So long as agricultural employers cannot fill jobs with American citizens or legal residents, they will be more than happy to fill those vacancies with people who enter the United States illegally.

Earlier this month, Senator John McCain received a rough ride when he spoke before the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C.  McCain, who will likely seek the Republican nomination for the 2008 Presidential race, did not impress AFL-CIO members with his proposed guest worker program for illegal immigrants.  While the labor movement tends to be sympathetic towards illegal immigrants, others in the labor movement oppose illegal immigration on the grounds that it depresses wages.  

During the question and answer session that followed his speech, union members challenged the merits of a guest worker program.  For his part, McCain offered his audience $50/hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.   A number of delegates indicated they would be more than happy to take him up on his offer.  But McCain replied, “You can’t do it, my friends.”  Union members were not impressed with having their work ethic questioned.

Senator McCain, if I were offered $50 an hour to pick lettuce, not only would I pick lettuce but I would pick carrots, radishes, tomatoes and any other produce submerged beneath the ground.  For $50 an hour I might also concoct a smashing balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

This was not Senator McCain’s finest hour.  He deserves to be criticized for this position.  Let me rephrase that statement.  He deserves to be constructively criticized for this position.

Radio talk show host Tammy Bruce, a self described classical liberal, pilloried McCain on her website on April 6th.  Bruce writes, “Let me be blunt.  McCain is a self-serving, opportunistic pig.”  Wow!  What incisive political commentary.  But wait, it gets better.  “And we’ve got the perfect combo of that scourge with the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill — McCain clearly has learned a lot from Kennedy about the strategy of abandoning someone and leaving them to drown,” writes Bruce.  

Bruce does make a point that our soldiers earn a relatively modest living doing a far more dangerous job.  That’s all very well and good, but someone evidently forgot to tell Bruce that McCain served in Vietnam and spent nearly six years as a POW.  McCain does not need a lecture from Tammy Bruce about the plight of our soldiers and the perils that face them every day.  She cannot begin to comprehend what McCain had to endure at the hands of the Viet Cong.  Bruce can disagree with McCain’s remarks (as I do) but is there really any need to call McCain “a self-serving, opportunistic pig” or accuse him “of abandoning someone and leaving them to drown?”  Quite honestly, it contributes absolutely nothing to the vital national debate concerning illegal immigration.  Bruce’s comments ultimately serve no purpose and ought not be taken seriously.

What Senator McCain ought to have done is offer AFL-CIO members $7.25 an hour to accompany him to Arizona and pick lettuce.  He might not have had so many takers.

According to the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) which was published by the U.S. Department of Labor, the average hourly wage for farm workers is $7.25 an hour.  Released in March 2005, the survey is based on interviews conducted with 6,472 farm workers between October 2000 and September 2002.  

The statistics are quite illuminating.  Seventy-five percent of all farm workers in this country were born in Mexico.  When one includes farm workers from other parts of Latin America, more than half of these workers (53%) are here illegally.  Only 23% of farm workers were born in the United States.  

Additionally, farm workers work an average of 42 hours a week, earn an average annual individual income between $10,000 to $12,499, with a total average annual family income between $15,000 to $17,499.    Only 23% have some form of health insurance.  If lettuce pickers made $50 an hour, one suspects that nearly 100% would have some form of health insurance.

If the AFL-CIO members were aware of this information, somehow I don’t think Senator McCain would have had as many volunteers willing to follow him to Arizona to pick lettuce.  How many of you reading this article knowing these facts would be prepared to pick lettuce as your chosen vocation?

This is not a question of the American work ethic.  There are clearly some Americans who pick lettuce for a living.  It is that there are not enough Americans willing to pick lettuce for a living.

Our policymakers can erect fences and place the National Guard on the border with Mexico.  It might deter some from coming here.  But it does not address the problem at its very root.

When it comes down to it this is really a question of supply and demand.   Americans love their lettuce.  In order to satiate this demand, agricultural employers need to find people willing to pick lettuce in order for it to get to market.  But if we are to rely solely on the American labor force to pick our lettuce that demand will not be met.  There are simply not enough Americans willing to go to Arizona to work in 100 degree weather on their hands and knees to pick lettuce for $7.25 an hour without health insurance and limited access to clean drinking water.  Most Americans would rather earn $7.25 an hour working at WalMart, McDonalds or Starbucks.  Enter the illegal immigrants from Mexico.  They provide the labor supply necessary to meet our demand for lettuce.  It’s that simple.

So unless more Americans are prepared to roll up their sleeves, get on their knees and dirty their hands this will be the state of affairs for the foreseeable future.  Could the American consumer boycott lettuce?  Perhaps.  But if Cesar Chavez couldn’t move Americans to give up their Caesar salads I doubt anyone else could.  Could the U.S. government encourage agricultural employers to hire Americans and give them a tax credit for it?  Sure it could.  Could our high schools and colleges have agricultural employers recruit their students on career days for summer jobs?  Sure it could.  Could the U.S. government fine agricultural employers so heavily for every illegal immigrant they hire that it would not be worth it to them to go that route?  Sure it could.  These measures either individually or collectively might have the effect of decreasing our dependence on illegal immigrants to pick our lettuce.  But these measures will have a marginal effect at best.  

None of this is to suggest that the Government of the United States does not have the right to place controls on our border with Mexico.  It most certainly does.  Erecting a fence, placing military personnel on the border and deporting those who overstay their visas might very well go a long way in addressing this problem.  But it will not go all the way.  Most Mexicans enter the United States illegally for a reason.  A better life for themselves and their families.  One might believe illegal immigration to be bad for the United States but let us not kid ourselves.  Illegal immigration to the United States would not exist in such large numbers if we did not play a part in it.  So long as agricultural employers (and for that matter employers in the construction and restaurant industries) cannot fill their vacancies with American citizens or legal residents, they will be more than happy to fill those vacancies with people who enter the United States illegally and look the other way all the way to the bank.

Now if you will excuse me I’ve got to run to Whole Foods and buy a Ready Pac All American Salad.  All this talk of lettuce.