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.
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
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.
The industry only relies on cheap labour because farmers aren’t getting their fair share of the upstream profits.
It’s almost as if we’re seeing the end result of decades of bad immigration policy.
Maybe if everyone knows a law sucks, and no one obeys the law because it sucks, and a huge chunk of our ability to not have famine is based on not obeying that law… maybe, just maybe that law should change to one that people can obey without anybody starving to death.
cue Spongebob meme
There’s bad guys all around but this is not “both sides the same”. Adding a new evil does nothing to resolve the situation. How about finding a way that respects human rights and doesn’t disrupt the economy? How about looking at actual facts on undocumented immigrants and act on the the most common or most egregious rather than the most brown skin? How about supporting those who are avoiding persecution in their home country?
Instead of ICE raids directed against sanctuary cities, very likely to be racist, with the intent of political revenge and instilling fear, how about:
- reform migrant worker laws to address the actual needs, prevent exploitation, and enforce against the employers who violate
- speed up processing and protection for those fleeing violence
- enforce student and other visa types who over-stay their status
This would be more comprehensive, respect human rights, avoid racism, and improve compliance with the laws. It focuses on results rather than partisanship or instilling fear
To be fair, this only affects people who eat.
/s
Thank you for genuinely making me laugh amidst this horror show.
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)
Two days. That’s how long it took.
Well it won’t bother Trump supporters at all until they discover oranges suddenly cost $12 each. Then they’ll throw tantrums hoping Trump will notice and sign an executive order reducing orange prices to $0.05.
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.
You are not wrong, but I don’t really think abusing the disenfranchised to the extent that they aren’t getting paid at all while food rots away is what I would call a “good path” to living wages.
First off, no one is getting living wages for the work yet, and we have no evidence to suggest they will.
Secondly, even if this does lead to that, maybe we could have found a path forward without all the unnecessary added suffering?
I dunno, it just feels really fucked up to be spinning this like the only outcome is “living wages” when all it has actually done so far is cause additional harm.
Nah, they’d rather the country starve and they go under than do that
And basic amenities like places to poop, pee, wash your bands and getting raped more gently. Thanks fellow immigrants!
Costco has a peach fire sale! Just $59.99! Per slice! It comes a glass bottle with 3 peach’s in sugar! All American made materials and food. The glass is so strong, you can drop it. That’ll be $543 and 73 cents please! Yes the glass does break when you drop it, we’re just saying that it’s strong and you can drop it, if you want.
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.
No one will learn anything. They’ll blame it on someone as always. “Democrats want higher minimum wage so it forced companies to hire immigrants”.
There is always a way to blame it on someone else and idiots will always believe it if someone keeps repeating it.
I’ve a feeling that you’re probably a lot closer to reality on this than I am.
His real estate deals have always been a shitshow, how can anyone sane expect him to handle a national situation
Some people used to put “Biden did this” sticker on everything. In a few… months? weeks? I can see a trend of “you all did this” stickers popping up.
I did that - Trump
Can we stop blaming Trump for companies hiring undocumented workers so they can pay them less? I hate the guy but he didn’t cause this. We can’t allow companies to bypass laws by not paying benefits and taxes to employees.
Then they should hire Americans
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?
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.
This is brilliant. Absolutely this should be a thing.
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.
So put a gun to their head and steal it
Yeah, you’re right. We should just abuse the ones already here by putting them in concentration camps- oh wait, that’s the plan!
No the plan is to deport them
Where do you think they will put them before they can be deported? You do realize they can’t just stick them on a plane, right? Deportations have to be negotiated, and the country might not want to take them back. So they need to concentrate them in a camp or camps until such time as they can deport them. If they can ever be deported.
I’m pretty sure there’s a term for a camp where people are concentrated. What do you think that term might be?
Prison, where criminals are kept
Which prison has room for the 20 million people Trump is planning to deport? Please name it.
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
All part of the plan…
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.
You’re sure doing hard work in this thread today… Speaking of fair wages, I hope you’re paid handsomely for your efforts.
Otherwise you’re just a fool for shilling for capitalism for free.
Yeah you own me $100
Pretty sure the idea is to use prison labor.
