Hello there, chiming in as one of those farmers many of you seem to know so much about.
Before getting in H-2A visa workers, our seasonal crew (12-20 weeks of work) make...in 2017...drumroll...$12/hour.
While costing U.S. tax payers far more than that.
https://www.heritage.org/immigration/report/the-fiscal-cost-unlawful-immigrants-and-amnesty-the-us-taxpayer
Oooh, this study. Wonderful. For the purposes of this response, let's assume our farm follows the national average of about 50% of the field workers being undocumented. My response boils down to that we would have the same number of people working here for the same wages, independent of immigration status. We need 60 people to pick apples. They will make lowish to medium income depending on their skill and if they have dependents. Average no high school degree U.S. households have a net deficit of over $30,000 of benefits received vs. taxes paid in. Unlawful immigrant households have a net deficit of over $14,000. That's right at the beginning of the study. Seems they're not as expensive as the headline suggests. But let's look further:
1. A part of this argument rests on the fact that these people, by virtue of being here, mean increased costs for utilities, police coverage, fire, parks, roads, etc. In the case of seasonal migrant workers, the same number of people reside here for that part of the year regardless of their immigration status, so these costs don't count. The fact that a person is here illegally doesn't make a difference in our case.
2. Same with their children, who often would be citizens. We have several workers that move around in the U.S. with their families when they come to work for us. Their subsidized public education (on our local level) is the same regardless of if their parents are legal or illegal - we have enough units for 8 families, and always have about 8 families. Their immigration status is not relevant. (There may be employees who have children elsewhere in the country adding to the population, but most of our employees are single guys, or have a girlfriend but no kids. These people's children would count in that study.)
3. All of our employees are paid "on the books" and pay all applicable taxes, which as this study notes brings down the deficit in taxes paid in vs. benefits received. 1 chart I looked at looks like that would increase their assumed contributions by $3,000 or almost 1/3. Many benefits for citizen children - SNAP, WIC, etc. apply to all low income households. Since we're hiring for lower income work, the legal status doesn't matter for this - they're making the same income and would qualify equally.
4. There is discussion in the study (when worrying about amnesty) about subsidized medical care - which the study does admit is also something that happens with low-income households. Well, $12/hour is low income if you're a family, so it doesn't matter if they are legal or illegal with kids here - they will be getting subsidized health care. Most of our employees go to a local migrant health clinic due to being both low cast and fluent in Spanish. Since they work here seasonally, they do not receive health insurance through our company.
Shutdown related: I know a local craft beer brewer who makes seasonal beers throughout the year and is now altering their brewing schedule so they don't have a new beer made but unable to be labeled thanks to the shutdown.