Trump Administration's Immigration Policy Could Have Dire Effects in Clark County, Part 2
Tuesday, March 21st, 2017 -- 11:32 AM
-A priority in Washington D.C. could have a dire effect on farms, factories and other jobs here in Clark County.One of the President Trump’s highest priorities is the deportation of undocumented immigrants he has used a series of executive orders to chip away at the barriers to deportations and hire new law enforcement officials to spearhead the effort. Should he succeed, the effects will be wide reaching including right here in Clark County where a high population of undocumented workers fill positions on farms and in factories. I spoke with Melissa Kono, CNRED Agent, and Richard Halopka, Crops and Soil Agent, with the Clark County UW-Extension Office. They explained why factories and farms can’t find the workers they need to fill the positions undocumented workers typically take.
Melissa: "There's a lot of competition for workers right now. In Clark County, especially, we have very low unemployment rates. Even during the recession, we still had relatively low unemployment
compared to many areas. We have a lot of employers in this area. We have similar type jobs that are available, so people with a certain set of skills kinda have their pick of where they go to work in certain areas like Clark County where we have relatively low unemployment. So, when workers can choose where they go, they might choose jobs that are less physically demanding. It's very physically demanding to be an agriculture workers, especially on a dairy farm."
Richard: "Well, one thing I can tell you, working on a lot of these farms, when we're doing some education, their level of education, not all of them are this low, but a lot of them are uneducated. So, what's an area you can work with limited education? Hands on. If you can run a shovel, a broom or stand behind a cow and remove a milking unit or prep a cow, which doesn't take a lot of high skill set. A lot of them that I trained, well I shouldn't say a lot of them, probably around 10% come from the poorest area of Mexico."
Coming up on Wednesday, Melissa and Richard will talk about the economic effects a mass deportation would have on our area.
In Case You Missed It:
Part 1: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=18669
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