Florida is experiencing its worst orange harvest in decades this season. That may not seem like much of a big deal to you and me. But the Orange industry is one of the linchpins to Florida's economic success. When the harvest suffers, billions of dollars and thousands of jobs are at risk.The reason for this year's lousy harvest...drought?...hurricanes?...a mysterious fungii? None of the above. In actuality the orange groves have produced plenty of oranges this year...a bumper crop actually. However, there's not enough workers to harvest the crops. The oranges are literally rotting off the vine.
The reason there's not enough workers? Florida's protectionist legislature has enacted some of the harshest anti-immigration laws in the nation. There's not enough migrants legal or illegal to work the groves. So many illegal migrants have been forced out of Florida that this year's harvest is going to cost Florida and the United States billions.
The trickle-down effect will spread throughout America. Jobs will be lost. Prices will go up. And yet, there will be those in this mosaic of a nation who will continue to rally around the cause of kicking the Mexicans out. Short-sightedness is a characteristic of being an American I guess.
