How has illegal immigration reform hit the ag industry?

ATLANTA -- Georgia's largest industry is its $69 billion agriculture industry. Tuesday, the Agriculture Department will present a report on whether that industry has been hurt by the illegal immigration reform passed last year, better known as H.B. 87.

We already have some idea of the answer.

A few months ago, the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association estimated a 40 percent labor shortage this past spring, after the bill was passed. On Monday, the association's executive director, Charles Hall, said much of that labor actually returned in the fall. But, he said, growers are still bracing for hard times in the year ahead.

"I know many growers are looking at alternate crops, like cotton and corn," Hall said. "Some growers are looking at reducing their acreage. I think we definitely will see some cutbacks this year because of the lack of harvest labor."

Hall also doesn't think Tuesday's report will lead to any changes to H.B. 87 in the coming legislative session.

"I don't think our legislature right now is willing at looking at making any tweaks to that," he said. "I think the legislators that supported it feel it's been successful in doing what they wanted it to do."

This comes on the heels of the new E-Verify policy that took effect Jan. 1. That part of H.B. 87 requires every private employer in Georgia with more than 500 employees to use a federal work authorization program to determine the eligibility of its employees.

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