My Voice: S.D. should welcome new dairy workers
On April 18, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in US v Texas, the lawsuit over President Obama’s immigration policies that would allow undocumented immigrants with U.S. citizen children to temporarily live and work in the U.S., assuming they can pass background checks showing that they have no criminal record.
Few South Dakotans are paying close attention to the case, but the ruling could send a shockwave through South Dakota’s newly emerging dairy industry and would have direct implications on communities like Brookings.
Undocumented immigrants keep dairy farmers in business. It’s just a fact. Everyone in the industry knows it. And, Gov. Dennis Daugaard knows it, as well.
If you ask Daugaard about the dairy industry, he’ll likely tell you that as a boy, one of his chores was to get up at 5:30 a.m. each morning to milk his Holstein cows. And, he’ll also tell you that he’s investing a lot of taxpayer money to bring more dairy cows to South Dakota. He’s doing this because he knows each cow he brings to the state has an economic impact of over $14,000.
That’s why the Daugaard administration is busy working to recruit dairy producers inside and outside of S.D. and helping existing farmers expand their operations to including dairy-related initiatives like raising dairy heifer calves.
Daugaard is right. Expanding the dairy industry in S.D. will create more jobs — and not just milking jobs. More dairy cows in S.D. mean more service, retail, and educational jobs, especially in and around rural communities. Figures from the S.D. Department of Agriculture show that every 100,000 new cows creates about 2,000 new jobs.
In Brookings, we’re already seeing the economic benefits of the state’s investment in the dairy industry.
The new Bel Brands cheese plant invested more than $140 million to build a 170,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Brookings and began commercial production in July 2014. In less than one year, Bel became Brookings’ 10th largest employer, hiring 250 salaried and hourly employees.
However, Bel’s 250 jobs are not the biggest benefit to the Brookings community. According to their website, the plant requires more than 500,000 pounds of milk daily, and the enormous demand has made Brookings the epicenter of the S.D. Dairy boom.
There’s just one problem. We don’t have enough workers to fill the demand.
A few months ago, a report commissioned by the National Milk Producers Federation found that 71 percent of survey respondents had either low or medium level of confidence in the employment documents of their immigrant workers.
Through economic modeling, researchers estimated in that same report that a total loss of immigrant labor would reduce the size of both the U.S. dairy herd and the nation’s milk production by nearly a quarter. More than 7,000 dairy farms would close.
Knowing these facts, you would assume that Daugaard would promote policies that fix the immigration status of undocumented dairy workers with deep ties to S.D., so that they can legally work and live here. But you would be wrong.
While Daugaard has been working to bring dairy workers to the State of S.D., he and Attorney General Marty Jackley have also been fighting to ensure that none of these workers have access to legal status. They are fighting to keep these workers in the shadows.
In 2014, Obama announced a program to suspend the deportation of qualified immigrants with no criminal record, deep ties to the U.S., and U.S. citizen children. Through the program, immigrants who met these requirements and passed a background check would be issued a work permit and be allowed to apply for a driver’s license.
The program would cost the state of S.D. nothing to administer. In fact, the costs from the program are so small, that it’s nearly impossible to calculate it.
Still, when Texas and other states said they would sue the Obama administration to try and block the implementation of the program, Jackley jumped at the opportunity and officially signed the State of S.D. onto the lawsuit. Daugaard followed by signing on to legal briefs opposing the program.
How can this make sense?
Why would the State of S.D. both work to bring in dairy workers to S.D., many of whom have no papers, and fight to make sure these immigrants remain off the books?
Simple. Cheap politics.
With Donald Trump taking over the Republican Party, politicians now think they can score easy political points by taking a swipe at the immigrant community.
Daugaard and Jackley don’t care about the economic or moral implications of their immigration positions, their only concern is to court the Trump vote next election. And this political gamesmanship means S.D. is missing out.
The dairies are bringing in thousands of new residents to Brookings County, many of which would benefit from President Obama’s new immigration program.
But we aren’t just looking for dairy workers, we’re looking for families who can fully participate in our community. We’re looking for people who can make Brookings their home and the federal immigration policy would make this possible.
It’s time Daugaard and Jackley stop playing politics and do what’s best for S.D.
MY VOICE
Matt Hildreth is the political director at America’s Voice, a national non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., working to fix our broken immigration policies. He and his wife, Anne, live in Brookings.
