Sacramento nursery hit by immigration enforcement

The Department of Homeland Security – stepping up its enforcement against employers who hire undocumented workers – may cost 71 Sacramento nursery workers their jobs.

The workplace audit came during Matsuda's busiest season. After cold and heavy rains ruined March, the 130-acre wholesale nursery on Florin Road was finally starting to ship hundreds of thousands of pink, magenta and violet azaleas and other spring plants to markets throughout California.

Ten of the 71 workers have supplied new papers "and may be OK," said Matsuda's sales manager Tom Wing. "We told everybody to bring forward their documentation by Friday or you can't work here."

Though the nursery's multimillion-dollar business is being hit hard by an action that could cost them half their workers, "the human toll is the real problem," said an emotional Wing. "Our company's heartsick – we're losing members of our family. Some have been here as long as we have, 22 years or more. They're raising kids, buying homes and cars, paying taxes."

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