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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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).
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.
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.
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)
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.
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 aren’t willing to pay living wages
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?
Yeah, you’re right. We should just abuse the ones already here by putting them in concentration camps- oh wait, that’s the plan!
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.
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.
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.
Looks like all the trolls came out today 🤡
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.
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.
No I don’t listen to Colbert
Explains why you’re so uninformed and uneducated.
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
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.
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
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.
They are gonna arrest them, put them in prison and sell them as slaves back to the restaurant. You been living under a rock?
