Island Coffee farms looked at by ICE officials.

[Kapoho Joe]

Adios amigo!

[PaulW]

Are these the bad hombres we've been hearing about?
You can't deport them all at the same time, so why not start with the ones not paying taxes or running businesses.

[Johnd]

These farmers are breaking every law and they know it. They pay third party crews that bring in Central Americans through the border and ship them all the way to a Hawaii. Once here their passports are confiscated, they sleep in ramshackle coffee shacks and during picking time they work 14 hour days without stopping 7 days a week. They can make upwards of tens of thousands of dollars per season. They fill 100 lb burlap bags that they have to carry to the pick up trail. The women end up being for grabs and generally the local women shelter takes care of them, they end up with 4 or 5 kids from different fathers that make you me and the rest of society pay for. They generally end up looking dozen of years older but they go back home to all those properties they buy with the money they make. Mind you, no social security, no workmans comp...enjoy your Kona Coffee brought to you by the "plantation bosses" of the Kona Coast

jdo

[Kapoho Joe]

Thank you Johnd. Maybe soon we will reject the businessmans mantra that "nobody local will work for such a pittance". If you cannot pay enough to attract legal labor, than you should not be in business.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

These farmers are breaking every law and they know it.

Johnd,
Is your description of Kona coffee farm worker abuse true for every farm on the Kona Coast? Some of them? 50%? 10%? One? Do you know the names of the farms and the brands of coffee that treat their workers as you noted, so we may discourage their business model by refusing to purchase their product?

[Rob Tucker]

A lot of uniformed talk...

[Tink]

Hard to believe that a farmers overhead, no matter what he grows legally can afford flights from the mainland for a dozen or so workers, even at charter rate if they were to co-op expenses on the plane. The larger farms have to explain everything to the IRS via bookkeepers and accountants, and it is not worth the fines to them for using undocumented workers if caught.

Community begins with Aloha

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

can afford flights from the mainland for a dozen or so workers

Thanks Tink, for a real financial reality check.
Or will we now hear that coffee workers are sent here on rafts... and are given a string and fishhook to catch their own meals on the way...

[snorkle]

Yes the green card marketing (for local Hawaii coffee pickers)was an Obama administration thing, and also a Trump thing (at least they're trying).....


Sorry I forgot how to do the link shortcut thingie.
(http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/...china.html)

[PaulW]

Johnd, if the farmers are breaking laws then why don't you call the police?
Can you name even one of these farms? Seems you know a lot about it.