The same issue that Georgia farmers had with farm labor is biting the farm community here in Arizona. The basic problem is that for a long time farmers wanted to subvert the free market process by using undocumented laborers at below-market cost. This had become part of the farm economy, and now that these laborers are avoiding Arizona the farmers are in trouble.
The employers didn't want various brown people to live here as citizens, but rather to just work cheaper and not have to be treated as though they have any rights.
LINK
...But many other crops, like the watermelon, still require the care that can be delivered only by human hands — most of which belong to undocumented immigrants....Those numbers won't remain so impressive if labor woes continue. Laws in this state and across the country aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration are one of the reasons for the shrinking pool of field hands willing to perform the delicate yet back-breaking work.While those measures don't aim to shutter farms, they certainly hit at the heart of an industry that relies on a workforce of mostly undocumented immigrants for seasonal harvesting.American workers aren't stepping in to fill the void, even at a time when nearly 14 million people across the country are unemployed. That's because native-born Americans are generations removed from harvesting fields and tend to have higher educational levels.Simply put, they aren't willing to pick crops.
They (US Citizens) probably aren't capable of picking crops at the same rate as the usual labor force. But if the free market had been allowed to set the rate for market labor costs this wouldn't be happening.
Please don't start with Republican talking points about huge increases in the supermarket prices. Labor costs are a small percentage of produce costs in the supermarket.