The State - News from May 24, 1989

Fears that the new immigration law may cause a farm labor shortage in California have failed to materialize in the San Joaquin Valley, according to the chairman of the Fresno Farm Bureau’s labor committee. Grape grower Don Laub said “the work force looks real good,” although he admitted that it is still too early to predict whether there will be enough workers when the harvest season reaches its peak in late summer. Many growers expressed concern last year that not enough undocumented workers would legalize their status under the amnesty provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 to form an adequate labor pool. “That fear has failed, so far, to materialize,” Laub said, “and it may never happen.”