[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.12]this is the Agriculture Report.
[00:04.95]Farmers in the United States are experiencing
[00:08.54]a shortage of people to work their fields.
[00:12.28]The workers they do have are mostly from Latin America
[00:17.24]but enter the country with false documents.
[00:21.11]Farmers say that without immigration reform,
[00:24.99]both problems will continue.
[00:27.68]Imperial Valley is an agricultural area
[00:31.77]near the border of the western state of California and Mexico.
[00:37.59]Temperatures there are always above 38 degrees Celsius
[00:42.48]in the summer month, as a result,
[00:46.32]not much grows in the Imperial Valley
[00:49.00]at this time of year, but in the winter
[00:52.38]the fileds are filled with lettuce and celery.
[00:56.97]And in the spring, farmers grow foods
[01:00.35]like cantaloupes and watermelons.
[01:03.69]There is work to do in the fields in the summer,
[01:07.52]Francisco Saucedo uses farm equipment
[01:12.25]to prepare the land for planting in the autumn.
[01:16.13]He lives in Mexico and wakes up
[01:19.81]in the middle of the night everyday,
[01:22.70]so he can avoid long lines at the border crossing.
[01:27.29]Mr Saucedo says that if he did this kind of work in Mixico,
[01:32.52]he would earn about $6 a day.
[01:36.30]But in the United States, he makes as much as $90 a day.
[01:43.43]Farmer Larry Cox says growing and harvesting vegetables
[01:48.57]depends on immigrants or day laborers from Mexico,
[01:53.69]but he says not enough migrants are crossing the border.
[01:58.52]"We have had a chronic shortage of help almost for the last 10 years."
[02:04.95]Larry Cox says it has been difficult getting visas
[02:09.78]to work in the United States,
[02:12.61]as a result, many farm workers from Latin America carry fake documents.
[02:20.49]Western Growers President Tom Nassif says
[02:24.57]there are about 11 million workers in the United States
[02:29.39]with false documents, over 1 million of them work in agriculture.
[02:35.72]Mr Nassif has been working with American lawmakers on immigration reform.
[02:42.00]He supports of bill to legalize the workers
[02:46.13]who are already in the United States.
[02:49.22]The bill will provide a way for the workers
[02:52.71]to become American citizens in the future.
[02:56.69]The Senate has approved the measure.
[02:59.68]The United Farm Workers Foundation represents the farm workers.
[03:05.65]It supports the Senate bill.
[03:08.60]The group's Erica Lomeli says immigration reform
[03:13.30]will improve the working conditions of many migrants.
[03:17.87]"So they will have a right to stand up for themselves
[03:20.16]and not be intimidated or in many states be put in slave-like positions."
[03:26.14]American Jack Vessey owns a farm.
[03:30.18]he says without immigration reform,
[03:33.21]the labor shortage on farms will continue,
[03:37.04]as a result, he says,
[03:39.04]Americans might have to pay more for fruits and vegetables.
[03:44.87]And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English,
[03:51.05]I'm Bob Doughty.