Fears of immigration raids have caused workers to miss work for California farmers. This comes after the Department of Homeland Security changed its mind on Monday and said it would continue to enforce immigration laws at work in places like farms, restaurants, and hotels.
Ronnie Leimgruber has been a farmer all his life and has land in Holtville, Imperial County. He says that law enforcement hasn’t come to his property yet, but he has heard that some farm workers aren’t showing up for work. It was one of many things that were talked about at a Farm Bureau meeting in Sacramento last week.
“This is making things unclear. “People don’t want to go to work on many farms and packing plants for fear that they will be the next target of an attack,” Leimgruber said.
Recently, videos on social media showed ICE and Border Patrol agents going after and arresting undocumented workers in fields. This put the agricultural industry at the center of immigration enforcement debates.
ICE agents were told to stop doing their jobs at hotels, restaurants, and farms last week, and President Trump himself said that changes were on the way.
At the same time, on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security changed its mind. ICE officials told field offices to keep raiding workplaces.
Leimgruber is still hopeful that farms won’t be targeted. He is on the board for both the California Farm Bureau and Imperial County.
“Generally, the AG industry in the United States supports Trump, supports his policies, and we look forward to working with him through these issues,” said Leimgruber.
Leimgruber says that the bigger problem is immigration reform to fix a long-term lack of agricultural workers. This is because California grows more than half of the food that Americans eat.
“If we’re going to keep the American public fed with cheap, abundant, safe, affordable food, we need agriculture employees, agriculture workers,” said Leimgruber.
