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.“
Have you seen American history? We will do anything we can to not have to pay for labor. Even after slavery, using gray area immigrants has been commonplace for well over a century. Anything to save a buck.
The best outcome at this point would be to build machines that can harvest all the various unique crops to break the cycle, we may even be technologically advanced to finally do it, if we don’t destroy ourselves first.
How do other countries handle food harvesting labor? I’ll research in parallel, but curious, I’ve never actually thought about that question before.
capitalism. the problem is not american history but instead capitalism. it needs to go.