Talk to any farmer, and they’ll tell you it is difficult work.
Now, many of America’s farmers must face the possibility of the Trump administration uprooting a huge part of the workforce with its threat of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants.
“It’s a lot of hands to hand-harvest fruits and vegetables,” New Jersey farmer Kurt Alstede said.
It’s still unclear exactly how Trump’s mass deportation plan would affect farm workers.
CBS News reached out to the White House for comment, and it reiterated the president’s commitment to “deporting migrant criminals.”
Talk to any farmer, and they’ll tell you it is difficult work.
New York dairy farmer Nate Chittenden told CBS News, “This is a 24-hour job.”. As a result, I need people who are open to working in shifts throughout the day. “.”.
Chittenden, however, claims that finding those workers is challenging.
All of this is happening as American farms are shrinking. According to the U.S., farms decreased by 7% between 2017 and 2022. A. roughly 142,000 fewer farms in just five years, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Climate change, bird flu outbreaks, and rising feed and fertilizer prices are just a few of the issues farmers are dealing with as they try to maintain their operations. Many American farmers now have to deal with the prospect of a significant workforce displacement due to the Trump administration’s threat of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants.
According to Kurt Alstede, a farmer in New Jersey, “harvesting fruits and vegetables by hand requires a lot of hands.”.
Over two thirds of U.S. S. According to the USDA, crop workers are foreign-born people. 42 percent of the workers are undocumented migrants, according to officials, although many of them entered the country on H-2A visas.
President Trump has taken numerous executive actions since taking office to begin changing federal immigration and border policies. It is anticipated that many of them will encounter serious legal obstacles, but the administration has instilled uncertainty and fear in the community.
The labor union United Farm Workers reports that the number of migrants seeking assistance has already increased.
“The threats are frightening, but farm workers more than anyone else realize that this work cannot be completed without them,” Antonio De Loera, director of communications for the UFW, said.
While his employees are legally permitted, Alstede told CBS News that he is closely monitoring Mr. Trump to see what his administration will do next.
“Anything that happens from a policy standpoint that reduces people in our workforce is going to make it very difficult for industry and certainly for agriculture,” Alstede stated. “A workforce loss would put us in serious trouble. “.
Diane Charlton, an economist at the University of Montana, says fewer workers may mean less domestic produce.
“There will be fewer fruits and vegetables grown domestically, but consumers may not notice a significant impact in the grocery stores because we have been importing a lot of these foods already,” Charlton stated.
The precise effects of Trump’s plan for mass deportations on farm workers are still unknown. When CBS News contacted the White House for comment, the administration reaffirmed the president’s pledge to “deport migrant criminals.”. “.”.