Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday that immigrant farm workers could be replaced by automation and “Medicaid ‘healthy’ US citizens,” a group representing California farmers and workers said that it was not realistic.
“There is no amnesty. Massive deportation continues, but in a strategic way,” Rollins said. “And we’re moving our workforce towards automation and 100% American participation. This should also be possible with 34 million people in Medicaid healthy adults and that’s pretty quickly.”
Rollins spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses and Atty at a press conference outside the USDA headquarters in Washington, DC. General Pam Bondy. Trump administration officials have announced plans to protect national security by banning “Chinese citizens and other foreign enemies” from purchasing in the United States.
Helen McGrath, a citrus fruit and avocados from a family farm in Ventura County, said Rollins’ comments were shamed.
“I can confidently say that most farmers in this country laughed loudly or that they just settled down on those comments,” she said. “It shows that some of these officials have not been in touch with anything without information about what food production looks like in this country.”
According to 2022 USDA figures, 42% of crop farm workers were not approved for work, with California having the highest share of unlicensed workers.
Immigrant attacks on farms, ranches and dairy farms have recently targeted operations in Ventura County and attacks from other states, such as Nebraska. Many farmers reported that workers remained at home for several days after such enforcement action due to fear of arrest.
Last month, President Trump acknowledged concerns among agricultural industry leaders that recent immigration enforcement is taking away critical workers. It led to a pause of workplace raids in the agriculture, hotel and restaurant sectors.
However, a few days later, his administration overturned the course.
Rollins admitted, “There has been a lot of noise over the past few days and there have been many questions about where the president stands in his vision of farm labor.”
She said when she and Trump spoke about the massive deportation, he agreed that they must implement strategically “to not compromise our food supply.”
Juan Pro Agno, the chief executive of the United Latin American Citizens’ Federation, a national civil rights group, dismissed the Agriculture Secretary’s message and said that her words should not be taken at face value as the Trump administration has turned over.
“I don’t give this much credibility,” ProAnho said. “The President understands that he is under great pressure from the agriculture industry. These workers are truly invaluable in our food distribution system.”
Proaño said the idea that “retreating work in some of the worst conditions” could be replaced by people receiving automation or Medicaid is simply not a realistic plan.
“These are massive conglomerates worth millions of dollars,” ProAgno said. “If they could automate strawberries and oranges, they would have already.”
Mark Bolda, a farm advisor specializing in berry farming on California’s central coast, said automation is not around the corner. There are machines that are particularly difficult with strawberries, as soft fruits tend to be hidden beneath the leaves.
“I think the secretary is overly ambitious,” he said.
The move to automation will require an expensive and ineffective overhaul of strawberry cultivation methods, Bolda said. For example, a large strawberry field should be replaced with a table bed in a controlled greenhouse with a flat floor that serves wheeled machines.
For now, the work of picking strawberries is dependent on humans.
“The growers are testing the machines very actively, but nothing is working,” he said.
In 2023, almost two-thirds of Medicaid-related adults aged 19-64 were working, but more than a quarter were not working due to caregiving responsibility, illness, disability, or school. That’s according to the health policy organization KFF.
Manuel Cuña, head of the Nisei Farmers League, was skeptical of the idea that Medicaid recipients seeking employment were perfect for farm labor.
In the 1990s, he was part of an effort that included leaders in California’s agricultural counties and state workforce, making farm workers’ jobs accessible to those who needed to seek employment under the “welfare to work” program. He said that farmers at the time were desperate for workers. He said this is because many longtime farmers have recently become legal permanent residents under President Reagan’s amnesty program and have sought work in a variety of fields.
But he said the effort was a disaster.
After hardworking outreach, only three people showed up to work, he said. One was late. A second person appeared and returned to the Employment Bureau to say he was injured and he was injured at work.
“We lost our crops,” recalled Cunha. “Fruits are literally rotting on the ground.”
At a press conference Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Noem mentioned his past as a farmer and rancher in South Dakota.
“We recognize that food policy is a national security policy,” she said. “A country that cannot feed itself, it cannot care for itself, and it cannot provide itself is unsafe.”
Critics called her comments ironic, saying the Trump administration takes farm workers for granted and leaves a country vulnerable to food insecurity.
“These deportations and this cruelty have affected workers, their families and their communities, but we will all feel pain,” said President Teresa Romero, United farm worker. “We’re not going to find what we want and what we need, and what we find will be more expensive.”
The Trump organization has submitted four golf clubs and staff at Virginia Winery Marlago since 2008 to submit at least 1,880 foreign workers under the temporary visa program, Forbes reported.
In an interview with Fox News last month, Trump said his administration is working to develop a “temporary path” for migrants working in agriculture.
“We’re going to do something for the farmers, where we can have the farmers in charge,” Trump said. “The farmers know. He’s not going to hire a killer. When you go to the farm and he’s working with someone who does this kind of work, it’s something to do and a lot of people aren’t going to do that — and you’re going to destroy the farmer because you took everyone away. That’s the problem.”
Asked about Rollins’ comments later Tuesday, Trump repeatedly said, “There is no pardon.”
“What we’re doing is eliminating criminals, but we’re doing a work program,” he said.
Rollins pointed to the H2A visa program and other seasonal workers programs, saying that conversations about temporary farm work continue.
Civil rights group LeLac launched a petition on Friday, urging the Trump administration to legalize important workers, including people in the agricultural and services industry. The petition, according to the organization, collected 100,000 signatures 24 hours after it was published.
Proaño said he plans to visit Washington in the coming days to have “some open dialogue” with the administration. He said the president himself expressed support for the legal channels sought by the petition.
“We essentially take the President’s own words and calls for his actions and show that there are many people who support it,” he said. “I hope he finds a place to do something about it.”
Industry groups, including industry groups that advocate on behalf of the agricultural business, are asking Trump for a reprieve.
Ryan Jacobsen, CEO of the Fresno County Farm Bureau and almond and grape farmer, said he was caught off guard by Rollins’ comments and took a different to Trump’s previous remarks.
Jacobsen said that farmers in Central Valley not only embraced automation, as their secretary suggested, but also knew its limitations.
“Fresh peaches still need a pair of hands to cut it from the tree,” he said. “Table grapes still require sensitive hands that employees remove from the grapes.”
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