Flutterby™! : Immigration links OTD

Must. Freakin'. Read.: My Life As An Undocumented Immigrant, Jose Antonio Vargas writing in the New York Times:

After slightly less than a year, I decided to leave The Huffington Post. In part, this was because I wanted to promote the documentary and write a book about online culture — or so I told my friends. But the real reason was, after so many years of trying to be a part of the system, of focusing all my energy on my professional life, I learned that no amount of professional success would solve my problem or ease the sense of loss and displacement I felt. I lied to a friend about why I couldn’t take a weekend trip to Mexico. Another time I concocted an excuse for why I couldn’t go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Switzerland. I have been unwilling, for years, to be in a long-term relationship because I never wanted anyone to get too close and ask too many questions. All the while, Lola’s question was stuck in my head: What will happen if people find out?

Via RC3, which also links to Chris Suellentrop: My (Legal) Editor’s Dream, on how they came to run this story.

Meanwhile, a Georgia crackdown on illegal immigrants is having a predictable effect on farm labor there:

Thanks to the resulting labor shortage, Georgia farmers have been forced to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions, melons and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they’ve done to Georgia’s largest industry.

Via a MeFi thread that touches vaguely on some of the issues of what we (don't) pay for food, the problems with transporting unemployed from where they live to where the jobs are, strong dollars, weak pesos, and worker expectations. Alas, mostly with that sort of modern liberal privilege one would expect from that forum.