3-22 IAT Sheep Herders

Executive director of the Idaho Wool Growers Association, Stan Boyd, says there is a labor problem that is disturbing to him. “We bring in the sheep herders legally into the country. There are 2 organizations, Western Range and Mountain Plains, and these organizations recruit these sheep herders. They make sure they have a passport and line up there visas. The wool grower pays their way, buys their airplane ticket to bring them United States. It costs around  $2500-$3000 per man to bring him in. They fly them right in to the Boise airport. They get off the plane and go to work and a lot of them, one week later, they go out and the man is gone. He left in the middle of the night and became one of 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Is it your feeling that these guys coming in from Peru or Mexico are just using this system to get a free ticket to the United States and then jump ship? Do they do it intentionally or do they find when they get here that they just don’t like their job? It’s a little of both.