Montpelier & Immigration Reform

This evening, instead of jumping on the highway to drive the 40 miles north to Burlington, I stopped briefly in Montpelier, the capital of Vermont and a few miles north of my work place. I love Vermont in the summer. I think I can truthfully say I've never spent a summer in a more visually appealing place. I view the green mountains as more beautiful than the Scottish Highlands. Each day, the twists and turns of the highway reveal uncovered patches of rolling hills ahead. I love living among the mountains and fear that I now might unfairly judge flat areas that I inhabit in the future. I picked up dinner in Montpelier and while there, under the 80-degree evening summer sun, I admired the architecture. The golden Vermont state house dome. How enormously round and blindingly gold it is. The view of the dome when approaching the capitol city and when rolling down hills in the (very small) city. The brick buildings surrounding. The art galleries and local shops and parks and benches and gardens and people.

Driving back to Burlington, I was so fascinated by a Vermont Public Radio (VPR) story. I thought I knew a good amount of Vermont's share of undocumented immigrants, but I didn't. Certainly the issue can be controversial and I'm inclined to disclose that VPR displays a somewhat-bias, but just putting the facts together and understanding the wider issue was fascinating. My opinion now is that the state of Vermont could not prosper without undocumented immigrants. 90 percent of Vermont's 1000 to 1200 undocumented immigrants work on the state's dairy farms. All are paid. 90 percent come from Mexico. Of those 90 percent, over 50 percent come from Mexico's southern-most state. Those who make it to Vermont are attracted by its isolation. They can work long hours and earn good pay in an environment where they cannot walk to nearby towns or businesses. Vermont has plenty of work yet violent seasons and extreme temperatures. More often than not, these workers return home and become small business owners and farmers. As hard as it was to believe, VPR spoke about Vermont residents not competing for dairy farming jobs. With Vermont as one of the oldest states in the nation now (along with New Hampshire), farmers and the members of the towns and counties these dairy farms are located in are too old to dairy farm all hours of the day and all days of the week. I understand and agree that immigration reform is necessary. I understand the issues surrounding the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Yet I struggle to believe (and perhaps this VPR story and my own liberal education has influenced my own thinking) how the 1000-1200 undocumented migrant dairy farm workers in Vermont are hurting the Vermont economy or society by performing the jobs that need to be performed. Rather, they seem to only be boosting productivity and continuing Vermont's dairy farming traditions.