Another Modest Proposal

From The Washington Times:

Immigration rights organizers today will call for a nationwide boycott of work, school and shopping on May 1 to protest congressional efforts to clamp down on illegal aliens as part of pending immigration-reform legislation. The "Great American Boycott of 2006" is only one in a series of large-scale events the protesters hope will sway lawmakers to put millions of illegal aliens on track toward permanent residency and U.S. citizenship.

I have another idea for a boycott. All Americans who do not want our government giving amnesty to illegal aliens and resent criminals rampaging through our streets demanding special privileges should, to the best of their ability boycott American produce.

I hear orange growers and dairy farmers calling in to the conservative radio talk shows saying that they absolutely need illegal aliens to work for them because they can’t find Americans who will do the work that they need doing. What they really are saying is that they can’t find Americans to do their work at the wages which they are willing to pay.

One dairy farmer even told Rush that if he couldn’t hire illegals he would just close his farm and sell the land to be used as a golf course. I have this to say to that farmer. Go ahead and sell your damn land. If it could be more profitably used as a golf course than a dairy farm then that is what it should be used for.

Farmers in our society are the ultimate welfare queens. They demand welfare through price supports and being paid not to grow. They are demanding welfare through artificially depressed labor costs, leaving the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the costs associated with illegal immigration.

Frankly it may be time to move the US agricultural industry out of the country. Most land in the US is more valuable as something other than a farm. Most farmers know this, but they don’t want to stop farming. They like it, they’re good at it and it is all they’ve ever done. So instead of inventing some way to make farming genuinely profitable they puff themselves up and declare themselves to be uniquely important and demand handouts from the rest of us.

Congress may have its hand too far into the pockets of ADM to stop the direct subsidies to agriculture, but the American people can damn well stand up and stop this under-the-table labor subsidy. So I’m asking the American people not to buy things that need illegal labor to harvest. What I hear mostly about is oranges and grapes. So no orange juice, unless you know that the oranges are imported and no California grapes, and that includes their overpriced and mediocre wine.

Think about it. If this got legs and the farmers were to see their precious lifestyle going circling the bowl do you not think that they would fall all over themselves certifying that their farms were staffed with 100% legal labor? And as a big part of the illegal’s job pool dried up many would go home and fewer would try to come here.

I can hear someone now pointing out that this would mean higher prices for produce. So what? Can’t American afford to pay a dollar more for a head of lettuce?