As the Associated Press reports that “large-scale immigration raids at packinghouses and fields in California are threatening businesses that supply much of the country’s food,” the Trump administration how is saying that current mass deportation efforts will not focus on people working at hotels, farms, meatpacking plants and restaurants.
Axios writes that the administration is “bowing to pressure from businesses that have been warning of economic devastation – and is opening the door for potentially millions of workers who are here illegally to stay after all.”
The AP story points out that “dozens of farmworkers have been arrested recently after uniformed federal agents fanned out on farms northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura County, which is known for growing strawberries, lemons and avocados.
Others are skipping work as fear in immigrant communities has deepened.”
Axios writes that “Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called Trump to say farm groups were increasingly concerned that the stepped-up immigration raids would lead many reliable workers to be arrested — or stop showing up for work, out of fear.
“Their conversation, the sources said, led Trump to post a message on Truth Social on Thursday saying that immigrants in the agriculture and hospitality industries are ‘very good, long time workers.’
“He hinted at exceptions for such workers here illegally, saying: ‘Changes are coming’.”
KC’s View:
I was watching a TV news report the other day filed by a reporter who was standing in front of a strawberry field. He said that he’d been told by the field’s owner that in normal times, it will be filled with people harvesting the strawberries, but the threat of deportation – not to mention ICE helicopters flying over the property – had scared people off. There were few people picking berries, which almost certainly was going to lead to problems further down the road if the situation continued.
I have to imagine that lot of retailers depending on the flow of fresh foods such as produce and meat will breathe a sigh of relief about this apparent shift in priorities. Any kind of disruption in the supply chain is not acceptable to shoppers – just ask anyone who has been in a Whole Foods during the past few days, dealing with a ton of out-of-stocks created by the cyberattack on supplier UNFI.
Shortages create price increases. Inflated prices create restive customers/voters. That’s not really good for anyone.
This decision – which I think is the right one – underlines the enormous dependence of the US economy on the immigrant – documented and undocumented – population. Few people would argue with the need to deport undocumented people who are committing crimes against society, but the degree to which much of the economy is built upon undocumented US residents highlights the need for the kind of nuanced and comprehensive immigration reform that our lawmakers have been unable or unwilling to achieve.
Even if philosophically one would agree that anyone who has come into the US illegally should be sent back and forced to go through normal processes, doing so – as the new Trump administration shift makes clear – may create too many economic waves to and hurt too many businesses to be feasible.
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