Trump’s immigration crackdown has made many immigrant farm workers scared to go to work
Lisa Tate is a sixth-generation farmer in Ventura county, California, an area that produces billions of dollars worth of fruit and vegetables each year, much of it hand-picked by immigrants in the US illegally.
Tate knows the farms around her well. And she says she can see with her own eyes how raids carried out by agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in the area’s fields earlier this month, part of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, have frightened off workers.
“In the fields, I would say 70% of the workers are gone,” she said in an interview. “If 70% of your workforce doesn’t show up, 70% of your crop doesn’t get picked and can go bad in one day. Most Americans don’t want to do this work. Most farmers here are barely breaking even. I fear this has created a tipping point where many will go bust.“
California has a reputation for being liberal, leftist, and progressive… but remember that the vast, overwhelming majority of farmers in the state are as fascist and blindly, religiously Republican as the most red parts of the most red states. They voted for this.
They also voted against slave labor (not only the farmers, but the liberal progressive rest of the state).
They wanted to keep THEIR illegal workers. They just wanted everyone ELSE’S to be deported. Hypocrisy is live and well in the US.
The US will reap what it sowed and it won’t be pretty.
Source: US citizen, currently
No they won’t. They deported the reapers
The only one we have left is grim.
He’s been here on a work visa for a single hamster soul for decades now.
I heard hes now endebted to a couple of kids becsuse of it.
Trump: … US citizen SO FAR. Shut up or you’ll be covfefed in a second. The US is beautifully great again! Even my friend Putin agrees.
The way things are going, “US citizen” is about to get changed to “US subject”.
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Isnt this what a national guard should be used for. They should be protecting California crops from Ice. Our country will loss so much in produce because of these ice raids that will ruin billions of dollars of food.
So the national guard should be used to make sure farmers get to keep their slave labor?
ICE shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing, but if farmers paid their workers a living wage this wouldn’t be an issue.
The National Guard should be out picking the crops, defending the nation’s food supply.
I can definitely agree there
if only ICE forced the owners to pay a fair wage, “wait no thats communism!” better arrest the workers instead its easier
Initially I thought you meant the National Guard should be planting/picking crops…
No, that’s the National Gardeners.
Wish the corps and field owners hiring undocumented immigrants for chump change would be penalized. These farm workers are doing intensive labor and deserve way more pay.
Better yet, put every maga asshat out in the fields. This is exactly what they wanted right? Immigrants out of US jobs. I’m sure they are lining up right now.
I’ve got an idea, what if the landowners loaned plots of the farm to smaller farmers, and those farmers would pay off that loan by sharing their crops with the owner? you could even manage your conditional employees with an app, called Tuber or something
Maybe they can get some of those J6 Nazis to go harvest?
Prisons: "hey inmates, we have a field trip for you today!“ …and every other day while we are getting paid for your labour
These ICE agents who are the same people who love to screech “THEY TAYKIN ER JERRBBZ” are…literally taking people’s jobs
Make food greatly expensive again! Thanks trump!
And still the morons believe Trumps “Come unto me” bullshit.
Pack on a few pounds now. Food’s about to get cripplingly expensive
They took our jobs!!!
DEY TERK ER JERBS!
US agriculture will collapse and the void will be filled by Silicon Valley tech bros with their vertical farms backed by VC money. Elon Musk’s brother owns a vertical farming business and Peter Thiel has invested in lab grown meat companies. Remember the goal of these techno fascists is to create sovereign territories aka “Freedom Cities”within the US, and agriculture is vital to make such a thing a reality.
Lol
If you needed the labor you would do something, protest or talk to your rich friends to stop it.
But since neither you or the US citizens don’t really care, don’t complain.
Those articles are a spam, lead to nothing that we already know.This is bringing all the liberals out. Why are you ok with underpaid labour?
This brings that, this brings this, Trump said that, Trump did this. Not worth the spam since you change nothing.
I have no clue what you’re trying to say.
Then pay living wages. It’s hard to feel sorry for you when you’re crying about losing your slave labor.
This is a problem that’s been brewing for a long time. Their business model is untenable at the scale they’re at without relying on near slave labour. Their massive profits come more from scale, than absolute margin, so if they actually payed a living wage they’d be in the red.
So now y’all will have to wait until the coming food shortages drive up prices before the pay is enough to interest other Americans that’d otherwise have no interest in those sorts of jobs.
The owners won’t play ball without getting their pound of flesh.
We could subsidize the farms that grow actual food crops picked by humans at a high enough rate that the food is affordable and the workers are paid reasonably well. And do that instead of subsidizing farms that grow feed corn, ethanol corn, and grain/soy for export.
Food for humans? That’s crazy, where does the animal suffering comes into play?
In the field. We already addressed that. Humans pick the food in 104° weather in late June/July/August when the wet bulb globe temperature is 95+
That sounds like socialist propaganda boy. Get back to greasing that engine.
Every time a ceo whines about how they “can’t” do something, everyone should add “…without stopping the siphoning of ever more money to our shareholders and ourselves.”
what’s wrong? no labor? pay more.
Have you seen American history? We will do anything we can to not have to pay for labor. Even after slavery, using gray area immigrants has been commonplace for well over a century. Anything to save a buck.
The best outcome at this point would be to build machines that can harvest all the various unique crops to break the cycle, we may even be technologically advanced to finally do it, if we don’t destroy ourselves first.
How do other countries handle food harvesting labor? I’ll research in parallel, but curious, I’ve never actually thought about that question before.
capitalism. the problem is not american history but instead capitalism. it needs to go.
Ain’t no MAGAs running to the field or up the ladders to take these hard jobs at any price.
Even if they paid $25/hour, most white Americans are too lazy to get in the fields.
EDIT: Really triggered the white folks with this one, didn’t I? Oh, you poor, poor little things.
its not even that, backbreaking work will end your career in the field before you can even retire, simply through wear and tear. 25/hr is also abysmally low for that type or work, with little to no benefits, plus there are plenty of other jobs that pays the same or more with less work. are you going to do 12hr/day of backbreaking work.
I already work 12/hr days for little pay. So instead of asking Mexicans why they aren’t picking your food, why don’t you get out there yourself and stop relying on immigrants to feed you?
You should try that farm labor, some fresh air might be good for you.
you’re completely wrong.
Yeah, well then I’m sure I’ll see you out there, won’t I? Or are you gonna continue the racist tradition of near slave labor you grew up with?
go fuck yourself. labor costs what it costs, and that’s the “free market” at work, you capitalist piece of shit.
What the fuck are you talking about, you idiot? You advocate for racist wage slavery for the “free market”, then call me a capitalist as an insult? Are you some kind of very confused AnCap? Or just a particularly stupid liberal?
where do i advocate for wage slavery? i advocate for labor being paid what it demands. labor decides. not the corps.
do you have me confused with someone else?
seriously. or maybe you did not see sarcasm in my first reply?
i am for labor being paid what labor demands. i could not care less about profit for the corps because profit is stolen wage
It’s not laziness, it’s working conditions. The farms have the golden position. Government subsidies, low overhead for workers, and no one to take action against them because they are illegal. If someone who could actually take action against labor practices on these modern day plantations were to start working there, we’d see a lot more about them in the news. As it stands, it gets looked over because everyone doing the work is brown. Why do you think farms are so quick to jump to the aid of migrant workers when ICE comes around swinging dick? It’s not because they actually give a shit about their workers well being.
This is what frustrates me when Liberals start rallying around illegal farm labor and it’s “economic benefits.” -I think if we’re going to have realistic regulations around immigrant labor then the first priority should start with penalizing the farmers (and other employers) that hire the illegal labor because they don’t want to pay a reasonable wage or maintain a safe work-environment
I’m on the other side of things. I would much rather pass legislation to make it easier for those that are coming into this country to work to find legal work, meaning they either have an easier time with work visas or they have a better path to naturalization. Punishing farmers (or any industry) rarely punishes those that deserve it. Instead we’ll have even more shady practices involving labor, and we’ll also see an increase in food costs.
The punishment to the farms should be that people stop buying their products. We can’t rely on the government to hand out justice, because that really isn’t something they are capable of (as they have proven time and time again). We have to rally together and force these companies to do good or crumble. There has to be a concerted effort from the populace. I understand that may seem impossible, but we are capable of it. Here is an article about recent boycotts that have started to force change in companies: https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycotts/history-successful-boycotts
Unfortunately, it’s a slow machine, but it can make a difference. Put pressure on grocery stores that carry items from farms with known labor issues. Contact your local representative about it. Tell your friends and your family. We often make the mistake in thinking that because we know something, everyone else must know it, too, but that isn’t the case most of the time. When I tell people about the horrors that Nestle has done, or the fact that Tom Cruise movies fund slavery and torture on a global scale through his close association with Scientology, I often find that people don’t know about them. Talk, talk, talk. Don’t make yourself into a nuisance, but get some facts together and have them locked and loaded for when the topic comes up.
Yes, that sounds very much like a Liberal take.
" Punishing farmers (or any industry) rarely punishes those that deserve it"
When did that last happen?
Goddamn, another gop cocksucker. Blocked.
Well, some of the GOP ARE Liberals, although, A few are theocrats. Your loss.
Why don’t you do it? (I don’t mean rhetorically, I mean literally.)
They’re rounding up Mexicans at farms, for a start. Besides, if you’re the one eating the food, it should be you out there busting your back. Why do immigrants have to do everything for you?
Kinda sounds like you’re too lazy.
Ah, I see. I triggered you by calling you lazy, so you turned around and called me lazy. Well played, liberal. Well played.
I wasn’t insulted until you called me a lib
You’re calling an immigrant lazy for not going to the places ICE is looking. Thats like calling Anne Frank lazy for not leaving the house you ghoul, you should be insulted more.
So pay $50 then.
Do you want to go out and pick strawberries for 12 hours a day all week? It’s absolutely brutal work and why anyone who has an opportunity to do anything else takes it.
Oh no, those poor white Americans, we wouldn’t want to subject them to the near slavery conditions they’ve been subjecting immigrants to! That would be so tragic!
