Effects on Crops of Immigration Reform

The Immigration Reform Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 was directed at the use of illegal aliens generally by American employers, as opposed to being directed specifically at American agricultural employers.1 Nevertheless, American agricultural employers, particularly those located in California, were quick to perceive potential problems in the law for the American agricultural sector, and sought an amendment to the law to permit farmers to bring in foreign workers.2 The American agricultural employers did not prevail in this quest.

The contentious debate over the effects of the ICRA of 1986 on the American agricultural sector since the law's implementation have largely mirrored the a similar debate two decades earlier concerning the use of imported Mexican field hands by American agricultural employersprimarily those located in California and Texas. The earlier program that resulted in such intense debate was the Bracero Program. The word "bracero" is a corruption of the Spanish word for "arms""abrazo."3 A

1R. K. Robinson and D. L. Gilbertson, "The Immigration Reform Control Act of 1986: Employer Liability in the Employment of Undocumented Workers," Labor Law Journal, 38 (October 1987): 658664.

2"Immigration: One Up to California," The Economist, 28 September 1985, 3334.

3V. M. Briggs, Jr., "NonImmigrant Labor Policy in the United States,

. . .
d that this opposition was based on the face that Public Law 78 prohibited organization of the braceros.14 Once again, similar arguments were heard in the mid1980s, and, once again, the arguments fell on deaf ears in the Reagan Administration and in the Congress. If the arguments were valid, again, one would expect the American agricultural labor market to enter a period of turmoil, and, in turn, for American agricultural producers who were heavily dependent upon stoop labor to lose market share to foreign producers of labor intensive crops. Once again, these outcomes did occur. The American agricultural did enter into a sustained period of disequilibrium.15 In turn, as stated earlier in this chapter, the market share of American agricultural producers of labor intensive crops shrank, and much of this shrinkage has been (((((((((( 12"Where Braceros Once Worked," Business Week, 16 January 1965, 3233. 13"AFLCIO Organizers Go After Farm Workers," Business Week, 24 September 1960, 5054. 14"Labor," 274; R. B. Craig, The Bracero Program (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971), 48. 15J. A. Duffield, and R. Coltrane, "Testing for Disequilibrium in the Hired Labor Farm Market," American Journal of Agricultural Economics,
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Bracero Program, Business Week, Administration Congress, Fortune November, Program ICRA, Agricultural Economics, Nevertheless American, Labor Review, Law Journal, Economic Issues, american agricultural, business week, labor intensive, bracero program, intensive crops, agricultural producers, labor intensive crops, immigration reform, icra 1986, labor review 91, monthly labor, producers labor, monthly labor review, review 91 june, 91 june 1968,
Approximate Word count = 2091
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Effects on Crops of Immigration Reform