Strict immigration laws make farm labor scarce

Many farmers in California and Arizona employ illegal immigrants. Strict enforcement of the Mexican boarder has limited the number of illegal immigrants coming in to the US. Of those that do get in, some have left the farming industry for higher paying, less labor intensive jobs, such as construction and landscaping. According to our class discussion of the wage structure and compensating wage differentials, if the farm work is much more strenuous than construction or landscaping work, those workers will expect to be paid more for farming. Since they are finding higher wages in easier jobs, the workers are moving away from farming. If no change is made, growers are expecting unharvested crops due to the shortage of workers. This could force the US to rely more on food supplied from foreign countries.