Well, it would probably end up being a pretty short 'party' -- just ask the state of Georgia, when they tried this trick a few years ago ...
Georgia’s New Immigration Law Leading To Crops Rotting In Farmers’ Fields
by Doug Mataconis, outsidethebeltway.com -- June 22, 2011
During the last legislative session, Georgia adopted a harsh new immigration law modeled on the law passed last year by Arizona. Now, it seems they’re getting a little lesson in the law of unintended consequences:
[...]
Thanks to the resulting labor shortage, Georgia farmers have been forced to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions, melons and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they’ve done to Georgia’s largest industry.
[...]
Adam Ozimek [...] explains the rather elementary economics behind what’s happening:
It goes like this. If you’re not going to let illegal immigrants do the jobs they are currently being hired to do, then farmers will have to raise wages to replace them. Since farmers are taking a risk in hiring immigrant workers, you can bet they were getting a significant deal on wage costs relative to “market wages”. I put market wages here in quotations, because it’s quite possible that the wages required to get workers to do the job are so high that it’s no longer profitable for farmers to plant the crops in the first place.
[...]
Those Tomatoes aren't going to pick themselves, now are they?
Hydroponic Tomatoes -- from Wikimedia Commons
Who needs fresh Tomatoes anyways?
Just ask the state of Alabama, how well fields full of rotten tomatoes sell ...
Alabama Immigration Law Causing Produce To Rot In The Fields
by Doug Mataconis, outsidethebeltway.com -- October 6, 2011
Alabama’s tomato farmers are experiencing some of the same problems that Georgia farmers did earlier this year thanks to Alabama’s tough new immigration law, but the author of the law says he’s not willing to change it:
A sponsor of Alabama’s tough new immigration law told desperate tomato farmers Monday that he won’t change the law, even though they told him that their crops are rotting in the field and they are at risk of losing their farms.
Republican state Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale met with about 50 growers, workers, brokers and business people Monday at a tomato packing shed on Chandler Mountain in northeast Alabama. They complained that the new law, which went into effect Thursday, scared off many of their migrant workers at harvest time.
[...]
[...] Standing outside in the hot sun, bending over, and picking tomatoes, onions, or cabbage isn’t fun to say the least and doing it for eight or nine hours a day, five or six days a week, is physically and mentally exhausting. There are people out there who are willing to do this work, though. So willing that they’re willing to take the risks of immigrating and living under the radar just for the privilege of starting a life in the United States of America.
[...]
There is an alternative to all of this, and it involves creating the kind of Guest Worker program that President Bush was talking about when comprehensive immigration reform was last being debated in Congress. Such a program would allow farmers to have access to the labor that they need, and do so in an environment where the workers are here legally, and paying taxes, rather than forcing everyone to do business in the shadows and under the table. Unfortunately, the Republican shot down immigration reform back then, and any prospect of such reform being passed any time soon is pretty dim given the current climate inside the GOP on the issue.
[...]
If the conservative media doesn't like acknowledging President Bush's lead on Immigrant Workers, perhaps they could take a few cues from the President who "can do no wrong" ...
“I supported this bill. I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and have lived here even though some time back they may have entered illegally,” ... “I’m going to do everything I can -- and all of us in the administration are -- to join in again when Congress is back at it to get an immigration bill that will give us once again control of our borders.”
-- Ronald Reagan said in a 1984 debate against Walter Mondale, as recently reported by
NPR.
Perhaps the New Congress had better "hold off" on the urgent business they have in their January 2015 In-Box, eh?
-- Image Source: wikiality.wikia.com/Mount_Rushmore
And they might want to ask the Farmers of GA and AL for some Guest Workers advice, instead.