt the chills climb up make legs, sickening my stomach.
"Tobacco?" I asked, all the while dreading her reply.
Brenda nodded but picked up on my disappointment. "Only for two weeks, then they'll pick cucumber."
Inwardly, I groaned, pesticide poisoning or broken back.
I sat down in the rocking chair. I stared at the fuzzy channel on the television and thought about the options. I could call the crew leader and just check on them. I could wait with Brenda, Eliazar and Sarai. I could....stomach this.
Two hours later I walked out the front door, convinced that Brenda and Eliazar could properly care for Sarai. As I pulled out of the driveway I hit the speed-dial of the crew leader.
"Hallo Jackie!" Gabriel sang into the phone.
"Hallo Gabriel!" I replied. "How is Edgar and his mom?"
Gabriel sobered and replied, "She is resting, the heat is too much for her."
"And Edgar? Is he drinking lots of water?"
"Yes, yes, we all are."
"Good," I replied with false brightness. "When will you drop them off?"
"After 7 p.m. The farmer has a short crop this year and wants it all in before the end of the month."
A few short exchanges later and the conversation ended.
All three had passed their yearly exams with flying colors. All three were excellent students. Edgar was at work. Edgar was helping his single parent mother pay the bills and maybe save a few dollars.
Edgar is eleven years old.
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Comments: 33
JB
All your supposed concern, but you ignored our laws, and probably the dictates of the job you hold.
Dedicated to the education of Porgie:
In my job description I am REQUIRED TO ADVOCATE - I am not PERMITTED to give personal information to ANYONE. For further information, consult FERPA.
It is also perfectly LEGAL for Edgar to work in the fields. This was a local farmer with a small tobacco, cucumber and sweetpotato crop. The majority is planted in cotton and the harvesting is mostly mechanized. The cotton is a fall crop.
Child labor is alive and well.
The feds know about it - JEEZ, Porgie - you almost act shocked....Could it be that the cucumber in your salad was picked by a MEXICAN CHILD?
ABSOLUTELY.
I will say it again: YOU HAVE NO CLUE.
High wages and benefits are great for the employee, until he has to pay for his pay raise on the other end when increased costs have made that 59 cent cucumber now cost $5. Americans want the high pay and the great benefits without realizing that someone has to pay for them and ultimately it will be them.
To Which Agricultural Workers does the FLSA Apply?
The FLSA covers employees whose work involves production of agricultural goods which will leave the state directly or indirectly and become a part of interstate commerce.
What are the Minimum Age Standards for Agricultural Employment?
Youths ages 16 and above may work in any farm job at any time.
Youths aged 14 and 15 may work outside school hours in jobs not declared hazardous by the Secretary of Labor.
Youths 12 and 13 years of age may work outside of school hours in non-hazardous jobs on farms that also employ their parent(s) or with written parental consent.
Youths under 12 years of age may work outside of school hours in non-hazardous jobs with parental consent, but only on farms where none of the employees are subject to the minimum wage requirements of the FLSA.
Local youths 10 and 11 may hand harvest short-season crops outside school hours for no more than 8 weeks between June 1 and October 15 if their employers have obtained special waivers from the Secretary of Labor.
Youths of any age may work at any time in any job on a farm owned or operated by their parents.
What Dee said.
You know what, exactly WHAT is your defect? You bitch because they're on welfare then you bitch when they don't collect a dime and work for it.
Which is it, Porgie? You are too cowardly to go after the business end of this stick - aren't you? You would rather spend your energy bashing the very people responsible for the food you stick in your mouth.
ROFL.....hunger strike. You that pissed off - stop eating.
The lower wage is not the issue, this employer pays his illegal brothers and relatives well. But he does not match SSI and Medicaid which I am required to do and does not provide workman's comp for his employees and does not have liability insurance, as far as I know the illegals around here in construction do not work for a much lower wage, but most do not pay income taxes, SSI or Medicare and as everyone knows who has ever gotten a pay check what a big advantage that is. I don't care what side of the issue you are on you can not tell me with good moral coviction that it is right that i have to unfairly compete with persons who are here illegally. This is my home country I should at least be afforded the respect of a level playing field for my hard work. What is even worst than his blatent discontent for the law is the way he will tell everyone how he runs his business and that any contractor doing it the right way is just stupid. He claims he is "stealing" the american dream and he is right
In one of your stories (also dealing with a worker in the tobacco fields) you suspected, even stated that the person running the migrant camp was dealing with human smuggling. You encouraged the workers to walk into town, go to the mall, and told them if they were still at this camp in TWO WEEKS you would report the situation. That story was very telling on numbers levels. I spoke with Edgar Mayes in Washington, DC this week on this issue. He works for Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling. I reiterated your story to him...shared how you encouraged this young man to WALK INTO TOWN, to find his people. Let's just say I finish the call with and understanding that is not how MEP is supposed to do things.
Now, in this situation, you have proof positive that a particular tobacco farm is more than likely violating our child labor laws, but you did nothing.
As for taking on the companies...I cannot take them ALL ON at once, but I am going after them as well. This fight needs to be fought on numerous levels, not just going after the illegals, and not just going after the employers.
I will not stop writing about the plight of farm workers.
I WILL NOT stop writing.
YOU nor YOUR ALIPAC nor ANY PERSON, ANYWHERE, will silence me - EVER.
TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT.
They are human beings - they are men, women and children. They are responsible for planting and harvesting the crops of this nation. They deserve better than ICE. That mother deserves better than people like YOU breathing down her neck to support her children WITHOUT A DIME OF WELFARE.
I will NEVER stop.
I do find it heartening that you feel so threatened you would call NATIONAL ATTENTION TO THE PLIGHT OF FARM WORKERS.
How generous of you to offer my Immigrant Diaries free publicity.
And here I thought no one would notice!
Our program was a very specific part of NCLB and NOT a secret in any way. You guys are just REALLY, REALLY, REALLY SLOOOWWW.
Your Alipac friend is right - don't count on a change - OCR won't have it - and you don't hold a candle to the kind of "WHISTLEBLOWING" that will result if they take one more right away from these people
Hey, I got an idea - go pick on somebody your own size....naaaa...nevermind.....there is nothing smaller than your short-sighted view of human beings!
How's the hunger strike?
Honestly, if Edgar's mother was drawing Medicaid, food stamps, and welfare, do you think either of them would be working in the tobacco fields? I mean, to them those benefits would be a fortune, and you can bet they're not doing it for fun. If these benefits are there for the asking, I'm quite sure Jackie would have helped them sign up for them already, and with four kids to feed and clothe with no help I'm also pretty sure this woman is not sending money back to Mexico, either. Additionally, if there were American workers who would work for the pay that the farmer can afford he probably would have hired them instead of Edgar's mother, for whom he also has to supply housing if you could call those little tarpaper shacks housing. They just one baby step above the cardboard condo they would be living in back in Mexico. The first time my son was close enough to the Texas-Mexico border to get an unobstructed look at Mexico, his first comment was, "No wonder they want to come over here." He was eight. I thought it summed the issue up nicely, to be honest.
The actual percentage of labor costs for fresh fruit and vegetables harvested in the U.S. is 10%. Assuming a DOUBLING of farm wages, that $.59 cucumber now costs $.65. Your assertion that it would cost $5 is ludicrous.
You forget - we don't live with the aspiration of coming to america. We don't live with the aspiration of planting and harvesting crops for 10% of the cost of U.S. food.
They do.
I grew up in the Central Valley of California back in the 70's. I worked in agriculture as a teen and did all those jobs our President says Americans won't do. I've worked in the construction trades the majority of my adult life. I am part of the American working class and have seen and experienced the ravages of rampant illegal immigration on American citizens.
You said, "You forget - we don't live with the aspiration of coming to america."
They're aspiration is coming to America, with a capital A by the way, but their aspiration is NOT to become an American. That's a rather large difference in my mind.
As for the blue-collar industry...sigh...we weren't beat out by race and language or even legal status - we are now forced to compete with non-citizens for employment and we find that insulting. We also move slower and more carefully - mainly because we are aware of the dangers atop a 75 foot scaffold. I've seen Hispanics doing a "jig" for their buddies up there.
This is progress, Guy. This can't be stopped completely without crippling our nation's economy. And when you are hit at the worksite and slammed again with the consumer consequences....It will be worse than you can imagine.
Guy, our nation created the "illegal alien," then we refused to live up to the connotation.
Now, nearly two decades later, we decide the term suits us?
It doesn't work that way - from a world perspective - we are being watched and human rights issues are at the forefront.
If we ignored it years ago and allowed this nation to reap the benefits of labor and consumerism, we have an obligation to correct the situation in an orderly and humane fashion.
Period.
First, as I have pointed out before, and as has been discussed on the Lou Dobbs show, if EVERY LEGAL AMERICAN paid an additional ten dollars a year for their produce, we could in fact DOUBLE WAGES for all farm workers, $20 a year would allow wages to TRIPLE. The average American on average pays $350.00 a year to put produce on their tables.....now, seriously, as and American, if you could triple wages in the farming industry, and put and end to illegal aliens, would you pay $20 a year?
Secondly, JAckie refuses to admit that we are constantly having to RE PLENTISH the farm worker supply, because the illegals work for a few months in the field, then move into our sectors of our work force.
Whatever sectors they move into, they lower the wages in that sector of our economy....look what happened to the meat and poultry industry, now look at what is happening in both the landscaping and construction industries. WE either dry up the jobs magnet, and deport these illegals, or America will slide down into being a third world country.
You might want to take a look at the post I put up that shares a MOU I found from 1998 wherein our own government ADMITS to illegals stealing our jobs, and lowering our wages.
To Porgie: Your reasoning is flawed. You state that the family farms could not survive due to the growing prices of overhead, etc. Most of us remember the "Save the Farm" financial drives of the 80's. How can you possibly insinuate that raising prices will not affect growers today? It doesn't matter if they are corporate or family run.
Sigh...Porgie, what did YOU eat today?
>>If we ignored it years ago and allowed this nation to reap the benefits of labor and consumerism, we have an obligation to correct the situation in an orderly and humane fashion.<<
I've never ignored it as it has affected my life and livelihood for over 20 years.
The only benefits of cheap labor and consumerism are in the pockets of the corporate elite who have fomented and encouraged the third world invasion of this country.
Enforcing existing immigration laws at the border and the workplace will provide just such an orderly and humane solution.
JAckie's entire platform requires all of us to buy into her concept of shared culpability. We collectively did nothing, so the 20 Million illegal aliens already here should be allowed to stay...it is (by her thinking) our fault through either neglect or the concept of shared culpability. There whole defense that it's OK for these people to offer to do our jobs for less money embraces a nation path for America of Third World Nation.
Likewise, Porkie's platform requires all to buy into his concept of complete innocence. We collectively ignored the illegal immigrants as they picked our crops, served us dinner, cleaned our toilets and cared for our children, so the 20 Million illegal aliens now here should depart because they now too obvious - the nerve of them in our streets demanding to be recognized after years in the shadows...it is (by her thinking) our perogative to decide who and how many have outlived their usefulness. Her (porgie's) whole defense that it's OK for these people to be shunned and ridiculed all the while being a necessary force that drives our economy until we are forced to admit they exist and embrace a national path for the Supremist America - xenophobic, hypocritical, and dictatorial based on nationality, race, and language.
You choose your path...Porgie has chosen hers and I have chosen mine.
They are no different than you are - NO DIFFERENT. You think, for some strange reason that they cannot or should not evolve? What was your first job, Porgie?
Was it a coal mine? Was it working on the farm? What was it and where are you now, career-wise?
So, it is that they are too obvious. You can't deny their presence any longer - they are IN YOUR FACE. That's what this is about for you - it has nothing to do with the farmers of this nation nor our food supply nor our supply and demand.
You hate them because YOU feel superior and they have over-stepped their boundaries by moving into your neighborhood. NOW you can't deny them, so what do you do - you wage a war of misinformation, hatred and racism with the hope of somehow convincing well educated, decent Americans to jump on your bandwagon....LOL...you may get a few - you may even convince some their re-election depends on it....Let me tell you what WILL NOT happen.
You won't beat capitalism. Your voice is not greater than their dollar bills - you might arrange to have a few glorious deportations but you nor ICE can scratch the surface of this nation's illegal population.
You won't win this debate by being hard right - neither will the hard left succeed.
The middle road is the only road - the one that creates valid solutions for today's issues - AND TOMORROW'S.
As for scratching the surface....WAKE UP, the surface is being scratched, and you know it.....even as we speak, ICE is planning on taking actions against companies that have ignored no match warning letters, attorneys are telling thier clients in Corporate America to LOSE THEIR ILLEGALS, that government is about to make major crack downs....TOO BAD.
WHERE ARE THEY, PORGIE?
You expect us to believe they are serious? LOL...they are pawns of a conservative republican party who, in a last ditch attempt, want to save their own behinds.
Go ahead, Porgie: Call for their deportation, weeks before Thanksgiving and months before Christmas.
DEMAND they deport THOUSANDS IN THIS COUNTRY PROCESSING OUR THANKSGIVING AND CHRISTMAS DINNER....LOL
PROVE THEY ARE SERIOUS.
BAH, B.S., AND YOU KNOW IT.