According to reports, the Trump administration’s plans to deport millions of undocumented migrants currently in the United States could severely impact U.S. agriculture, among other industries, and thus reduce the U.S. food supply and raise grocery prices.
For example, in an ABC News report, Mass Deportations Could Upend Agriculture Industry, correspondent Martha Raddatz interviewed farm owners in California’s Central Valley, which produces 25 percent of the U.S. food supply. According to the report, the Department of Agriculture has estimated that about half of U.S. farmworkers do not have legal status. In the Central Valley, that constitutes more than 330,000 workers, according to estimates.
One farmer, Joe Del Bosque, said that his farm’s labor supply was already stretched thin and that they cannot afford a labor shortage. He noted that when there have been labor shortages, crops have been unharvested and lost. Mr. Del Bosque said that U.S. citizens do not want to perform that type of work in “extreme conditions” like 100+-degree heat and dust. He said California grows about 50 percent of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts for the entire country.
The head of a farmers and farmworkers trade association in the Fresno area, Manuel Cunha, Jr., said that California pays some of the highest wages in the nation for farm work, but U.S. citizens still will not apply, so higher pay is not the issue. He attributed U.S. citizens’ unwillingness to perform farm work to the toughness of the work: “It ain’t gonna happen. They’re not going to get up at 4 or 5 a.m. in the morning, drive to the field, and pick fruit.” He also distinguished between undocumented migrants who are criminals and those who are otherwise law-abiding and in some cases have been working in the United States for decades without incident.