Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

October 10, 2011

Earlier this year, the Alabama legislature enacted a measure ? modeled after similar statutes passed in Arizona and Georgia -- permitting police to detain anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant. The intended cure may be worse than the problem it was supposed to address.

Migrant farm workers ? both legal and illegal ? have fled Georgia and Alabama. As a result, huge amounts of produce are being left to rot; this will drive many of the small farming operations out of business, and contribute to higher grocery bills.

Alabama state senator Scott Beason, who sponsored that state?s immigrant crack-down bill, told protesting farmers that the measure would free up jobs for citizens and legal residents. Offered an opportunity to spend an hour picking tomatoes, the senator politely declined. With the labor shortage happening just in time for harvest, the Alabama state agriculture commissioner recommended that farmers employ prison labor in order to bring in their crops.

Supporters of the crackdown on illegal migrant farm workers ? people whose offense was to work without official government permission -- insisted it was necessary because they didn?t want law-breakers picking their produce. Now, as a result of that law, they have convicted criminals picking their produce.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.