Alabama is among the short list of states to pass laws modeled after Arizona’s controversial SB 1070—Arizona, Indiana, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Utah. Many are saying that Alabama’s is the toughest yet, including provisions that make it a crime to rent property to illegal immigrants and give them a ride, and requires schools to check the immigration status of new students. Like the other states to have passed similar laws, Alabama’s new legislation requires local and state law enforcement to check the immigration status of any suspect and requires all businesses to check the status and employment eligibility of those they hire through an online federal database called E-Verify.

While civil and human rights groups challenge the law in civil court, the best case scenario is to get the provision requiring law enforcement officials to inquire about immigration status thrown out, and farmers in the state are mostly worried about the E-Verify aspect of the law. Some estimates put the number of undocumented agricultural workers nationwide between 50 and 70 percent and a law requiring farmers to check their employee’s status would effectively shut them down. Alabama’s neighbor, Georgia, has already experienced a mass exodus of farm workers since their immigration law (which includes an E-Verify mandate) took effect. Farmers in that state say they have lost 40 percent of their workforce and crops are rotting in the fields. They think Georgia farmers could stand to lose between $300 million and $1 billion this year alone. Agriculture is Alabama’s largest single industry and farmers are saying, even though the law hasn’t even gone into effect yet, that they are having a hard time finding enough workers.

Alabama farmer and president of the Alabama Farmer’s Federation Montgomery County chapter, Bill Cook, is already seeing a labor shortage. He recently put out an add for a landscape manager, a well-paying position requiring some skills. This year, he only had two applicants. Cook says that in a normal year, such a position would come with dozens of applications. Cook has said, “We want secure borders and we work to comply with the federal rules but this new immigration law is robbing us of the skilled labor we need in the hardest economic times most growers have ever faced.”

It is common knowledge among farmers that U.S. citizens will not take farm jobs. They don’t want to work the long hours in the heat. A Georgia program dedicated to lowering the unemployment rate while addressing farm labor shortages required Georgia citizens on probation to work in the fields. Most walked off after 2 hours. Doug Chapman of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, an outreach organization dedicated to helping farmers among other things, has said, “I can tell you that all of my growers are concerned. The bottom line is there is no local labor, period. A lot of my growers say they never had a local person come by and apply for a job.” Chapman added, “Some people here would rather sit at home and collect welfare, but these immigrants are eager to work long hard hours for a better life.”