Summary
Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies, including heightened ICE raids, are disrupting the U.S. agricultural sector.
In California’s Central Valley, a key food-producing region, undocumented farm workers—over half the workforce—are staying home out of fear, leaving crops like citrus unharvested.
Bakersfield saw up to 75% of workers absent, sparking concerns of economic devastation and rising food prices.
ICE is also targeting sensitive areas like schools and churches after rolling back Obama-era protections.
Experts warn these policies could lead to widespread economic repercussions.
Two days. That’s how long it took.
Well it won’t bother Trump supporters at all until they discover oranges suddenly cost $12 each. Then they’ll throw tantrums hoping Trump will notice and sign an executive order reducing orange prices to $0.05.
Nah he’ll just blame wokeness from the radical left and say there’s nothing he can do.
Oh no! The agricultural oligopoly might need to pay employees more to secure a sufficient quantity of labor? Gasp!
Economic devastation is when living wages.
You are not wrong, but I don’t really think abusing the disenfranchised to the extent that they aren’t getting paid at all while food rots away is what I would call a “good path” to living wages.
First off, no one is getting living wages for the work yet, and we have no evidence to suggest they will.
Secondly, even if this does lead to that, maybe we could have found a path forward without all the unnecessary added suffering?
I dunno, it just feels really fucked up to be spinning this like the only outcome is “living wages” when all it has actually done so far is cause additional harm.
I was in Georgia when they enacted the Live scan law. Let me tell you how it went down. Farmers, as in individual/family farms that weren’t owned by large corps, didn’t have the liquidity to pay more for labor. Those small/medium farms went on the news and begged for people to come and work, talking about how they had stuff rotting on the vine and how most folks wouldn’t even finish out their first day. Mid size farmers aren’t exactly poor, but most businesses don’t survive just not having labor and not turning revenue, and by the end of that first growing season, a whole lot of small and mid-size farms ended up selling the farm to large corps or else just outright shutting down.
There is practically zero chance that the farm industry will start paying living wages overnight. They might could do it, given time, oversight, direction, and aid (there’s A LOT of downward pressure on the prices farms sell at), but it’s just not going to happen in one growing season. Realistically, this could be real, real, real bad. The central valley has a huge ag industry, and we grow a LOT of non-grain crops (except corn) for the rest of the country and the world. There’s some crops, like Pistachios, where the central valley is one of two places in the whole world where there’s meaningful agricultural operations for them. We also produce a lot of the good eating oranges (have you ever eaten a Florida Valencia Orange? They taste like eating pure sour armpit, there’s a reason they make them into juice) and other citrus. So, not only are we going to see food shortages (and some pretty specific food supply shortages for the rest of the world), but probably a lot of the farms around here are going to end up being corporate owned, leaving everyone here poorer and worse off than they were before.
Yay capitalism
And basic amenities like places to poop, pee, wash your bands and getting raped more gently. Thanks fellow immigrants!
Costco has a peach fire sale! Just $59.99! Per slice! It comes a glass bottle with 3 peach’s in sugar! All American made materials and food. The glass is so strong, you can drop it. That’ll be $543 and 73 cents please! Yes the glass does break when you drop it, we’re just saying that it’s strong and you can drop it, if you want.
Nah, they’d rather the country starve and they go under than do that
Maybe it will be things like this will start the ball rolling towards the allowing dumber half of America finally see what they stood behind.
So many people are going to suffer for their decision. And while I am generally not the type to wish ill on others, I’m glad that they’re all going to be suffering right along with us. It’s good to know those that caused the oncoming disaster won’t be spared the consequences of their action.
Serves them right.
In California’s Central Valley, a key food-producing region, undocumented farm workers—over half the workforce—are staying home out of fear, leaving crops like citrus unharvested.
This issue is annoying because everyone is doing everything wrong. The workers shouldn’t be here illegally. The government shouldn’t be disrupting the food supply and should maybe loosen up legal migrant worker processes. And the farms shouldn’t be hiring them either.
There’s not really anyone to root for.
There shouldn’t be such a thing as illegal immigration. If people want to come and work, let them. This whole bullshit system and narrative was set up to create a permanent underclass of labor to exploit in the first place.
The problem is, if immigration is uncontrolled, how do you ensure that a place has the necessary and safe infrastructure to support them?
The same way we build infrastructure to support population shifts between states or growth via birth rate. We have a market economy, and in a normally functioning market economy, the market will respond to changes in demand with new supply. Yes, we have issues with our housing supply, but that’s because we artificially restrict our housing supply via exclusionary zoning policies and NIMBYism, not because of immigrants. I’d love to have that conversation if you’re interested, and I have LOTS of media resources to share.
Yeah, but it can take decades to build necessary infrastructure. People move around much faster than that.
So? By that same argument, people shouldn’t be able to move from California to Texas because building infrastructure is hard :( We’ll do what functioning societies have always done and figure it out.
I mean, we can surely root for the workers, no?
Illegal immigration is principally a clerical issue. A problem of documents. If you give them documents, then they’re not illegal immigrants anymore. They’re already doing the labor. They should be given legal recognition and protection.
On the one hand that’s true.
On the other hand it’s up the country to decide who gets those documents. Anyone without those shouldn’t come in.
If more immigration is desirable, then expand legal immigration.
What if the country in question decides to let them in, but without the proper documents, with the implicit goal of getting their labor for cheap? I think the principle of POSIWID applies here (the purpose of a system is what it does). In other words, the system is/was working as intended, and illegal immigration was desired.
I think this is more agreeing than contradictory. If more immigration is desirable, then expand legal immigration.
As you say, a system built around exploiting illegal workers is bad for everyone.
What if the country in question decides to let them in, but without the proper documents, with the implicit goal of getting their labor for cheap? (…) In other words, the system is/was working as intended, and illegal immigration was desired.
This is such an important concept for people to understand. The system was functioning as intended, for better or worse. There are myriad benefits to keeping people in fear, from financial to behavioral. It’s part of the reason why the US is so resistant to the idea of decoupling healthcare from employment, at least until after you reach retirement age. Productivity, baby!!
Also, thank you for introducing me to the idea of POSIWID. I’m going to get a lot of mileage out of that.
I mostly agree. But just because I think they should have an easy path to migrate for work, doesn’t mean they are without fault in the situation.
So what is “their fault” in your eyes?
Fleeing from being murdered or starving? Working twice as much and three times as hard for a much smaller pay, than any “legal” American? Putting in the work, so there is food on your table?
I struggle to see what fault they own.
You’ve been infected by racism towards Mexico without even noticing. The migrant workers aren’t all at risk of starvation or being murdered. There’s just a better opportunity in the US. It’s just a better life, not often so dire as you are making it out to be.
People make moves all the time for opportunity. Nothing special here. It’s not the hellscape you are imagining for these millions of people.
So what is “their fault” in your eyes?
I think it’s reasonable for a country to want to have an awareness of those that cross into their borders. Regardless of their intentions, they did break the law.
Fleeing from being murdered or starving?
We’re talking about temporary migrant workers, not refugees. The refugee situation is also pretty murky and not a black and white issue though.
Working twice as much and three times as hard for a much smaller pay, than any “legal” American? Putting in the work, so there is food on your table?
As much as that sounds noble, it sounds more to me like they’re taking a risk to make money and in turn getting exploited because they’re outlaws. Not a great situation. I think deportation is a reasonable response to that (though fuck ICE and their methods).
What if some highly educated Canadian worker illegally migrated to Germany for a job in IT? They’re accepting a low wage for the job and are doing the noble work of keeping your critical systems running. Is that Canuck completely without fault?
Look, I think the migrant workers are getting the worst hand in this situation here, but you can’t just completely say they’re innocents either.
60% of you Bakersfield fucks voted for this.
May your town go bankrupt.
The results of these actions will affect us far more than those immigrants.
To be fair, this only affects people who eat.
/s
Thank you for genuinely making me laugh amidst this horror show.
i mean… trump sucks…
but if an entire industry relies on exploiting undocumented workers, then i’m not sure trump is the only bad guy here
It’s almost as if we’re seeing the end result of decades of bad immigration policy.
Maybe if everyone knows a law sucks, and no one obeys the law because it sucks, and a huge chunk of our ability to not have famine is based on not obeying that law… maybe, just maybe that law should change to one that people can obey without anybody starving to death.
That would be less profitable.
That’s probably the only good thing about Trump. Trump is so brazen with fucking around that the rest of America gets to experience the finding out part. Trump is fucking with illegal immigration and America is about to find out how much they depend on illegal immigrants (because I doubt it’s only this one industry).
Rip the following things that often have undocumented immigrants working (from my anecdotal experience)
- Farms
- Construction
- Professional painters
- Drywalling
- Carpentry
- Concrete
- Flooring
- Seriously basically every part of constructing a building or infrastructure is supported by immigrant workers
- Fast food
- Normal speed food (restaurants)
- Cleaning services
- Landscaping
- Retail, like gas stations and grocery
- … And many more!
He could offer these immigrants some sort of work for citizenship plan or start treating them like fellow humans.
I mean, I agree megacorps making bank off the back of undocumented workers is horrible, but one way to solve that is to grant them citizenship, let them vote and form unions.
This ^
The answer is open boarders and the elimination of our foreign intervention. All the reasons for hard boarders are antiquated and are used to divide the working class. You have more in common with any working class person from anywhere than any wealthy individual.
Wouldn’t have to be citizenship either, just anything acknowledging them as humans whom are there to work. But Trump doesn’t dö smart
The industry only relies on cheap labour because farmers aren’t getting their fair share of the upstream profits.
Capitalism
Absolutely.
Framing this whole thing as if we would be rallying behind the mega corps who run on (what should be completely illegal) exploitation is a bit weird.
At the same time, let those who immigrated here enjoy the benefits of being a human in America. Our President of the United States of America needs to stop demonizing brown people. Help them instead.
At the end of the day it’s a lose lose situation. Those of us in the states pay more for our food (or just have shortages) and the ones working the field get kicked out.
Lose lose for you maybe… Fuck everyone else I guess.
Both are bad, but this is only making everything worse.
Be a real shame if you had to import all that food from Canada…
lol… all our food is imported from the US and mexico (except a few seasonal fruits and potatoes in the summer)
Ahem, I’m pretty sure you all have enough maple syrup reserves to survive on it as your sole source of food for decades.
yes, but then we will lose all our teeth, because dental care isn’t covered under our “universal health care” system… also, eyes and mental health are not covered… just arbitrary parts of your body they decided aren’t covered under health care.
(and before any pedantic canadians jump in, yes, i know we are rolling out dental coverage right now)
Teeth
You mean luxury bones?
Isn’t it odd that anything that involves the head isn’t covered? Like - it’s one of the most important parts!
You guys have healthcare that doesn’t bankrupt you?
You know, I had to pay $750 to go to a doctor to make an appointment to come back to get something done, which was not the amount of the procedure. It was the 10 minutes it took to pick a date, and to inform me not to eat before.
Most of the US doesn’t count eyes or teeth as “health care” either. You have to get separate insurance for that stuff. It’s an interesting history rabbit hole, but also, come on man, it’s 2025!
That was before the great maple syrup heist of '12. The strategic reserves have never recovered.
For the uninitiated, this was a real event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_Heist
You keep your hands off our maple syrup. Don’t make me slide a hockey puck your way.
I’ll spoon feed it to you. To quote a famous Canadian, who I assume was singing about maple syrup, Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
I did that - Trump
Then they should hire Americans
They’ve tried. They can’t abuse American workers the way they do immigrant workers.
So should we allow immigrants in illegally so they can be abused?
We should institute an agriculture work visa that includes a Spanish language lesson on their rights and go after the corporations that make them work in the fields while pesticide is being sprayed.
This is brilliant. Absolutely this should be a thing.
Then no one would hire them
Well they have to hire someone if they want to make money. If they throw us into a food crisis because we won’t let them abuse people then we’ll just nationalize the fields.
So put a gun to their head and steal it
Okay, now you’re just trying to turn me on.
I wouldn’t be turned on by that. America can legally use prison labor as slave labor.
Yeah, you’re right. We should just abuse the ones already here by putting them in concentration camps- oh wait, that’s the plan!
No the plan is to deport them
Where do you think they will put them before they can be deported? You do realize they can’t just stick them on a plane, right? Deportations have to be negotiated, and the country might not want to take them back. So they need to concentrate them in a camp or camps until such time as they can deport them. If they can ever be deported.
I’m pretty sure there’s a term for a camp where people are concentrated. What do you think that term might be?
Prison, where criminals are kept
Which prison has room for the 20 million people Trump is planning to deport? Please name it.
Looks like all the trolls came out today 🤡
Your side is advocating for it
You should look up what Stephen Colbert did in 2010.
There was an organization that would take any American that wanted to be a farm worker, and connect them with local farms. Even paid decently, better than a lot of wage slave jobs. Not genuinely good, but like $15/hour back then.
As Colbert testified about it to Congress, “Please don’t make me do this again. It is really, really hard.” Americans really don’t want to do it.
This isn’t even the first time produce has rotten in the fields due to a Trump immigration threat. I distinctly remember reading about tomatoes rotting on the vine in the deep south, probably around 2017.
Georgia, when they implemented the LiveScan law around 2011. I was there.
Edit: Shaka, when the walls fell.
All that means is that $15 an hour over the course of a growing season is not enough to support a family and put down roots.
The very concept of “migrant” labor is flawed - its dehumanizing and precarious. People need a means of supporting themselves year around.
Not only do agricultural corporations need to accept slimmer profit margins and higher wage expenses, but an entirely new support structure is required to maintain the workforce in agricultural communities during the off seasons.
Seasonal work needs to be paid as year round work, people have migrated to get work for millenia. If folks were paid properly then this wouldnt be a problem. Hell my 2x great grandfather took great advantage of this by building up a team of seasonal workers who would always come back, also one of them was paid in guns which he then smuggled into Ireland for the revolution.
No I don’t listen to Colbert
Explains why you’re so uninformed and uneducated.
Lol yes because I didn’t listen to a Democrat propagandist
In another comment, I noticed you mention the “hunter’s laptop” fiasco in a way that indicated you’ve fully bought into it.
I’m not too sure you really should be throwing around the “propagandist” accusation at people when you clearly watch Fox News- I mean. Fox… Entertainment.
I don’t have cable
They aren’t willing to pay living wages
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And then food prices go way up.
Right, you’re advocating for slavery
You can pay what you want the average American is not willing to do farm work because they got educated and want to use that education. Picking berries or whatever in the hot sun for 12h isn’t it. Until you start paying so much you raise prices 10x or more and that doesn’t work when you’re in a globalized economy, no one is going to pay $80 for strawberries when they can get them for $8.
More so these workers need to be regulated and that requires some form of legality and documentation.
the average American
is not willing to do farm work because theygot educatedOh, this won’t be an issue for much longer. 😎
/s but not really
All part of the plan…
That should help grocery costs go down, right?!?
Oh right, we should allow them in the country illegally so they can get slave wages to pick cotton… I mean do ag jobs
You’re sure doing hard work in this thread today… Speaking of fair wages, I hope you’re paid handsomely for your efforts.
Otherwise you’re just a fool for shilling for capitalism for free.
Yeah you own me $100
No, we should allow all immigrants. Open the border. I’m not kidding. There can’t be illegal immigrants if they’re all legal.
That’s what’s been going on the last 4 years lol
It literally hasn’t.
It literally has
Source?
So they’re all here as legal citizens? No risk of deportation?
You can’t actually be this ignorant, right?
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Yeah that’s definitely what happened. Except the literal opposite.
No, we should make the process for naturalization reasonable and set honest expectations for cost of living.
honest expectations for cost of living.
And how would you do that?
Statistics, history, systemic research, epidemiological inferences, consult and trust experts in the relevant economic, agricultural, and socioeconomic trends. Ya know…normal stuff that’s has been available for ages, but largely ignored in favor of inflammatory hyperbole.
How Britain almost solved the housing crisis
Spoiler alert: begging and shoving money to the for profit house building industry is not the solution.
I know that, I’m not for subsiding housing
They are gonna arrest them, put them in prison and sell them as slaves back to the restaurant. You been living under a rock?
No they’re gonna deport them
Pretty sure the idea is to use prison labor.
Even California, liberal strong hold, loves slave labor and voted to keep it recently. We are just terrible and we have low standards.
