Illegal Immigration: The Other Side of the Coin

This is a strawberry field behind our church. It looks just like the strawberry fields that surround our community, Sticks’ school, and are the pride of this little niche of the world. Out here, the strawberries are like garlic in Gilroy, festival and all.

The fruit in this field is ready for harvest, which means hand-picking berries directly into flats. It must be done quickly once the fruit is ripe, and with all the rain we’ve had lately the farmers are concerned. Very concerned.

While we were eating our strawberry shortcake for dessert, these folks were picking the berries for the next round of shortcake. Out in the fields at sunrise, they were at it when I drove by shortly before sunset. Easter is a huge holiday in our Hispanic community (in any Hispanic community!), and seeing these folks in the fields really drove home the sacrifice they were making to put food on their table and contribute to our local economy.

I’m reasonably certain that the workers in these fields were a mixture of legal and illegal immigrants — they usually are. Our local economy would be in a heap of trouble without workers, illegal and legal, who are willing to go out and pick the berries. If it were left up to those of us who consume them they wouldn’t be picked.

The next time you hear about what a drain illegal immigrants are on our economy, remember these folks.

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