Jamaicans latest migrant workers in Brewster orchards

Published 10:06 pm Tuesday, June 1, 2010

BREWSTER — The panic is over.

Five months after Gebbers Farms fired an undisclosed number of undocumented workers during a federal audit, Jamaican guest workers have started to flow into Brewster to fill some of the jobs.

That’s a welcome sign in this town, where residents who held jobs here for 10 and 20 years were suddenly let go following the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement action in December.

Months later, some say the impact wasn’t as great as they feared. Many people stayed, or left and came back. The school district — which prepared for a major drop in student numbers — reports that enrollment remained steady, currently at 912 students.

Even if some of those fired moved away to find work, some businesses believe the worst is over. And with new workers arriving, there’s a renewed hope that business will continue to pick up.

Long reliant on immigrant labor, Brewster is happy to see new faces in their grocery stores, and in the thousands of acres of orchards that surround this small Columbia River town.

People here are accustomed to migrant labor. This time, instead of workers from Mexico, they’re seeing Jamaican men who are all staying at a newly built Gebbers Farm camp a few miles northeast of town.

The camp is made up of rows of bright white buildings separated by walkways, and flanked by a large building where dozens of men eat, wash up after their evening meal, or sit at a long central table to watch a big-screen television at one end of the room.

Some were reluctant to talk late last week.

But those who did had few complaints, despite the cold and rainy weather so distant from their tropical island.

“I know it’s going to get hot, like, next month,” said Leon Campbell, outside the doorway of one of the farmworker houses.

Campbell, 39, said he misses his 16-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son back home in St. Mary, Jamaica. “I call and I speak to them like twice a week,” he said.

The work in the orchards is “very hard,” he said. A builder and mason in his homeland, Campbell said the living facilities are good, and he’s happy to have the work. He wished that Brewster were a little closer to Seattle. “This is the last spot in America,” he said.

Clifton Brown, 33, said back home he’s a farm worker, also from St. Mary. As for coming to the United States, “It’s all about work, you know,” he said. After just 15 days here, he already decided, “I love it here. I look forward to next year.”

The men hesitated when asked about pay. “Today is only eight days,” Campbell said, indicating he was still waiting for his first paycheck. He said food prices seemed high. “We go by the supermarket. Each day the prices go up. That is extortion,” he said.

Both said they had never been to the United States before. Campbell had worked in Canada.

Gebbers Farms— a family owned business that operates a packing house and 5,000 acres of orchards — declined to talk about changes in their labor force.

Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said he was told that the Jamaican guest workers were coming in stages, and would eventually number about 300 workers.

“I think it’s excellent,” he said. “They’re a really good group. Really polite and fun to talk to. It’s amazing to me — they’re gone so long from their families. That’s what I think would be hard,” he said.

Brewster Mayor Lee Webster said the guest worker program is one solution to the immigration issue. He said the Jamaican workers are here until Oct. 1.

“We’re glad to have them. Why not?” he asked, adding, “I’ve seen some of the guys out on the street. They’re friendly as all get out.”

Business owners said that after the massive firings at Gebbers just after Christmas last year, people stopped spending money.

“That was very painful. Very painful,” said Robert Webster, owner of The Music Store on Brewster’s Main Avenue. “It lasted quite a while. I think the panic of it was as bad as anything,” he said.

Many people stopped spending money because they worried about the impacts of suddenly having so many people out of work. Gebbers Farms would not say how many people were fired, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wouldn’t comment on whether Gebbers had been audited. Rumors ranged from a couple hundred to a couple thousand people fired.

Webster said he doesn’t know if the corresponding drop in business can be attributed solely to the job losses.

“It hasn’t come back to pre-event norms,” he said.

Enrique Campos, owner of La Moda clothing store, said his sales are still very low, and he doesn’t expect that guest workers will bring his business back to where it was.

He said guest workers, in general, aren’t likely to buy as much as local residents.

“They come in to work, but they don’t spend money. They keep it all to send home,” he said.

Campos said many of those who were fired left because they were afraid of deportation. He heard some moved to Pasco to find work.

But some say their business has already come back, even before the Jamaicans arrived.

“It did plummet, for about two months. Then it went back to normal,” said Johnine Moore, a hair stylist at Kacena’s Style Carrefour on Brewster’s Main Avenue.

Esteban Camacho, who manages La Milpa, a grocery store and bakery on Brewster’s Main Avenue, said he’s getting some added business. He cashes checks and said he had a long line of Jamaicans lined up one payday.

“They come in here to get a phone card, and they like some kinds of food we sell here,” he said.

As for business, “Everything is back to normal,” he said. “I think most of the people who stayed here wound up working somewhere else. There are a lot of the same people around. I’m pretty sure they’re settled.”