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The fate of rural Wisconsin and the states struggling dairy industry depends on the fate of immigrant workers, according to speakers in a Monday Cap Times Idea Fest panel.

The conversation, How immigration is transforming rural Wisconsin, was moderated by Ruth Conniff, editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner and author of the new book MILKED: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers.

Conniff spoke with two of the protagonists from her book, dairy farmer John Rosenow and his long-time employee Roberto Tecpile, along with Christine Neumann-Ortiz, founder and executive director of immigrant workers center Voces de la Frontera.

Twenty-five years ago, Rosenow said, he and his fellow Wisconsin dairy farmers were in the same position that so many restaurants and factories find themselves in now, struggling to attract and keep enough workers. He tried all the usual methods, from posting job ads to trying to recruit the employees of local farm supply stores.

I would go up to them and tell them, Well pay you more to come and work for us, but they wouldnt do it, Rosenow said. Nobody wants to work on a farm. They think the lowest job you could possibly have is to be a farm worker.

In a 2018 photo, Roberto Tecpile, left, a farm worker from Veracruz, Mexico, and John Rosenow, owner of Rosenholm dairy farm, pose for a portrait at the farm in Cochrane. Rosenows farm participates in the Puentes/Bridges program, a nonprofit organization that arranges annual trips to Mexico to help foster better understanding and relationships between farmers and their workers.

So, reluctantly, Rosenow began hiring immigrants from Mexico. It wasnt easy, he said, since he didnt speak Spanish and knew little about Mexican culture.

And it wasnt easy for the immigrant workers either, since the only visas available for agricultural workers in the U.S. are seasonal, designed for workers who harvest crops, not those who milk cows year-round.

The vast majority of people who are working on dairy farms in Wisconsin as immigrants arent here on a visa because there is no visa for that, Conniff explained. It seems like it would be relatively easy to fix to simply acknowledge an economic situation that's been going on for decades, that we rely so heavily on (year-round workers).

Living undocumented in Wisconsin comes with a variety of other challenges and risks, from not being able to visit family back home to fearing arrest every time time one gets behind the wheel. Immigrants in Wisconsin have been ineligible for drivers licenses since 2007, when, following the passage of the federal REAL ID Act, Wisconsin passed a law requiring legal status to receive a license.

People who work in construction or restaurants and have to go from the restaurant to their homes, its more difficult for them to get around, Tecpile said, explaining that he thinks of access to drivers licenses as a top priority for undocumented residents.

The fate of rural Wisconsin and its dairy industry depend on the fate of immigrant workers, according to speakers in a Monday Cap Times Idea Fest panel.

For years, Voces de la Frontera has been pushing the Legislature to grant drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants again, but such legislation has been defeated repeatedly. Neumann-Ortiz said the organization plans to hire a full-time organizer to focus on achieving state policy changes, to complement its work on promoting federal immigration reform.

She sees both opportunity and threat in the current political moment. It seemed like there was a real chance for immigration reform with President Joe Bidens Build Back Better social spending plan, she said, but the plan didnt pass. Meanwhile, the country is increasingly polarized, making it harder to rally bipartisan support.

The biggest thing we need is immigration reform, and it continues to (be) used politically as opposed to really just understanding the workers, the families, the communities, the economic need and the contributions, Neumann-Ortiz said.

As Rosenow sees it, the immigrant workers have saved his farm and those of some of the hundreds of farmers who called him after learning hed found an answer to their shared labor shortage. He even helped launch Puentes/Bridges, a nonprofit that takes U.S. dairy farmers to Mexico to learn about Mexican culture and even introduce farmers to the families of their own workers.

He believes immigrant workers will be the future of rural communities like his, just as immigrants from across Europe like his own Swiss ancestors helped make Wisconsins towns and farms what they are today.

It just makes sense that the new wave the people that want to live on farms and work on farms and find that work honorableare going to be the people that will be our successors. And I hope in my lifetime that I'm able to help them along with that, Rosenow said.

I would really, really like it, when I'm being carted off to the place I'm going to die that I can be comfortable in knowing that the farm is being run by my employees, my immigrant employees. That is my goal.

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Cap Times Idea Fest: How immigration could save the dairy industry - The Capital Times