SHELBY,NC (WBTV) – At the Strickland-Patten blackberry farm west of Shelby the fruit is ready for picking and the pickers lining up to do the job. "We have no shortage of workers," said farm manager Brad Bumgardner.
A big reason he thinks is because many workers tell him they are bypassing Georgia because of the new, tougher immigration laws the state has put into effect.
In Georgia, farmers must do extensive checks on workers to be sure they are in the country legally.
Migrants who use false paperwork can be charged with a felony. Traffic violations for those with fake I-D's can result in thousands of dollars in fines.
All of that plus the chance to be turned over to federal authorities and be deported. "No good Georgia," said one woman in broken English.
Crew leader Jesse Llanos was in Georgia last week at a blackberry farm. "The farmers are in trouble," he said. "There are not enough pickers."
Llanos said he found many migrants, legal and illegal, doing everything they could to avoid staying in Georgia for very long. "They are scared and are jumping to North Carolina."
Martha Ramirez normally would be working in Georgia this time of year but she bypassed the peach state and came to North Carolina to work.
Martha admitted she is in the country illegally but says her family in Mexico depends on her. "I have a very big family, seven people," she said through a translator.
Bumgardner said the flow of migrants has been steady this year. When asked why the jobs should go to migrants when the local unemployment rate is in double digits, he just shook his head.
"I can't find many Americans who would perform this job." "About every time one starts a job here they last only a few hours or a day at most," he added.
The job entails long hours in the hot sun. Pay is based on the amount of fruit that is picked. A skilled worker can make about a hundred dollars a day, said officials.
A good portion of that is sent home to families in Mexico, Guatemala and elsewhere. Each job lasts just a few weeks, then the migrant population moves on to another crop in another place, sometimes another state.
Farmers are concerned that the growing wave of immigration reform will eventually come to North Carolina.
"If we don't have the migrants, legal and illegal, who will pick our crops?" said Bumgardner.
