UPDATE: Although I've heard another explanation from a reader for the supposed lack of farm workers. Rather than being caused by renewed enforcement, this supposed shortage could in fact arise from a breakdown in enforcement: undocumented laborers have more flexibility in finding jobs, so they are less attracted to low-paying farm work. See this paragraph from the story linked above:
For now many farmers, fearful of the prospect that fruit will wither on the vine, are signing up for the federal guest worker program that they had long dismissed as too costly and cumbersome. The current program, used by less than 10 percent of the state's farmers, requires that farmers provide housing, pay nearly $1,000 for each worker's transportation and pay an hourly rate of at least $9.02 an hour. It also requires reams of paperwork so complex that many hire an outside company to do it for them, and each worker must clear a host of checks from the Department of Homeland Security.Though this story does emphasize that these shortages began to occur around last fall, about the same time the Bush administration began increasing its enforcement enforcement efforts...Maybe it could be a little of both: unauthorized workers have more flexibility in finding jobs, so they're less attracted to agriculture, but recent efforts at enforcement have dried up the present labor pool just a little?
