New Immigration Laws in Florida

[MD555]

I was speaking with my lawyer about hiring undocumented employees or grooms on estas in my farm with this new law July 1. He advised me of the many penalties I will endure if I employ any undocumented grooms and get caught. If they get hurt at work and have to go to the hospital there will be major consequences for me. The company that flies my horses from Europe can no longer have grooms on a flight if they only have an ESTA and not a proper P1 work visa. My lawyer told me if I pay for their commercial airline ticket to fly over to work on esta and not a work visa I can get in serious trouble. How are these new laws going to effect the industry in Florida? I am very concerned about the repercussions.

[John Gotti]

Very stupid post!! Why don’t you just pay the help what they are worth and hire LEGAL help, instead of ILLEGAL Aliens that you take advantage of. And just because you call them “Undocumented“ doesn’t make them legal.

[Hunterdiva]

I have permanent legal help myself but I find during winter season when it’s busier and I need extra help it’s super hard to find legal help. I am also curious how serious this new law is and how it will effect the industry with grooms.

[newcomer]

Very stupid post!! Why don’t you just pay the help what they are worth and hire LEGAL help, instead of ILLEGAL Aliens that you take advantage of. And just because you call them “Undocumented“ doesn’t make them legal.

It is almost impossible to find help in the horse show industry. EVERYONE is looking for employees ... legal or not. It is long hours, frequently 7 days a week, sometimes extremely cold or extremely hot weather, lots of travel. Many "legal people" don't want to work that hard. FYI, the show barns that I know pay an acceptable living wage and (most) clients tip regularly and generously. Trust me, good help is considered a valuable asset and treated accordingly. And, at the present time, becoming "legal" can take an endless amount of time. How do you support yourself and your family while the wheels turn ever so slowly?

Hiring foreign employees can be difficult due to Visa restrictions. The European grooms sign contracts with their employers regarding duties, hours, and compensation.

The new legislation in Florida is impacting not only the horse industry, but the farming industry, the migrant worker industry, the landscape industry, the restaurant industry, etc.

The new law is going to be problematical ... just wait and see. Remember "Alan Chesler, please meet your party at the food court"?

[CountingStrides]

There are plenty of Legal options for grooms and help. But honestly the white girls that take those jobs are used and abused by employers cause they "love horses" and its not "just a paycheck" to them. One the average Illegals make more than legal citizen white girls. Don't tell me I'm wrong about that cause I know I've seen it done to me personally and to many others. I've seen many chased out of the industry by awful barns and trainers with a hostile work environment, or people that slave you and have a hard time paying. I think this law should be a wake up call to people. We need to treat out employees better. Pay them more. Give them more time off. Just treat them like a straight up person. If you did you wouldn't have such a hard time finding legal help. I've been around plenty of barns that only employed white girls cause of the legality and they paid better attention to detail. Those barns never have a hard time keeping staff and replacing them when the time comes.

[newcomer]

There are plenty of Legal options for grooms and help. But honestly the white girls that take those jobs are used and abused by employers cause they "love horses" and its not "just a paycheck" to them. One the average Illegals make more than legal citizen white girls. Don't tell me I'm wrong about that cause I know I've seen it done to me personally and to many others. I've seen many chased out of the industry by awful barns and trainers with a hostile work environment, or people that slave you and have a hard time paying. I think this law should be a wake up call to people. We need to treat out employees better. Pay them more. Give them more time off. Just treat them like a straight up person. If you did you wouldn't have such a hard time finding legal help. I've been around plenty of barns that only employed white girls cause of the legality and they paid better attention to detail. Those barns never have a hard time keeping staff and replacing them when the time comes.

Can you please elaborate regarding the "plenty of legal options" available??? Thanks.

[CountingStrides]

There are plenty of Legal options for grooms and help. But honestly the white girls that take those jobs are used and abused by employers cause they "love horses" and its not "just a paycheck" to them. One the average Illegals make more than legal citizen white girls. Don't tell me I'm wrong about that cause I know I've seen it done to me personally and to many others. I've seen many chased out of the industry by awful barns and trainers with a hostile work environment, or people that slave you and have a hard time paying. I think this law should be a wake up call to people. We need to treat out employees better. Pay them more. Give them more time off. Just treat them like a straight up person. If you did you wouldn't have such a hard time finding legal help. I've been around plenty of barns that only employed white girls cause of the legality and they paid better attention to detail. Those barns never have a hard time keeping staff and replacing them when the time comes.

Can you please elaborate regarding the "plenty of legal options" available??? Thanks.

Sure! There are tons of people that are already legal citizens of the US that are grooms. And if you can't find one willing to work for you, you can obtain work visa for one that's from another country. If you can't afford it maybe it's time to get out of the industry.

[Hunterdiva]

It used to be easier to obtain visas. Apparently this new law makes it much more difficult. You can’t even bring anyone on a B1 or an ESTA. Has to be a proper P1 or O. Those are extremely expensive and require a lot of paperwork and for the grooms to have many letters of recommendation and proof that you can’t find just as qualified staff that are American.

[MST]

he new law is going to be problematical ... just wait and see. Remember "Alan Chesler, please meet your party at the food court"?

Omg I almost forgot about that! That and code Sunshine

[SayItAintSo]

he new law is going to be problematical ... just wait and see. Remember "Alan Chesler, please meet your party at the food court"?

Omg I almost forgot about that! That and code Sunshine

Hahaha. Code for Immigration Officials, now called ICE. We just blare the song "Ice Ice baby" over the grounds now.