2 A PALM BEACH POST SPECIAL REPORT • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2003

CYANMAGENTAYELLOWBLACK

GARY CORONADO/Staff Photographer

That glass of OJis squeezing back

Huge hidden costs of cheap labor are borne by welfare agencies, schools, hospitals, police – you.

‘If any other U.S. industry used business practices that caused long-term social costs on this scale . . . Congress would hit them with an impact fee or regulate the practices out of existence.’

JOSEPH A. KINNEY, labor consultant

By JANE DAUGHERTYPalm Beach Post Staff Writer

Cheap labor puts fresh-squeezed Florida orange juice on millions ofAmerican breakfast tables every morning.

Cheap labor picks the giant crimson Plant City strawberries, glossy bellpeppers and juicy melons, not to mention the picture-perfect Indian Rivergrapefruit so popular in Japan and Europe.

But cheap labor also generates significant hidden costs, costs that onenational labor expert says are so staggering that an 8-ounce glass of freshorange juice that retails for 42 cents from the carton really costs Floridataxpayers a whole lot more.

THE REAL COST

Field greens for the Frost Belt: A farm worker in Palm Beach County hauls crates used forpacking endive lettuce during harvest last month. For Florida’s growers of citrus, tomatoes,

melons, vegetables and nursery plants, the grueling work of migrant labor helps to generate anannual economic impact of $62 billion.

The migrants who pick Florida’s or-anges are generally paid only 3.5 cents perhalf-gallon of fresh juice typically sellingfor $3.39 in supermarkets. Growers con-tend they can’t pay more because of narrowprofit margins and competition from Bra-zil, where pickers, including children, arepaid even less.

Meanwhile, the rising invisible costs ofcheap labor to harvest our crops are beingshouldered by welfare programs, schoolsand hospitals required by law to treat any-one with a serious illness.

Many immigrants, legal and illegal, re-ceive help from food stamps, infant andmaternal nutrition programs, free andreduced-price school lunches, local healthdepartments, churches and voluntaryagencies. They increase demands on pub-lic safety programs and the criminal justicesystem. They require publicly paid trans-lators and teachers of English-as-a-second-language.

Florida is among six states that receivethe most immigrants, along with NewYork, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois and theNo. 1 immigrant destination, California,where the National Academy of Scienceshas estimated that immigrants’ use of so-cial services and schools costs every Cali-fornia household $1,200 a year in addi-tional taxes. The academy projected thetotal cost to U.S. taxpayers for services toimmigrants at $15 billion to $20 billion ayear, while their economic contribution ispegged at $10 billion.

Harvard economist George Borjasserved on the National Academy panel. Aneconomic adviser to former California Gov.Pete Wilson, Borjas wonders whetherFlorida’s cost per household for immigrantservices may now be approaching Califor-nia’s.

‘‘California has Silicon Valley and morehigh-tech industry, more manufacturing,

more very rich people to bear the costs,’’Borjas said.

‘‘In places like Palm Beach County thathave huge agricultural holdings that drawmigrant laborers, the impact on local tax-payers is even greater because there is noother large industry and most of the costsof services to immigrants — public educa-tion, health care, law enforcement — areborne by local governments.’’

Public and private agencies in PalmBeach, Martin and St. Lucie countiesspend at least $21.5 million a year on im-migrants, according to a survey by ThePalm Beach Post. And that doesn’t even in-clude medical care, medicine, food and in-come assistance programs.

For example, the Palm Beach CountySchool District gets $2.1 million in federalmoney this year to help educate 7,100children of migrant workers. The districtspends another $5.6 million to help stu-dents whose native language is not En-glish. In Martin County, the schools spend$4.5 million on ESOL classes for children,plus $1.2 million for English and highschool equivalency classes for adult immi-grants. In St. Lucie County, public schoolsspend $5.7 million on ESOL and another$800,000 on programs for migrants andtheir children.

And in Lake Worth (pop. 35,133),where nearly one in every three residentsis an immigrant, city officials are furiousbecause they say the U.S. Census failed tocount many undocumented immigrants,depriving the city of much-needed federalgrant money. A special code enforcementteam cracking down on slumlike condi-tions has stumbled into numerous shabbyhouses and apartments crowded with mi-grant farm workers, sometimes 10 to aroom.

The costs could be much higher but forone fact: Migrants who creep across the

Mexican border to labor in Florida’s fieldsdon’t want to attract government attentionfor fear of being deported. Thus, in theirfirst years here, only a very few apply forhelp.

In fact, the Department of Labor saysthat 1,464 migrants interviewed in 2000 forits annual farm-workers survey were lesslikely to sign up for welfare programs than10 years ago. Only 6.6 percent used foodstamps in 2000, compared with 18 percentin 1993.

Laura Mullins, a director at the Farm-workers Coordinating Council in LakeWorth, attributes part of that decline totighter eligibility requirements enacted in1996 that, for instance, imposed a six-yearresidency requirement for food stamps.

“Fear is a big factor when they first gethere,” said Mullins. “If they’re undocu-mented, they won’t want any contact withauthorities. It is also difficult for them toaccess services because of language bar-riers, but ultimately, if they are eligible forservices, they’ll use them.”

Borjas and other labor experts say theCalifornia experience proves that as theybecome more familiar with the Americansystem, migrants who have lived here forseveral years will begin to take advantageof it and receive services. And becausemigrants are so wretchedly poor, he warns,they will remain in poverty even when theybecome permanent residents and move onto other jobs, creating a new underclassthat will increase the tax burden.

Unquestionably, migrants are some ofthe hardest-working people in Florida. Yet,for their labor, they get only 3.5 cents perhalf-gallon of Florida orange juice, accord-ing to a Palm Beach Post analysis of detailedproduction cost figures provided by theUniversity of Florida Institute of Food andAgricultural Sciences.

With the average farm worker in theU.S. making about $7,500 per year, ac-cording to census figures, paying laborersan additional one cent a half-gallon wouldlift many farm workers above the federalpoverty level.

But, “we’re not likely to see any in-crease in wages paid to Florida citrusworkers in the near future,” said professorFritz Roka, a University of Florida agricul-tural economist. “There are plenty ofworkers willing to work for the currentwages . . . and the 2003-2004 citrus forecastindicates the harvest will be the largest inmore than 10 years, which will glut themarket and likely bring citrus prices

down.”John Thomas of Thomas Produce Co.,

the state’s biggest vegetable grower, sayshe can’t afford to cut his margins any more.

“Our margin is down so low,” Thomassaid. “It’s a tough business and it’s gettingtougher all the time.”

Most consumers know little about thedilemma posed by farmers’ profit marginsvs. the migrants’ struggle for survival.

Most taxpayers are also unaware of theinvoluntary burden they carry, said Borjas,himself a Cuban immigrant. ‘‘Unless youare unemployed and having to competewith immigrant laborers who drive downthe wage scale, the losses are more dif-fused among the rest of the economy. JoeSix-Pack is hurt, but he doesn’t realize howmuch it’s costing him.”

Joseph A. Kinney, a labor consultantwho has frequently testified before Con-gress about injuries to workers, agrees.

‘‘Agribusiness in Florida, Californiaand Texas profits hugely from migrant la-borers. But those large companies and thefarmers who sell their fruits and vegetablesto them don’t have to pay the hidden costsincurred by the exploitation of thoseworkers, most of whom remain in the U.S.long after they stop working in the fields,’’

See COST, next page >

1. Greenhouse/nursery 23.8 %2. Oranges 17.1%3. Cane for sugar 7.6%4. Tomatoes 7.4%5. Dairy products 5.2%6. Cattle 4.9%7. Potatoes 3.1%8. Broilers 2.9%9. Grapefruit 2.7%

10. Strawberries 2.2%11. Chicken eggs 1.6%12. Sweet corn 1.5%13. Tangerines 1.4%14. Cucumbers 1.3%15. Watermelons 0.9%

Other* 16.4*Includes peanuts, cabbage, honey, blueberries, avocados.Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Florida’s top agricultural commodi-ties, by percent of total receipts.

Citrus industryis second to nurseries

A swelling underclass