Immigration and Customs Enforcement
US: ICE arrests send up a red flag to farmers
The governor issued a cease-and-desist letter to ICE on Wednesday calling the agency’s enforcement tactics reckless and unconstitutional.
The issue of deportation of undocumented immigrants has area farmers worried, whether they employ migrant workers or not, seeing it as an attack on the farming community and the agriculture industry.
Story Farms, a 1,000-acre fruit and vegetable farm in Kiskatom, hires about five migrant laborers through H2A, a temporary agricultural visa program, said James Story, a working member of the family-owned farm.
“We’re not worried because we go through the government H2A program,” Story said. “But people are worried, even the guys [laborers]. Just because they have all the paperwork doesn’t mean they’re not going to be bothered.”
Many farmers in the area have trouble finding labor unless they go through H2A, Story said.
“We’re fruit and vegetables mainly but we’re working all the time,” he said.
A recent incident made news statewide and was exemplified by Cuomo at a press conference Wednesday announcing his cease-and-desist letter that referred to an ICE raid at a farm in Rome.
John Collins, owner of Collins Farm, in Rome, spoke at the press conference about how customs agents raided his dairy farm April 18 and arrested one of his workers.
“This man is an incredibly hard worker who plays an important role on our farm,” Collins said. “Federal authorities had no reason to take him from my farm and from his family.”
Customs agents raided the farm and arrested the worker without a warrant or identifying themselves, Collins said, and then handcuffed him for videotaping the scene with his phone.
“As an employer I am responsible for protecting the people who are working on my farm,” Collins said. “When the federal government comes to my farm they must have a warrant and they must treat my property and the people on my farm with respect. That did not happen here.”
The Bulich Mushroom Company in Catskill needs year-round workers and can’t rely on temporary migrant visa programs like H2A, making it hard to expand the business, co-owner Mike Bulich said Thursday.
“By the time you train someone to harvest mushrooms they’re required to leave,” Bulich said, adding his work week could be 80 to 90 hours. “If your season is year-round it’s very, very difficult.”
Bulich has mixed feelings about the ICE arrest in Rome.
“If you have them [ICE] just showing up on your doorstep, no business would be happy about that,” he said, adding that an American citizen would also get arrested if they committed a crime.
For others, taking employees from a farm hurts business and morale.
“Agents coming onto farms is inexcusable,” said Jim Taylor, owner of Sunny Acres Farm in Athens, which has been family-owned for 120 years. “Some of these people aren’t undocumented and they’re here because this is the land of opportunity, as far as they can see.”
Many small farmers in Greene County face chronic labor deficits, making it difficult to expand operations, he said.
“Americans don’t want to do this [farm] work,” he said. “Farms rely on migrant labor, but even bringing in legal migrant workers is convoluted and difficult. It needs to be more user-friendly.”
Boehm Farms, a 12-acre operation in Climax, near Coxsackie, is too small to hire migrant laborers, said owner Henry Boehm. But it’s an issue that impacts many farmers, he said.
“The problem is they don’t have laws to get people in here legally,” Boehm said. “People do what they have to do. The situation isn’t good to get these people work.”
The issue impacts farms that hire or don’t hire migrant workers, Hawthorne Valley Farm co-director Lucy Marston said.
“Being part of the agriculture community, this does concern me,” Marston said. “There are farms we know, that we work with and that are part of our community who employ migrant workers. Migrant workers are part of our community as well. And when members of our community are living in fear, that worries us.”
Hawthorne Valley Farm, at 327 county Route 21C in Ghent, does not employ migrant workers but uses an apprenticeship program.
“We are concerned about an issue affecting many members of our community and the future of the agriculture industry right now,” Marston said.
The Governor’s office received numerous complaints about actions taken by ICE that raise constitutional red flags, according to Cuomo’s letter.
“The reckless and unconstitutional practices ICE is deploying in our communities violate everything we believe in New York and are an assault on our democracy,” Cuomo said at a press conference Wednesday. “I demand ICE immediately cease and desist this pattern of conduct, and if they fail to do so, I will pursue all available legal recourse and commit to doing everything in my power to protect the rights and safety of all New Yorkers. In New York, where Lady Liberty holds her torch high, we will defend our democracy and protect the rights and safety of all New Yorkers.”
Cuomo also expanded an executive order he issued in September 2017 prohibiting state agencies and officers from inquiring about or disclosing an individual’s immigration status to also banning ICE arrests in state facilities without a warrant.
Cuomo’s recent actions are a continuation of his commitment to stand in the way of President Donald Trump’s stricter approach to immigration enforcement.
In July 2017 the state launched a public-private legal defense fund for immigrants facing deportation, which received a $10 million boost in the state’s 2018-19 budget this month.
The Liberty Defense Project provides free legal counsel to all immigrants, regardless of status. The project provided more than 10,000 services to immigrants across the state including direct representation in deportation proceedings, other types of direct representation, application assistance, and Know Your Rights Trainings, according to the governor’s website.
Around 60 percent of those assisted with deportation defense under the project have been released from detention.
Source: https://www.hudsonvalley360.com
