When immigrants leave, hire inmates

Last summer, Colorado passed one of America’s most strident illegal immigration laws. It was the kind of law that inspires alarmist warnings of shortages in service industry employees and farm laborers. And guess what? That’s exactly what has happened. Last fall, crops were left to rot in some  Colorado fields after many immigrants fled the state fearing ...

Last summer, Colorado passed one of America's most strident illegal immigration laws. It was the kind of law that inspires alarmist warnings of shortages in service industry employees and farm laborers. And guess what? That's exactly what has happened. Last fall, crops were left to rot in some  Colorado fields after many immigrants fled the state fearing a run in with the law. Now, the state's farmers are worried about getting this year's crops into the fields, let alone harvesting them this fall.

Last summer, Colorado passed one of America’s most strident illegal immigration laws. It was the kind of law that inspires alarmist warnings of shortages in service industry employees and farm laborers. And guess what? That’s exactly what has happened. Last fall, crops were left to rot in some  Colorado fields after many immigrants fled the state fearing a run in with the law. Now, the state’s farmers are worried about getting this year’s crops into the fields, let alone harvesting them this fall.

Once again, the state’s lawmakers believe they can come to the rescue. This time, their plan is to hire out convicted criminals, who will be guarded by wardens with guns, to work in the fields abandoned by immigrants. Colorado lawmakers, it appears, would rather see struggling family farmers paying wages to sleazy inmates from the state’s prisons than paying hard working immigrants who may have come into America illegally. It’s the latest sign of how out of whack our immigration policies have become. Even the traditionally forward-thinking Denver Post is supporting the cockamamie scheme, which it says “has the potential to solve a host of problems” such as teaching inmates a “learned work ethic” and allowing them “less time … to get into trouble.”

What’s next, inmates bussing tables in restaurants as guards watch over them with guns?

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