text: That's a good idea, one which I have advanced many times. Also, many times I have pointed out a project by Los Angeles County Employment Office to hire local citizens at twice the minimum wage, to work in agricultural jobs mostly done by documented and undocumented Mexicans and Central Americans. The hires would also get transportation daily to and from the fields. There were few takers and a lot of dropouts, and the program was closed.
  
  To improve wages and working conditions would require the political will to enforce employment regulations now on the books regarding legal immigrant labor, and to document all such labor in order to tax them and insure they are payed a legal wage. Corporate agriculture is powerful and has resisted inspection at every level. They want illegal immigrant labor, because they can mistreat the workers knowing the workers won't complain (they would be deported).