California farmers were big Trump backers. They may be on collision course over immigrant deportation
California farmers were big Trump backers. They may be on collision course over immigrant deportation
If Trump's plans for mass deportations penetrate California’s heartland, it almost surely would decimate the workforce farmers rely on to plant and harvest their crops. So, why aren't farmers yelling in protest?
Summary
California farmers, many of whom supported Trump, face a potential crisis as his immigration policies threaten mass deportations of undocumented workers, who make up at least half of the state’s 162,000 farm labor force.
Deportations could devastate agriculture, leading to labor shortages, unharvested crops, and rising food prices.
Farmers hope for solutions such as workforce legalization or expanded H-2A guest worker programs, though these have been criticized for exploitation risks.
Historical parallels to programs like “Operation Wetback” and the bracero system highlight possible labor and human rights challenges ahead.
-
Oh no, farmers lose the indentured servants they've been threatening with deportation for years!
Fucking morons. Enjoy getting your hands dirty.
-
Lol.
Didn't he have to bail farmers out last time due to his horrendous policies?
And farmers didn't learn?
That's pretty stupid? Is our food safe?
-
The bailouts ensured they didn't have to learn. The only thing better than selling a product for money is selling less product for the same amount of money because the government subsidized you to offset their shitty policies.
-
is our food safe
Yes, as long as the water holds. I have 200 lbs of rice and veggies in every window. Should supplement me enough to survive. Might be enough to share out.
Edit: oh shit, you meant supermarkets? Lol, no. That shit's gonna rot I'm the fields, unless we use slave labor.
-
-
My Uncle is a close friend of Jeff Landry (R-Louisiana) and voted for Trump.
Constantly would demonize illegal immigrants with all kinds of vitriolic accusations. Then would immediately brag that his hydro seeding company is making so much profit because he hires almost exclusively illegal immigrants and pays them peanuts under the table.
I've reported him to the state numerous times but nothing ever gets done (remember who he is close friends with now...)
I hope he goes out of business. I hope it ruins him.
-
Thank you for trying, I hope it ruins him too
-
-
Hello Fuck Around, have you met my friend Find Out?
-
Sadly these rich farmers won't find out anything... They'll say there's shortages because of the deportations, whether there actually are or not, and will jack up prices to more than cover their profit at consumer expense. They fuck around, WE (and the
slavesimmigrant farm workers) get to do the finding out.
-
-
Still wild the conversation NEVER turns to the people employing undocumented workers and instead demonize the workers themselves.
-
The point isn't to actually deport these people, it's to give their employers and landlords a powerful tool to exploit them and prevent them from benefitting from any social services.
-
Yep, the more precarious their legal status, the more compliant they are. This is all about suppressing labour rights.
That's why the Republican playbook regarding the border was always just talk, and Trump somehow doesn't get that it was always a scam to get the votes of the racists without ever seriously planning to follow through.
If all farm workers were legally in the US, they'd form unions right off the bat, especially since a strike during harvest season is going to fuck over a farmer financially within days.
-
When you put it like that, it sounds like slavery with extra steps.
-
-
Yup. A place that my wife worked at employed at least one undocumented immigrant that got picked up by CBP. Did the company gave any fines or legal issues? Nope. But the undocumented employee had to pay a few thousand in fines and was never deported.
-
-
Poor farmers they have to actually get their hands dirty. Poor guy.
-
But, but I though undocumented immigrants were lazy?! How can they both be lazy and take all the jobs?!
-
Schrodinger's immigrant
-
Don't forget they're also criminal murderer drug dealers. They take all the jobs, and steal everything, sell everyone drugs, then kill them all, but they're lazy about it. /s
-
-
They don't even remember that the leopards ate their faces last time...
-
Leopards ate their hippocampus
-
Their hiphoppocampus, His lyrics are canyonus
-
-
-
MAGA when they realize they are part of the collective America and are just as responsible for making it greater as anybody else.
-
Well, that sucks. Oh well.
-
Its just another fafo, nothing to see
-
California farmers are some of the most ignorant people I have ever encountered.
-
I'm guessing the reason they didn't want to say who they voted for is cognitive dissonance.
-
Woah there. That's a pretty damned broad brush you are painting with. In fact it's a pretty damned ignorant comment.
Do you think EVERY farmer in California is a Republican and/or Trump supporter?
Edit: Before you down vote (but of course feel free), kindly consider this: 89% of all farms in the US are small-scale family farms with less than $350k revenue (note that profit margins in farming hover around 10%). A growing number of new farms are organic/sustainable/agroecological. These are not Trump-supporting people, ffs. Please ask yourself what purpose it serves you to over-generalize and angrily shake your fist at ALL farmers as if somehow all farmers are conservative. All you are doing is furthering the industrial food systems narrative of farmer=bad. Think about it.
-
As someone who comes from a rural area and whos ancestors were made up of farm owners, farmhands, and engineers who worked with both the two previous most, modern farmers especially those fucking profligates in the central valley are dumb as shit and ignorant as all hell. They are highly traditional in the worst ways, my ancestors figured out drip farming for orchards over a hundred years ago yet its championed by those mouth breathers as some great breakthrough.
-
-
-
Didn't we do this one already last time? It obviously didn't hurt enough to keep them from doing it again...
-
Too bad it's mostly the cities here declaring themselves as sanctuary cities for the undocumented. Weird that Latinos make up such a huge majority in the central valley, too, but haters gonna hate and boy does rural CA love to hate.
-
It's because they can use it as a threat to keep the workers cowed.
-
Fuck the farmers who voted for Mango Mussolini and I hope the damn ICE raids their shit. Mango Mussolini will fail to break former President Obama's, Deporter-in-Chief, deportation record.
-
-
They are probably hoping for more work availability and higher pay for themselves if they don't have to compete.
-
FAFO
-
Wah, wah, waaaaaaaaaah….
-
Reap what you sow.
Double entendre intended.
-
Fuckin' dumb-dumbs. FAFO.
-
Everyone of these supporters needs to pay.
-
I'm glad you're getting what you voted for dumbasses.
-
HR-4319 is right there.
-
Ha ha!