Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

MARFIL, Mexico -- Jeff West, an energetic American entrepreneur and avid golfer, has a new passion: halting the flow of undocumented immigrants to the United States.

His way of achieving that goal, however, is unconventional and drawing some criticism.

Mr. West has become one of the most aggressive headhunters in Mexico, recruiting thousands of Mexican immigrants to work legally in landscaping and golf courses across the nation.

"America doesn't need new citizens," Mr. West said recently, sizing up dozens of Mexican men waiting to be interviewed for jobs in the United States outside his office in this central town of Guanajuato state. "America needs workers."

Mr. West's views represent what immigration experts call America's deep ambivalence about Mexican immigrants.

As the United States debates how far to open its doors to immigrants, Mr. West is taking a page from history and another from his entrepreneurial playbook.

He is calling for a system based on the bracero program, an agreement with Mexico that brought millions of Mexicans to work seasonally on farms and railroads.

Mr. West, however, insists that such a program would work best with minimal government involvement. He is calling on the U.S. government to dramatically expand guest-worker programs with minimal government interference.

It's a view that, despite some objections, is gaining supporters, including President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox.

Countries in talks

The two governments continue to hold high-level talks aimed at legalizing millions of Mexicans living illegally in the United States. Tens of thousands more immigrants also would be allowed into the United States through temporary permits.

Mr. Bush has avoided talk of amnesty, but he has repeatedly called for ways to "figure out how to make sure willing employers are able to match up with willing employees."

Mr. West is convinced that he has found the way to do that.

Lost in the debate, Mr. West says, is an ongoing demographic shift that has U.S. employers worried about a looming labor shortage that is already affecting some of the country's key industries.

That's an argument that critics such as Mark Krikorian of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, or CIS, rebut as "naïve" and "self-serving."

"It's the same old story," Mr. Krikorian said. "Employers always want more workers to choose from. That gives them more power as it weakens the bargaining hand of the worker."

As for Mr. West's contention of luring workers and not citizens, Mr. Krikorian calls it "pure fantasy. A civilized society like ours cannot create the conditions to get temporary workers to go home again. ... There is nothing more permanent than a guest worker.

"Ultimately, temporary workers become the anchors for families, friends and neighbors who, too, want to come to the United States."

Still, proponents of temporary workers insist that the numbers don't lie, and they warn of a dire U.S. labor shortage that they say threatens America's economic prosperity and its way of life.

By 2010, according to the Census Bureau, baby boomers are expected to be retiring at a rate of 1.5 million per year. And according to the U.S. Labor Statistics Bureau, as many as 167 million jobs are expected to be available with only 158 million workers on hand.

Acute labor shortages in construction in Texas, dairy farms in Vermont, orchards in Tennessee and the service industry from Philadelphia to Dallas have forced many to rely heavily on immigrant workers, labor analysts say.

As much as 50 percent of America's farm workers and 25 percent of household workers are undocumented immigrants, according to a study produced by the Pew Hispanic Center.

"Jobs are being created faster than workers, and our workers are aging rapidly," said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a labor and immigration policy lobbyist for the Washington-based U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "We have a people problem. We simply don't have the people and that's hurting us and it's only getting worse."

As for Mexicans taking jobs away from Americans, Mr. West's business partner, Bob Wingfield of Dallas, says: "I don't see my sons and friends cutting grass, or slapping cement in 100-degree weather in Dallas or Houston, or milking cows in Vermont."

All of which helps explain how and why Mr. West, 40, left behind the stunning view from his tidy fairways and manicured greens in Michigan to become a headhunter in a country he hardly knows.

Guest-worker program

He was once a proponent of tougher borders to keep out undocumented immigrants. He blamed them for many social ills, such as high dropout rates and the draining of social services.

What he has done, however, is redirect his energy for a better controlled border by helping people cross the Rio Grande.

He has been successful at using the H1-B guest-worker program that allows up to 66,000 foreigners to work temporarily in specialized industries that can demonstrate a dire labor shortage. He says he has placed thousands of Mexicans with American jobs in the last several years.

He charges each worker $135 for a process that involves tedious paperwork, notifying state unemployment offices and placing weekend newspaper employment ads for landscaping and golf course jobs.

All the jobs pay the prevailing wage in the region, usually from $7.50 to $12 an hour. Mr. West then travels through Mexican villages, recruiting young men to work in the United States for up to 10 months.

Thanks in part to Mr. West's efforts, there's hardly ever a shortage of workers to do landscaping or to maintain greens at golf courses.

They work across the country, including Beallsville, Md., where a group of men from the state of Puebla toil from sunup to sundown. On their day off, men use two-iron clubs to practice fairway shots.

"What's the big deal?" said a perplexed Marco Antonio Sandoval of Zacatlán, Puebla, as he swung his club. "I prefer soccer."

The perks of his job, Mr. Sandoval explained, are beyond working at a world-class golf course or watching basketball legends Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley tee off.

The beauty is that he is able to zip back and forth across the border without hassles from the U.S. Border Patrol, free from the burden of paying unscrupulous smugglers' exorbitant fees, and without fear of becoming another casualty of the increasingly dangerous U.S.-Mexico border.

"We also get to keep our identity," explained Mr. Sandoval, noting that in prior years as an undocumented immigrant he called himself Francisco, Jorge and Estéban.

He also used phony Social Security numbers to conceal his identity from the U.S. government. "Now I'm Marco Antonio. That's why we're so grateful to el Señor West. He has brought us out of hiding, out of hypocrisy."

Earlier incarnation

To be sure, Mr. West doesn't pretend to be a savior, and the guest-worker concept isn't all that new.

Back in 1942, the Mexican and U.S. governments embarked on an ambitious guest-worker program that lured 3 million workers to help with the labor shortage created by World War II.

The program immediately became mired in corruption and eventually was suspended amid congressional cries of workplace abuses, lack of federal oversight and unsafe working conditions.

Moreover, critics said the program became a magnet for millions of undocumented immigrants who created vast networks that lured their friends and relatives. It's a process that continues today.

Mr. West knows the concerns all too well. Sure, he says, he wants to make a buck, although he says he has yet to make a profit. But money aside, Mr. West says that by regulating a safe, orderly flow of immigrant workers, he is aiding U.S. employers and helping Mexico's economic development.

The transformation of Mr. West, a native of New York City with Irish roots, began accidentally. As a supervisor for one of Michigan's most prestigious golf courses, Mr. West's biggest headache usually centered on securing a stable workforce. He said he lost about 150 workers a month.

Just days before a major golf tournament in 1998, Mr. West lost about 100 workers, all complaining about hard work that included lifting rocks and cutting trees down at $8 an hour.

Mr. West hopped in his pickup truck and began roaming the streets, looking for replacement workers. Thanks to a thunderstorm that had ruined the area's seasonal crops, Mr. West found dozens of unemployed Mexicans at a temporary shelter.

The tournament was saved, and Mr. West found an answer to his labor shortage. The workers weren't just happy with their new jobs, they also demanded longer hours.

He soon changed jobs and began matching employers in the golfing business with employees in Mexico. Business boomed.

Business expanding

In just two years, Mr. West has opened three offices in Guanajuato, Monterrey and Puebla. He said that he expects to open two more by next year.

He predicts that the number of laborers will increase to 20,000 from the current 3,000, one reason he's lobbying U.S. congressional leaders to expand the guest-worker program.

Pointing to the failed bracero program, Mr. West says that milestone effort should be used as a benchmark on what not to do.

For instance, as a private business, Mr. West and his small staff make it a point to talk to every worker to make sure that no one is being exploited.

He and his staff also make sure that employers keep their end of the bargain. That includes paying the prevailing wage and providing free rooms, food and transportation.

When complaints arise, he talks to the employers to straighten things out, or he eliminates them from his list.

"Our reputation is at stake," he said. "Every time someone doesn't succeed, our business hurts."

Not all workers, however, complain. Recently, Mr. West's staff notified Juan Antonio Barba and his brother Sergio that their names didn't appear on the list to return to their jobs in Michigan.

A saddened Antonio Barba walked out of the office and immediately blamed himself for being shunned.

It must have been the night when he took the pickup truck without his employer's permission and drove to the grocery store to buy food, he concluded. When the employer angrily confronted Mr. Barba, a 36-old farmer from Leon, Guanajuato, told him, "We were hungry."

Now, Mr. Barba mused, "These bosses want sheep, workers who don't complain."

His brother, Sergio, countered: "Stop complaining. We have to find work with someone else. Our families depend on us."

Sending money home

Antonio Barba agreed, explaining that a year ago they managed to send home more than $10,000.

That money, he said, is helping pay for a new ranch, additions to the home and eventually a new exporting business. Some day, Mr. Barba said, he doesn't want to have to migrate again. For now, he says, "I'd rather be a sheep than unemployed, or work in Mexico."

Such stories reflect some of the reasons why key Hispanic organizations and some members of Congress are against expanding the guest-worker program. Workers have no rights, they insist, especially after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision reducing legal protections for undocumented workers.

Mr. West, however, sees it differently. While his program isn't perfect, he says, he is constantly seeking ways to improve it. He'll talk to the Barbas' former employer to find out why they didn't make the list.

"Every story has two sides," he said. "Often there are language and cultural problems."

But the Barbas' economic success last year gives Mr. West reason to be hopeful.

"The best way to help Mexico and the United States is to help them find a mechanism so Mexicans can work, make money and return home," he said.

"The alternative now is to break families apart because demand for them in the United States is too great, and it'll become even greater in the future," Mr. West said. "What will we do then? Hire an illegal alien, or go out of business. The choice isn't so difficult."