VALDOSTA, Ga. — Communities across the United States are home to migrant workers whose impact is felt not only by the farmers and enterprises they work for, but also by the entities they financially support.

In states such as Georgia and Florida, agriculture is a driving economic force. Both legal and illegal immigrants constitute a large part of the labor force pushing this economy forward.

Before coming to the United States, Francisco Perez harvested coffee beans in Chiapas, Mexico. He heard stories from friends about making the trek from the Southern Mexican state to North Florida and Georgia to work in the fields.

The 21-year-old knew the work would not be easy. The stories he heard were about long, tiresome days of hard labor under the hot sun. Even knowing what he was in for, Perez said making the journey was worth it. Coming to the United States was a chance to help his family.

“I think many people came here for the same reason as I did – out of necessity,” Perez said. “They need resources to help their family.” 

He works on a farm in Lowndes County, cutting onions during the day and filling up buckets, earning 45 cents for each bucket. He returns to his housing quarters at 8 p.m., just in time to go to bed and get a few hours of sleep before facing the next long day of work.

“It’s a little more difficult than work in Mexico,” he said. “We’re happy to be here because not everyone gets the chance. You have to appreciate the opportunity. We’re used to working in the fields. We’re here for a short period of time. And we just work. What else can we ask for?”

Shifting immigration policies, more aggressive deportation by the federal government and talk of building a border wall concern many in the agricultural community and other industries, but many conservatives do not share those concerns. 

A bit of perspective

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of known agricultural jobs available in Georgia and Florida — all of which pay above minimum wage with the potential to earn nearly three or four times that amount. 

So why are so few people bothering to apply for the jobs? They aren’t easy.

Some say working in the fields requires superhuman stamina, hours in the hot sun, harvesting fruits and vegetables, then packing them for shipment. The people who manage the operations said local residents won’t do the jobs, even for a minimum wage that can be more than $10 and increases based on productivity.

When focused on those that are willing to do the work, changes in immigration policy impact the agricultural industry.

In 2012, fruit and vegetable growers lost up to $140 million from the previous year after new immigration policies went into effect. State officials sent prison parolees out to the fields. The men needed work because of how difficult it can be to find a job with a felony conviction, but few lasted even a few days. Many bailed out after the first morning or at the end of the first day. 

The immigrant workers, most of whom are Hispanic, bear with the long hours and harsh living conditions in search of economic opportunities.

Colquitt County vegetable grower Heath Wetherington of H&W Farms near Norman Park, Georgia, remembers one local worker leaving the fields after working long enough to earn a whopping partial-hour wage of $4.

While there’s a potential $1 million worth of produce waiting to be harvested and shipped, it’s worthless without a dependable labor force, he said.

“There’s not enough local Americans (willing to do the work) to feed America,” Wetherington said. “If we had every single one of them without a job out there, we couldn’t feed America. If they have the experience required in the ad, we do hire them; we do give them a chance.”

During the previous five years, he’s had about 40 local applicants. Out of the 20 who had the required experience, five showed up to work the first day. 

“We’ve had one local (worker) over the last 18 years to work more than a month or two — a whole season — over 18 or 19 years out of 400 applicants,” Wetherington said.

Since 1999, H&W Farms has used the federal H-2A Guestworker program to staff its operation, with the exception of one year when he tried working outside of the system.

“One year, we tried to get away from H-2A and just depend on local migrants moving through,” he said. “It didn’t work.”

Shelly Zorn, Thomasville, Georgia, Payroll Development Authority executive director, said many industries, farms and businesses in the region and nationwide use an immigrant population.

“It would be devastating to our local and national economy to remove all those individuals from our workforce. Many businesses and farms would shut down without those workers,” she said.

Immigrants who come to the U.S. are looking for opportunity, not a handout, said Luz Cooper, who arrived in Ellenton, Georgia, from Mexico in 1999 on an H-2A visa. 

“I know these people and they’re hard workers,” said Cooper, now a naturalized U.S. citizen who worked at an Ellenton health clinic. The clients at the clinic included a lot of farmworkers. “They provide a lot in this economy, in this county. Sometimes the whole families are in the fields.”

Even if undocumented, they are working to feed their families, she said, and endure “demeaning” legal challenges, such as laws that prohibit them from acquiring a driver’s license. 

“I came from a poor family in Mexico,” she said. “I just wanted to help them out, buy my mama a house.”

With a nine-month visa, her work at Larry Booth Farms included picking squash, eggplant, cucumbers and collard, mustard and turnip greens.

“I worked through the rain, through the cold,” said Cooper, who is now married to a U.S.-born citizen. “It was hard work. I worked there for about six years.”

Valdosta resident Tony Marin said misconception and misinformation abound when it comes to immigrants. Marin is a Florida State University researcher who has been working with the country’s Latino population for decades.

He is Venezuelan, attended college in the U.S., then moved here permanently in the 1990s with his American-born wife and two children.

He said immigrants, even illegal ones, don’t drain America’s economy like many believe but actually contribute to it by paying taxes on everything they buy in local communities — groceries, gas, clothes, cars, etc.

Many undocumented workers also pay federal taxes through individual tax identification numbers, which are issued by the Internal Revenue Service to workers who are not eligible to receive a Social Security number.

In fact, “various studies have estimated between 50 and 75 percent of undocumented immigrants currently pay personal income taxes using either false Social Security or ITIN numbers,” the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported.

“Economically, we know (immigrants) are at least half of the population of Dalton, so that is all you really need to know about their economic impact,” Rob Bradham, president and CEO of the Greater Dalton, Georgia, Chamber of Commerce, said. “Right now, the Hispanic community is driving the vast majority of the entrepreneurship in the area. If the immigrant population were removed, entrepreneurship would decrease significantly. That business community is extremely important from an entrepreneur standpoint.”

And illegal immigrants aren’t taking advantage of government services either, Marin said, because there’s no way for them to.

“What services? It’s impossible,” he said. “You cannot get food stamps if you’re not a legal resident. You cannot get Medicare.”

Federal law prohibits disseminating statistics on how many patients are undocumented, said Jim Matney, CEO at Georgia’s Colquitt Regional Medical Center. The rate of unpaid medical care does not seem to be alarming, he said.

“My intuition is that these folks pay their bills,” Matney said.

Marin said the immigration workforce contributes greatly to the economy, and that without it, the country would “crash completely.”

National media focuses on illegal immigrants who are criminals, Zorn said.

“Of course, those issues need to be addressed, as do assistance programs,” she said, “but for the non-criminal, hard-working individuals in our country from other nations, my opinion is, if they have a job, let’s assist them in becoming legal, collect their tax dollars and realize how valuable their contribution is to our economy.” 

Not everyone agrees

While numerous sources said they believe both documented and undocumented workers are doing jobs Americans will not do and foreign-born laborers are essential to the American economy, not everyone agrees. 

Gary Wisenbaker is a political strategist and a conservative voice in South Georgia. 

He worked on the campaign to elect President Donald Trump and writes popular conservative columns published by several media outlets, including The Valdosta Daily Times.

“While there may be some anecdotal evidence that immigrants are doing jobs Americans won’t do, there’s little hard evidence to back up that claim,” Wisenbaker said. “A recent Pew report, for example, found only five occupations where immigrants outnumbered U.S. workers. And a Census Bureau report that collected data from 2005-2007 from 465 civilian occupations found only four that were majority immigrant. That immigrants — undocumented or otherwise — are here because they’re doing jobs native workers won’t do is largely a myth.”

He agrees there is a farm labor shortage but suggested it may be more related to what he calls “the nature of the beast,” than a disinterested American worker. 

“These jobs are seasonal and those working the fields only do so for a number of weeks before they have to move on. Most Americans are, quite simply, sedentary,” Wisenbaker said. 

So, what is his solution? 

Wisenbaker touted what he regards as a “common sense” guest worker permit policy possibly using special ingress/egress visas based on a demonstrable need. He said the approach could ensure U.S. workers are given top priority as well as meet the objective of getting the crops out of the field. 

Under that kind of plan he suggested, farmers “would be protected from random criminal or civil penalties for inadvertent violations of INS rules and regs and those that hold the permits would contribute with withholding taxes, U.S. workers would be protected, and our borders would be more secure.” 

Guevara writes for the Valdosta, Georgia Daily Times.