No Peaches For You, JD Vance

"My kids want a corner office."

Years ago, when I was practicing immigration law in Colorado, an Aspen restaurant owner called me to ask if I could get him proper work visas for his undocumented dishwashers. I told him, sorry, no, but on a hunch, I asked, “What about your own kids? Won’t they start on the ground floor and work their way up in the restaurant business?” The owner scoffed. “My kids want to start in a corner office. They won’t wash dishes no matter what I pay.”

With respect to who will do what kind of job for what dollar amount, little has changed. Now, however, JD Vance, the racists (sorry, “kooks”) at the Center for Immigration Studies and a clear minority of fringe economists think that if we summarily deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, then unemployed young males will suddenly jump up off their couches, throw down their video game controllers and pick up tools to do roofing, drywall and fruit and vegetable harvesting. I’m also told that pigs might fly.

Let’s take peaches, for example. In Palisade, Colorado, the peach industry - valued at $33.91 million dollars in 2022 - relies on the labor of H-2A visa workers from Mexico and Central America. Grower Bruce Talbott said, “We do have good people and without them we cease to exist.” Yes, there are abuses in the H-2A program, as in all visa programs. You can read about them here, here and here.

If JD Vance wants to eat a peach, at least one from Colorado, he will have to sing a different tune.

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