Maryland is for Crabs– But Maybe Not This Year

MoonHowler

Crab season begins April 1. However, the crab processing plants in Dorchester County, Maryland might not be opening, thus contributing even more to the recession. There simply are not enough workers to staff the crab plants. Chesapeake Bay area watermen are pleading with Congressman Frank Kratovil to do something about the situation.

For the past 10 years or so, the workers have come from Mexico and Central America on special visa for seasonal work. Now government red tape is causing so much of a delay that the entire industry might be affected.

So why don’t local folks take these jobs? Kids are working elsewhere. Crab processing is dangerous work and it used to be generational work. Kids would go with parents and other family members and learn to process crab. Nowadays, you have to be at least 16 years old with parent permission to even go in the plants. Most of the American crab pickers are now senior citizens.

At first, there were enough temporary worker visas — not just for crab picking, but for landscaping, construction and other seasonal businesses. But as Americans became concerned about immigrants taking residents’ jobs, Congress began limiting the number of H2B visas and creating other obstacles for businesses that depend on temporary workers.

This year, the H2B program was limited at 66,000 temporary visas. None of those went to the people who had been working in Dorchester County’s crab processing plants.

According to WJZ.com, a Baltimore TV station, the crab industry out of the Bay is on the verge of collapse while Maryland congresspersons scramble to save the day.

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ERICKSON COLUMN: The myth of special treatment for illegals

MoonHowler

Mr. Howler is famous for bellowing at me from another room. Today he hollered out from the kitchen, “Moon, do you know Jerry Erickson?” I said yes. Then I couldn’t remember where I knew him from. Then the normal spousal questions fired back and forth…who is he…I can’t remember…..why do you want to know…those kinds of things.

 

Finally, he told me why he asked.  There was a column in the paper by Jerry Erickson, who  is a Woodbridge attorney. We used him many years ago when our daughter was in a serious automobile accident. What I did NOT know is that he has a column in the News and Messenger and that he now specializes in immigration law.

Mr. Howler and I do not see eye to eye on the immimgration issue. However, he did call my attention to this opinion piece by Mr. Erickson. He puts forth some interesting facts that often are not discussed. I am posting it in its entirety. There is no way to consolidate and summarize.

Jerry Erickson
Published: March 25, 2009

In order to have a meaningful debate on the topic of comprehensive immigration reform, it’s important to discuss the issues using understood terms and definitions. First, we need to have a common understanding of the term at the center of the immigration debate, “illegal alien”. Ironically, this term, which is thrown about by nearly everyone involved in the immigration debate, is not used in immigration regulations or formally defined by the federal government. For debate purposes, an illegal alien can be considered a person who is in the U.S. without any legal paperwork or immigration status. This would include an individual who enters the U.S. without proper documentation or permission as well as an individual who enters with proper documentation or permission but does not abide by the terms of his or her stay in the U.S. Of the approximately 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., it’s estimated that almost half entered the U.S. on a visa that allowed them to visit the U.S.  temporarily, but then stayed beyond the time permitted in their visa.

MYTH: Illegal aliens shouldn’t receive special treatment for being here illegally.

FACT: For the vast majority of illegal aliens, there is no legal way under the current immigration law to obtain legal status while in the United States.

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Ring Ring…..”Hello”….”Hi Elena, its Corey, lets talk Land Use”

Elena

So that was how my weekend began on Friday, a surprise phone call from Corey Stewart. Corey pitched an idea to me about creating a new citizen land use committee to help formulate a better land use chapter for the county. Although initially I was excited, upon some deeper introspection, I realized, the very idea of another land use committee was actually a poor idea. Calling Corey back the next day, I shared my trepidation and ultimate decision not to participate on such a committee. You see, Corey shared his frustration with the land use process not having enough citizen input. I agreed, wholeheartedly, with his analysis.  But, forming a new citizen committee,  beyond the scope of the formal public process, in my opinion,  could be interpreted as another, behind the scenes, ” business as usual”,  closed government strategy. 

The real underlying problem is that our process in this county is broken. The Land Use Advisory Committee (LUAC) had members who had CLEAR, actually BLINDING, conflicts of interest. In fact, one of the glaring issues with Robert Duecaster, beyond his immigration rhetoric, was the very fact that he had NO Human Services experience. Who are the people that are appointed to these committees? Should there be a level of knowledge on the specific subject in order to participate? 

Apparently Wally Covington reached out to Katherine Gotthardt(click here to read more) to be on a land use committee also. Is it the same land use committee as Corey? I don’t know? But the reality is that the public process is well on its way, and has been for two years. The Planning Commission, having two plans to choose from as Charlie Grymes so eloquently points out in his commentary, will make their decision on April 15th.

Land use decisions effect each and every one of us, and the “business as usual” paradigm in Prince William County must be resolved. If it is not, if we continue down this same path, we can only expect to see our taxes increase, our infrastructure become even more burdened, and ultimately, our quality of life diminished irreparably.