On the Hill, Isle's Livelihood Crawls Along

[Snowden]

They won't let our legal Mexicans in to pick the crabs. We need them; they need the work. But our government sees fit to allow only illegal aliens in. Why?

DocDiggs sent me this and I tracked down the URL. This is something that smells to high heaven, in my opinion. Maryland's blue crabs are the best in the world, as any Marylander will tell you - soft or hard, they can't be beat. This year we have a bumper crop and the government is making it almost impossible to harvest them.



On the Hill, Isle's Livelihood Crawls Along
Bay Residents Anxiously Track Bill on Crabbing Labor


By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 2, 2005; B01


FISHING CREEK, Md. -- The people of Hoopers Island have learned to be patient with unpredictable things. Dependent on the Chesapeake Bay, they must wait for the weather to warm up, wait for fish to swim into their nets, wait for blue crabs to stir from their winter burrows.

But none of the waiting prepared them to deal with the U.S. Congress.

Since last week, the attention of this low-lying, isolated island has been riveted on Capitol Hill, where a balky conference committee is considering a measure that could re-start the island's crab-processing industry.

A vote was supposed to come Wednesday. It didn't.

Then it was supposed to be on Thursday. Delayed again.

Last week, as the committee's fits and starts have been relayed here by phone, the islanders have gotten a quick lesson in the unhurried, idiosyncratic workings of Washington.

Even for people at peace with the mysterious rhythms of nature, it has been enough to make them agitated and anxious.

"It's uncalled for, really," said Jay L. Newcomb, the general manager at the A.E. Phillips and Son plant, when he heard that the vote hoped for on Thursday hadn't come.

Actually, that was the second thing he said. His first reaction was unprintable.

The measure that the islanders are waiting for is an amendment by Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D) that was attached to a bill funding the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The legislation would raise the number of immigrant "guest workers" allowed into the United States for seasonal jobs.

The measure is important to Hoopers Island because the crab-processing plants on the Dorchester County island have come to rely on immigrant labor. Plant owners have said that nowadays, U.S. workers simply won't do the painful, low-paying job of picking meat out of steamed crabs.

This year, the national cap of 66,000 visas per year was reached before many Chesapeake processors got in their applications. Other seasonal businesses, such as tourist resorts and the lawn care industry, snapped them up before the crab processors were allowed to apply.

That's left much of Hoopers Island -- which natives pronounce HUP-ers, like "suppers" -- in suspended animation.

Many of the crab houses have had their walls painted and their boilers tested in preparation for the season, but they remain quiet and empty without workers.

"This time last year -- today -- we would have been going gung-ho. We would have had 30 girls down here picking crabs," said Harry Phillips, the owner of Russell Hall Seafood, in his dark and unswept picking room. "It would be so much going on here right now, and it's just not happening."

The processing houses support a web of jobs -- watermen, truck drivers, shop owners -- that include many of the island's 400 residents. All of them are nervous: Methodist pastor Joseph Kelly said it's been the biggest test of faith here since Hurricane Isabel flooded the island in 2003.

"It's not just a business. It's a whole community" at stake, he said. "It's a whole way of life."

Hoping for a fix from Congress, a few men from the island went to Washington in March. One thing they discovered immediately, they said: "Capitol Hill" isn't a euphemism -- it's an actual hill, quite a steep one in fact.

"By the time I got to the Senate building, I thought I was having a heart attack," said Sonny Ruark, of Charles H. Parks and Co.

But the lobbying seemed to work: Two weeks ago, with a group from the island watching from the gallery, the Senate voted 94 to 6 to approve Mikulski's amendment.

Back here, the TV set in the Island Pride grocery was tuned to C-SPAN for the first time that people could remember, and news of the victory spread quickly.

"My wife called me and said: 'They voted! They voted!' " Phillips said. "Everybody was so happy."

Then the waiting began. The House bill contained no mention of the guest workers, so the difference had to be worked out in conference committee.

The committee met Wednesday, adjourning after an hour without voting. The visa provision, one among many riders on the bill, was not even mentioned, congressional officials said.

Then came Thursday, when hopes for a vote were even higher. Folks on the island had heard news reports that President Bush wanted the bill on his desk by the weekend.

The meeting was supposed to start at 2:30 p.m., but even before then, Newcomb was on the phone.

"Have they voted yet?" he asked Jack Brooks, a Cambridge, Md., crab processor who has been leading the lobbying. Newcomb hung up. No.

Two hours went by. Newcomb, who is also the school-bus driver, picked up his load of kids and ran them home.

The news came about 4 p.m. No vote. The committee had adjourned again after an hour.

"I don't see how people deal with this stuff over in Washington," Brooks said later. "In business, you've got to make decisions. If you've got to get something done, you get it done and move on."

On Sunday, congressional officials said it seemed likely that the debate would stretch into the weekend, or even into next week.

At the same time, another unpredictable force was turning: the weather. Before, a cold spring had kept crabs dormant, so people didn't feel as though they were losing too much business. But things are getting warmer now.

"It's kind of starting to hurt a little bit now," Phillips said.

While they wait, some islanders also worry because Mikulski's bill is only temporary, lasting for two years.

After that, they could be waiting on Capitol Hill again.

"I wouldn't want to continually be going through this year after year," said Janet Ruark, at Rippons Brothers seafood. "The work is enough."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...050100829.html