60,000 Unfilled Jobs
in Colorado alone. What are the limits to economic growth, and why are we testing them? Immigration reform is common sense.
Fifteen years ago at Easter time, in Pueblo, Colorado, the women of Sonrise United Methodist church packed shoe boxes with a toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, soap, washcloth, shampoo, and a toy, and “gift-wrapped” them with hand towels. All year they hoarded shoe boxes, gathered tiny bottles and bars from hotels, and watched for sales on combs and brushes. When the summer’s wave of migrant workers hit nearby Avondale, Colorado, they gave the boxes as welcome gifts to the children of the migrants, many of whom had nothing.
The women of Sonrise were led in this enterprise by the Rev. Dr. Susan Plymell. After her untimely passing not long afterward, that particular tradition may not have continued. But Sonrise still supports Avondale’s Catholic relief agency, El Centro de los Pobres, with donations of food, clothing, and cash. Sister Nancy Crafton, who runs los Pobres, uses the cash mostly to help pay the utility bills of the lucky migrants who manage to find places to rent that have electricity. Some of the single men Sister Nancy feeds are camping inside an abandoned roll off dumpster turned on its side. And Sister Nancy has a long-range plan to create decent, affordable rental housing for migrants.
Pueblo County is an outlier in the way it manages its migrant population. Most large farms and towns of the eastern plains do a better job of providing housing for seasonal farm workers. Those who can have changed their planting and harvest patterns to be able to offer year-round work to laborers. But the fact that a whole charitable ecosystem has grown up and persisted around Avondale’s migrants says something about how essential a part of the work and culture of the area they are.
A few of the itinerant farm workers who stop in Avondale to plant and pick cabbage are US citizens who, at other times of the year, find farm work in northern Colorado, California, or Florida. Others are undocumented, mostly from Mexico. Better-organized, richer agricultural enterprises in and around Lamar, Rocky Ford, and Greeley may host guest workers with visas, but Avondale’s farmers don’t sponsor many of these. Avondale’s non-citizen farm workers enter illegally from Mexico, or, more likely, reside and migrate within the US after having long ago crossed the border without documents or overstayed a guest visa.
In January 2018, the Denver Post reported that Colorado’s unemployment rate has “jumped” above 3% (!) as thousands of people returned to the work force, tempted by rising wages and easy pickings on the jobs market. The Post estimates that there are now close to 60,000 unfilled job openings in Colorado.
Meanwhile, H-2A (agricultural) guest worker visa sponsorship is enjoying unprecedented use. It was traditionally unpopular with farmers because of the associated bureaucracy, which required the sponsor to show that no US citizens can be found to fill the positions offered by the visa sponsor. As early as 2014, with the Obama recovery, the balance tipped. These visas have become more necessary as the US economy nears full employment. There is no statutory limit on the number of H-2A visas that can be issued.
An Economy of Contradictions
The promised windfall to corporations from the Tax Reform Act of 2017 (Tax Cuts and Jobs) has squirted lighter fluid onto the already white-hot coals of the US economy. Wages are finally rising as employers compete for workers from a shrinking labor pool. The unfriendly-to-immigrants political climate and stepped-up enforcement has nearly stopped unauthorized migration across the Mexico-US border, forcing employers whose jobs are not attractive to US citizens to resort to sponsoring guest worker visas.
So far, the Trump administration has not made good on its promise to halt the influx of guest workers from Mexico. But why should those guest workers come?
Because of the anti-immigrant sentiments espoused by our president and a fierce (but fiercely loyal) fragment of the electorate, we don’t make it easy on foreign nationals who want jobs in the US. The Trump administration wants to cut back on the elite H-1B visa, which attracts the world’s best and brightest to the United States. It has proposed to sharply curtail family-based sponsorship meant to unite families divided by diverse citizenship — incorrectly characterized as “chain migration.” And in places like Avondale, Colorado we treat immigrants barbarically when they are desperate enough to come, with or without documentation.
The ultimate irony of this is that we now hold over three million Americans (in all but name) in fear of deportation, though something like three quarters of American citizens think they should stay. These are the Dreamers — people who were brought to the US illegally by their parents, or brought in legally by parents who subsequently overstayed their temporary visas. Innocent of wrongdoing, educated in US schools and immersed in US culture, the Dreamers represent a skilled workforce that we obviously need. With job openings in the US going begging, we need their parents, too. We need them unafraid and in the open, willing to display and use their skills.
Counter production
According to FAIR, an anti-immigrant organization, there are a total of 12.5 million undocumented persons living in the US. This may be a high estimate; FAIR admits that it’s in their interest to exaggerate the data. Deporting all of them — most of whom are working, legally or not — would be devastating to our labor-starved economy. Indeed, the interest of stabilizing the economy strongly favors regularizing their status immediately. Presumably doing this would also streamline the process of importing new workers for the H-2A and H-2B sponsored visas.
Clues as to why we do not do this are found in Avondale. El Centro de Los Pobres has registered over 1000 migrant families in its ministry. Sister Nancy calls them “an invisible people” but says they are peaceful and moderate in their use of her charity. They do not “take advantage,” she says.
Why does Pueblo County not do as other agricultural regions do, and provide barracks or affordable housing for its seasonal workers? Most of the permanent, citizen residents of Avondale are poor. Colorado Public Radio recently interviewed some of them.
A few admitted to disliking Sister Nancy’s efforts to provide affordable, subsidized housing for migrant workers. To them, it makes the town look bad. They are afraid the migrants will get better conditions than they have themselves. If someone gets new, subsidized apartments, they say, let it be our own seniors. The migrants don’t have it so bad. Look how we support them with charity!
Is this how we make America great? Do we require an underclass, to make our poverty bearable? Surely not.
Let’s look instead to the example of Sister Nancy. Let’s honor the memory of Reverend Susan. Charity is their method, but it is not their purpose. Rev. Susan wanted to give the migrant children pride in their clean faces, healthy teeth, and beautiful hair. Sister Nancy is still working to help their parents earn what we all work for: a chance at a decent, orderly life for our families. Every human being deserves to take pride in their labor.
Migrant workers are a necessary component of our booming economy. As long as that’s true, then lawful status, freedom from fear, and decent housing should be part of their compensation. Because if the engine of our economy is not fueled and stoked by labor, if 60,000 jobs go unfilled, then certainly the engine will falter and begin to slow. We have recently seen what that is like. It’s too soon to go back.
America was once the golden land of opportunity, a place where everyone wanted to come and work. Last year, as best we can determine, more Mexican immigrants left voluntarily than entered the US illegally. Let’s make America great and good again. We need the workers, and we need their aspirations, too.
