The hard line taken by President Donald Trump against undocumented immigrants in the US has worried the country’s agricultural industry. They fear a crackdown that will take away the labor they need to plant, grow, and feed the crops that keep the nation fed.
Cattle and dairy farmers, vineyard, and plant nursery owners, as well as fruit and vegetable growers, have started lobbying politicians in their local areas and in Washington to come up with a solution to the country’s immigration problems that does not result in a threat to their livelihoods. Trump-voting Republicans are among those farm leaders, torn between wanting leniency for laborers without criminal records, while still wanting greater border security.
Farmers make more use of undocumented immigrants as labor than any other industry in the US, says a study from the Pew Research Center. Undocumented immigrant workers account for 46 percent of the approximately 800,000 crop farm workers in the country in the last few years. This is according to an analysis of US Departments of Labor and Agriculture data, conducted by the Associated Press.
A 2012 study from the US Department of Agriculture found “significant economic implications” in the notion of stepping up the number of deportations of undocumented immigrants. It suggested that there could be a fall of over four percent in vegetable production if the unauthorized US labor force shrank by as much as 40 percent. The American Farm Bureau Federation says higher food prices would also likely result from stricter immigration enforcement.