Our Say: Congress' inaction strangling longtime Maryland industry

Published 06/18/09

Sunday's story about crab-picking houses in Dorchester County showed that these venerable Eastern Shore businesses are closing their doors because of a labor shortage. This, in turn, hurts their suppliers - the watermen.

But the labor shortage is artificial. Many experienced seasonal workers who have done this job before are ready and eager to do it again. The problem: Those workers are mostly in Mexico. They can't come to Maryland because Congress won't fix an outdated and arbitrary program: H2B visas.

Picking the meat out of a crab is a difficult, tedious job - seasonal work, not well paid, and generally done in...

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http://www.hometownannapolis.com/ne - 2009-06-20 12:26:10

Most people believe in obeying the law, and are therefore opposed to "illegal" immigration. The issue of God-given or Natural rights comes into play here with respect to freedom of association and mobility. We have the right to associate with others, and the right to travel where ever we want as long as we do not infringe on the personal property rights of others. We do not have the right to travel across another's back yard to get to the convenience store for example.

Well, what about the people of Central & South America? Do they not have the same God-given or Natural rights of association and mobility and travel? The problems with addressing this issue on a national level is exemplified by this article. A central government does not have the resources or ability to collect, evaluate, and make a timely informed decision on how to best address a situation such as this. This would be best addressed by our state government, or even better, the county government. National legislators are easily overwhelmed by the thousands of issues they are expected to address, which is why in brilliant foresight, our nations founders hoped to keep the scope of Federal government small, and focused on international issues, while keeping the power to address national and state issues as close to the source of the problem as possible.

unhide Comment hidden due to low ranking. Why is this comment hidden?

Todd Geiger - Upper Marlboro, MD - Karma: Neutral