GEALE: Back to indentured servitude

[EmptyTimCup]

GEALE: Back to indentured servitude

AgJobs is cynical and arguably anti-American. It legalizes illegal workers after a small fine of a few hundred dollars. Anyone who worked five months in agriculture in the prior two years is eligible for legalization, including those facing judicial deportation orders. That would mean 600,000 to 800,000 new permanent U.S. residents plus their families - many of whom probably have a limited education, speak little English and may not even be immunized against communicable diseases. AgJobs also makes these workers less well-off financially by arbitrarily slashing their wages across the board.

The December 2008 reforms set minimum wages according to local market rates so the temporary workers can take care of their families while in the United States and return to their home countries with a nest egg. Under AgJobs' cuts, U.S. taxpayers will inevitably have to subsidize the workers' housing, health care or children's schooling while they remain on the path to citizenship.

Not content, however, to simply make these people generally dependent on government for basic services, AgJobs also indentures them for up to five years of servitude picking crops - despite the 13th Amendment.