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.“
what’s wrong? no labor? pay more.
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.
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.
