2007年VOA标准英语-US Small Businesses Concerned About Immigration

By Meredith Buel
Cambridge, Maryland
13 June 2007

President Bush is urging members of the U.S. Congress to resurrect a bill designed to reform the nation's immigration policies. The bill has stalled in the Senate and lawmakers are negotiating compromises they hope will put the measure back on the agenda. In the meantime, businesses that hire immigrants are anxiously following the discussions, fearing that a lack of congressional action could force their companies to close. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel reports from Cambridge, Maryland, on one small business that depends on foreign workers to survive.

For more than 100 years the J.M. Clayton Seafood¹ Company has processed crabs³ from the nearby Chesapeake Bay and sold the sweet tasting meat to seafood connoisseurs⁴ throughout the United States.

Everyday watermen from Maryland's picturesque⁵ Eastern Shore maneuver⁶ their boats to the company's docks and unload thousands of crabs destined⁷ to be steamed and picked by mostly Mexican workers who have traveled thousands of kilometers to do the hard work. "Without the temporary workers we close. We close for one year, we close for good. It is the end of what we do," he said.

Jack⁸ Brooks⁹, the owner of the seafood company, has spent years trying to hire U.S. workers to pick crabs. Picking crabs by hand is the best and most efficient method of removing meat from the hard-shelled crustaceans¹⁰.

It is a tedious job that requires workers to sit in a metal chair for up to nine hours a day, lasts only eight months a year and pays about 15-thousand dollars for the entire season.

Brooks says most local people prefer to work elsewhere. "I would love to employ our domestic workers here. Just have the local folks come work, like the old days, but with all the opportunities they are just not here, they are not here and available," he said.

Now Brooks spends much of his time filing paper work with state and national labor¹¹ officials and the Department of Homeland Security.

They must approve the immigration applications for workers like Olga Gonzales, who left her four-year-old daughter and aging parents behind in Mexico to work at the seafood company. "It is very hard to find work where she lives in Mexico and it is very, very little money. Next to nothing," she said.

Thirty-two-year-old Consulo Martenez leaves her family behind in Mexico because she can make between 70 and 100-dollars per day picking crabs.

She sends most of the money home to feed and clothe her two children and elderly grandmother. "We no can find good job in Mexico. We find this place and we try to make some money for the family, to support the family. In Mexico it is too hard because sometime people get sick and we don't have money to go to the hospital. We no can find a lot of money over there, so we come here," she said.

The Mexican immigrants are hired by the seafood company under a guest worker program that U.S. Senators voted to reduce in size and then eliminate after five years.

Those votes appeared to upset the delicate bipartisan balance behind the legislation and soon after the bill was pulled from the agenda.

Jack Brooks' son, 28-year-old Clay Brooks, who represents the fifth generation of his family to work in the seafood business, says immigration reform is needed soon or he and his father's 100 Mexican workers will be looking for new jobs. "We need it. It is more important than anything right now. You will have a lot of small businesses collapse¹². A lot of people would be upset, devastated¹³, if this does not go through," he said.

The immigration measure would increase U.S. border security while providing a path to legal status for millions of illegal immigrants already in the country.

Jack Brooks says the temporary guest worker provision must be included in the legislation. "It is critical. We hang in the balance of what the folks in Washington decide to do, and if it is not favorable or kind to us, we burn, we are done, we close," he said.

Expensive, waterfront homes have replaced many of the old crab² houses on Maryland's Eastern Shore and the Brooks family fears that soon an entire culture and traditional way of life may be lost.

The fate of this small business and its Mexican workers is now in the hands of lawmakers in Washington.

1 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

2 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

3 crabs   

n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 connoisseurs   

n.鉴赏家，鉴定家，行家( connoisseur的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Let us go, before we offend the connoisseurs. 咱们走吧，免得我们惹恼了收藏家。 来自辞典例句
• The connoisseurs often associate it with a blackcurrant flavor. 葡萄酒鉴赏家们通常会将它跟黑醋栗口味联系起来。 来自互联网

5 picturesque   

adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的

参考例句：

• You can see the picturesque shores beside the river.在河边你可以看到景色如画的两岸。
• That was a picturesque phrase.那是一个形象化的说法。

6 maneuver   

n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略

参考例句：

• All the fighters landed safely on the airport after the military maneuver.在军事演习后，所有战斗机都安全降落在机场上。
• I did get her attention with this maneuver.我用这个策略确实引起了她的注意。

7 destined   

adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的

参考例句：

• It was destined that they would marry.他们结婚是缘分。
• The shipment is destined for America.这批货物将运往美国。

8 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

9 brooks   

n.小溪( brook的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks gave the business when Haas caught him with his watch. 哈斯抓到偷他的手表的布鲁克斯时，狠狠地揍了他一顿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ade and Brooks exchanged blows yesterday and they were severely punished today. 艾德和布鲁克斯昨天打起来了，今天他们受到严厉的惩罚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 crustaceans   

n.甲壳纲动物（如蟹、龙虾）( crustacean的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• These crustaceans provide a valuable food source for some fish. 这些甲壳纲动物是某些鱼类重要的食物来源。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• When the tide ebbs it's a rock pool inhabited by crustaceans. 退潮时，它便成为甲壳动物居住的岩石区潮水潭。 来自辞典例句

11 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

12 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

13 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。