Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/366055
www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER SEPTEMBER 2014 31 Consider for your next planting: • BRUCE PONDER • SUSAN WILKINSON • ADAM WEIL • DAVE WEIL 503-538-2131 • FAX: 503-538-7616 info@treeconnect.com www.treeconnect.com BENEFITS: • Disease tolerant • Cold hardy • Adapts well to all cherry-growing districts • Forms flower buds and comes into bearing quicker than Mazzard with a better distribution of flower buds Roots available for SPRING DELIVERY Call Tree Connection: 800-421-4001 Dwarfing Cherry Rootstock Krymsk ® 5 Krymsk ® 6 [cv. VSL-2, USPP 15,723] [cv. LC-52, USPP 16,114] "Krymsk ® 5 and Krymsk ® 6 cherry rootstocks have proven to be the best rootstock for our orchards. They are yield efficient, grow and adapt well, and are cold hardy." —John Morton The Dalles, Oregon • High Quality Plastic Resin • Easily Cleaned • Can be Sterilized • Various Sizes • Interlock Stacking • Vented or Solid • American Made Washington's Authorized DEALER 509-961-8252 RHONDA CALAHAN rhondac@wilsonirr.com www.wilsonirr.com Purchase, Rent or Lease to Own Macro ® Plastics Bins and Totes DELIVERY OPTIONS AVAILABLE! A s you enter the busiest part of the fruit harvest season, you might want to look over your file folder of I-9 documents and make sure everything is in order. If Immigration and Customs Enforcement decides to visit your farm or packing house, your only defense is good records, says Frank Gasparini, the executive vice president of the National Council of Agricultural Employers. "If your paperwork is perfect, you won't be subject to fines," he said, "but that doesn't mean half your work- force won't be loaded into a van and hauled away." There's no doubt that fruit growers are living in tough times, he said. ICE, working on a mission to "seal the borders and enforce immigration law," has reduced the number of people who cross the U.S-Mexican border illegally and has deported large numbers of undocumented people that it finds in the course of auditing the I-9 forms all U.S. employers must fill out when they hire any worker. An estimated 12 million people have come into the United States illegally. Of the 1.5 to 2 million sea- sonal workers U.S. farmers hire, it is estimated that 70 percent come from that pool of people who enter the country illegally, Gasparini said. The enforcement actions have shortened the labor supply. "Labor is becoming a scarcer and scarcer commodity," he said. "It is altering growers' plans for growth and causing some to shift to row crops where seasonal labor is not needed." Just as growers are affected by having a smaller pool of willing workers, the farm workers are also caught in a pincer, Gasparini said. Not only is it more diffi- cult for people to move north across the border, but once here, they can't go back unless they plan to stay away or risk another illegal crossing. "Many say they plan to just stay here as long as they can and make as much money as they can until they're arrested and deported," Gasparini said. Some growers are turning to the H-2A guest- worker program if they can meet the criteria, afford the expense, and provide housing. "H-2A still provides less than 100,000 workers, less than five percent of the total," he said. In the absence of action by Congress to address immigration and provide a larger, legal pool of poten- tial farm workers, President Barack Obama has said he will take administrative actions—"but we don't know what those are," Gasparini said. "We don't know what he's planning for agriculture, and no one's telling." So, meanwhile, use due diligence on the I-9 forms. "It is very possible that you have workers whose documents will not stand up to an audit, but that does not mean you must be cited," he said. "It is import- ant that you prepare and maintain your I-9 forms as required to protect your business, yourself, and your employees. Proper I-9 compliance is your only shield in an audit." In filling out I-9s, employers—so as to not violate applicants' civil rights—may ask for documents, must accept documents offered if they are of the eligible kind, and must not steer applicants toward some documents over others. "An I-9 audit can be daunting, disturbing, and dis- ruptive at best," Gasparini added. "At worst it can be disastrous, destructive, and costly. "An I-9 audit can be costly to a grower in three dif- ferent ways: fines or penalties for failure to complete them properly or at all; the time and effort to comply with the audit requirements; and lost workers, which can result in lost harvest." Complete instructions on filling out I-9s can be found online at the website www.uscis.gov/i-9-central. —R. Lehnert GOOD RECORDS are best defense