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With President-elect Donald Trump promising to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants when he returns to the White House in January, California farmworkers, many of them undocumented, are worried about what could happen to their lives. We are preparing for certain changes.
California farmers said they hope whatever the plan turns out to be, their workforce will not be hampered by the policies of the second Trump administration.
“We’re waiting to see if he starts with deporting criminals or deporting people who just crossed the border,” said Joe Delbosque, CEO of Delbosque Farms in Central California. .
Del Bosque said the state’s current workforce is barely meeting needs.
“If there is a labor shortage and we are unable to harvest and send our crops to market, it could impact grocery store shelves,” the farmer said. “Farms could produce fewer fruits and vegetables, leading to higher prices.”
A study by the University of California, Merced and the federal Department of Labor found that about half of California’s estimated 162,000 farmworkers are undocumented. They say ICE raids are not uncommon, but this large-scale deportation will have more serious consequences.
“People are having fewer children, people are getting older, and we won’t have enough people to deal with pandemics, bird flu, climate warming, flood disasters, etc.,” said Edward Flores, a sociology professor at the University of California, Merced. said.
Nonprofits like TODEC Legal Center are working to educate farmworkers across the Inland Empire in hopes that the new administration will consider better labor program options and even a path to citizenship. It is being strengthened.
“They must value immigrant farmworkers who harvest food for everyone and who do not receive any benefits due to their immigration status,” said Luz Gallegos, executive director of TODEC.
California has several options, including H2A, a visa program that allows farmers to hire temporary workers. But farmers said this was not a one-size-fits-all option, as they hoped the government would work with farms and workers to stabilize food supplies.
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