(Host) Vermont dairy farmers have been swept up in a national enforcement effort aimed at companies that employ illegal immigrant workers.
Federal agents began serving subpoenas on farmers this week. Senator Patrick Leahy says he wants to find out if the farms are being unfairly targeted. And Leahy says the law needs to be changed to allow the workers to be here legally.
VPR’s John Dillon reports:
(Dillon) Federal immigration officials are auditing about 1,000 companies nationwide.
Officials in the Obama Administration say the goal is to find out if the businesses are using illegal workers – and to punish those that are.
Subpoenas were served on five Vermont farms this week. And the action sent a shockwave through the state’s agriculture community.
(Boyle) This is a big deal. .. If the intent of the immigration service was to ring a bell by issuing these subpoenas to large farms in Vermont, that’s been successful.
(Dillon) Philip Boyle is an immigration lawyer who says his phone has been ringing constantly with calls from concerned farmers.
Boyle says he’s trying to get them to stay calm as the federal agency conducts the investigation. He says just because a farm has been required to document a worker’s status, it doesn’t mean the person will be deported.
(Boyle) Document production doesn’t mean they come to your farm and look into the barn. That means you prepare your documents, you put them in a briefcase or box and you take them to their office … And this is an important fact, because document production is different than coming to the farm and searching around.
(Dillon) Many larger dairy farms in the state hire Mexicans to work in the barns and milking parlors. Farmers in the past have acknowledged that some of the workers are here illegally.
Boyle says employers are required to verify that they’ve seen documents – such as a passport or green card – that shows the worker is here legally. But the law doesn’t require the farmer or employer to prove that the documents are real.
(Boyle) It has to be facially valid. US employers are not immigration enforcement officers. And there’s a variety of documents out there that are very good fakes. So no one expects the U.S. employer to be an expert in that kind of forgery.
(Dillon) But this can lead to a system of "don’t ask, don’t tell" in which farmers may suspect a worker is here illegally, but then relies on documents that may be forgeries.
Senator Patrick Leahy – who chairs the Judiciary Committee – says he’s meeting with homeland security officials to ask questions about the recent crackdown.
(Leahy) And find out what they’re planning, what it is they intend to do. We have the head of Homeland Security, Secretary Napolitano, coming before the Judiciary Committee in a couple of weeks. I’d like to get as much information before she comes."
(Dillon) Leahy is trying to change immigration law so the dairy workers can enter the country under a guest worker program.
(Leahy) "We have a system that nobody wants. Law enforcement doesn’t want it. Employers don’t want it. The people who are trying to earn a living are caught in the middle."
(Dillon) Leahy says farmers tell him they can’t find American workers to do the job. He says immigrant workers are allowed to work in the state’s apple orchards, so he’s trying to set up a similar program for dairy farms.
For VPR News, I’m John Dillon in Montpelier.