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OK, so here in Georgia, millions of dollars of produce are rotting in the fields because state politicians stuck their noses into the immigration debate. A month ago, the state House and Senate passed, and Gov. Nathan Deal signed, House Bill 87, a law designed to drive illegal immigrants out of Georgia. Now state officials are scrambling because it seems that the bill ended up driving a lot of illegal immigrants out of Georgia.
Now there’s a labor shortage, and fields bugling with blueberries, onions, melons and other crops are going unharvested. This could end up devastating the state economy, as agriculture is Georgia’s largest industry.
A columnist in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes about the state government mucking around with immigration policy:
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Barely a month ago, you might recall, Gov. Nathan Deal welcomed the TV cameras into his office as he proudly signed HB 87 into law. Two weeks later, with farmers howling, a scrambling Deal ordered a hasty investigation into the impact of the law he had just signed, as if all this had come as quite a surprise to him. . .
The pain this is causing is real. People are going to lose their crops, and in some cases their farms. The small-town businesses that supply those farms with goods and services are going to suffer as well. For economically embattled rural Georgia, this could be a major blow . . .
We’re going to reap what we have sown, even if the farmers can’t.”
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