Georgia Farmers Brace for New Immigration Law

NPR reported that: Georgia is putting in place a new law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants, and many across the state are nervous. Businesses fear an economic boycott, the Latino community fears police officers will abuse their new powers, and farmers in South Georgia fear the law will hurt them dramatically. Georgia is known for its peaches and Vidalia onions, the state vegetable. The specialty crop is produced in just a few counties in the rural southeast part of the state, where the soil is just right. Aries Haygood with M&T Farms watches a crew of about 50 migrant workers as they hand pick the golden onions in groups of three or four. "Right now they're just coming in through the field," he says. "They're grabbing the onions out and just clipping the tops and roots getting them prepared to bring to the packing house." It's a labor-intensive process that machines just can't do because they'd bruise the delicate crop - a $140 million-a-year industry. This farm has 500 acres of onions with some 80,000 plants per acre, so Haygood relies heavily on migrant workers for help. "Our biggest fear is that because of the way the bill could be structured we won't be able to find enough workers to do the work that we need done in a short amount of time," he says.