Agriculture is one of the most important industries to local economies, the United States economy, and the world economy. Agriculture is the heart of our community and determines our freedom in the Free World. Once we depend on someone else to feed us, they own our destiny. A great example of this is the Great Irish Potato Famine also known as the Great Hunger a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland. It began with a government relocation of citizens and due to the rocky terrain and disease they were unable to produce enough food to feed their own community. As you imagine, it almost eradicated that sector of the Irish heritage.

Agriculture is a very labor dependent and intensive industry. So many agriculture producers utilize migrant and seasonal workers. “Migrant farmworkers are defined as people who are or have been employed in hand labor operations in planting, cultivating, or harvesting agriculture crops within the last 12 months and who have changed residence for purposes of employment within the last 12 months. The use of legal migrant farmworkers is heavily regulated and inspected. ” The employment, outreach and other services to these workers are regulated by federal law and administered by various state and local agencies and the Department of Economic Opportunity’s Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Services program.

Under the the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), “it is illegal for any United States employer to knowingly:

• Hire, recruit, or refer for a fee an alien knowing he or she is unauthorized to work;

• Continue to employ an alien knowing he or she has become unauthorized; or

• Hire, recruit, or refer for a fee, any person (citizen or alien) without following the record                        keepingrequirements of the IRCA.”

Under Florida law, public employers, contractors, and subcontractors  are required to register and use E-Verify to verify the work authorization status of all new employees. A private employer that conducts business in Florida, is required to obtain a license issued by the appropriate agency and can employ workers in Florida using the I-9 Form or E-Verify or a substantially equivalent system to verify that new hires or retained contract employees are authorized to work in the United States.

There is so much media disinformation concerning legal migrant or seasonal workers. Much of this disinformation is due to the association and use of illegal migrant or seasonal workers.These regulations are no different from U.S. citizen requirements to be legally vetted for employment by obtaining a social security number.

Just remember that the illegal migrant and seasonal worker regulations were implemented and enacted to protect you the Floridian and American Citizens. The biggest lesson today is not everything reported in the media is true and not all migrant or seasonal workers are illegal. These legal workers are invaluable to the ag industry due to their intense labor contribution. We must be able to produce enough food to feed ourselves which keeps us free and allows us to pursue life, liberty and happiness.

Mary Ann Hutton, Founder​​

The Straight Truth

www.thestraighttruth.us

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