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.“
Isnt this what a national guard should be used for. They should be protecting California crops from Ice. Our country will loss so much in produce because of these ice raids that will ruin billions of dollars of food.
So the national guard should be used to make sure farmers get to keep their slave labor?
ICE shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing, but if farmers paid their workers a living wage this wouldn’t be an issue.
The National Guard should be out picking the crops, defending the nation’s food supply.
These ICE agents who are the same people who love to screech “THEY TAYKIN ER JERRBBZ” are…literally taking people’s jobs
They took our jobs!!!
The US will reap what it sowed and it won’t be pretty.
Source: US citizen, currently
No they won’t. They deported the reapers
The only one we have left is grim.
He’s been here on a work visa for a single hamster soul for decades now.
Trump: … US citizen SO FAR. Shut up or you’ll be covfefed in a second. The US is beautifully great again! Even my friend Putin agrees.
California has a reputation for being liberal, leftist, and progressive… but remember that the vast, overwhelming majority of farmers in the state are as fascist and blindly, religiously Republican as the most red parts of the most red states. They voted for this.
They also voted against slave labor (not only the farmers, but the liberal progressive rest of the state).
Maybe they can get some of those J6 Nazis to go harvest?
Prisons: "hey inmates, we have a field trip for you today!“ …and every other day while we are getting paid for your labour
Why isn’t Lisa Tate being arrested for labor law violations?
Cuz she’s the exploiter. The US only punishes the exploited. Especially if they’re not white.
Bout time for them farmers to pull up their bootstraps and get out into their fields. Get to work! Those pesky immigrants are no longer in your way
And still the morons believe Trumps “Come unto me” bullshit.
what’s wrong? no labor? pay more.
Ain’t no MAGAs running to the field or up the ladders to take these hard jobs at any price.
Even if they paid $25/hour, most white Americans are too lazy to get in the fields.
EDIT: Really triggered the white folks with this one, didn’t I? Oh, you poor, poor little things.
its not even that, backbreaking work will end your career in the field before you can even retire, simply through wear and tear. 25/hr is also abysmally low for that type or work, with little to no benefits, plus there are plenty of other jobs that pays the same or more with less work. are you going to do 12hr/day of backbreaking work.
I already work 12/hr days for little pay. So instead of asking Mexicans why they aren’t picking your food, why don’t you get out there yourself and stop relying on immigrants to feed you?
you’re completely wrong.
Yeah, well then I’m sure I’ll see you out there, won’t I? Or are you gonna continue the racist tradition of near slave labor you grew up with?
It’s not laziness, it’s working conditions. The farms have the golden position. Government subsidies, low overhead for workers, and no one to take action against them because they are illegal. If someone who could actually take action against labor practices on these modern day plantations were to start working there, we’d see a lot more about them in the news. As it stands, it gets looked over because everyone doing the work is brown. Why do you think farms are so quick to jump to the aid of migrant workers when ICE comes around swinging dick? It’s not because they actually give a shit about their workers well being.
This is what frustrates me when Liberals start rallying around illegal farm labor and it’s “economic benefits.” -I think if we’re going to have realistic regulations around immigrant labor then the first priority should start with penalizing the farmers (and other employers) that hire the illegal labor because they don’t want to pay a reasonable wage or maintain a safe work-environment
I’m on the other side of things. I would much rather pass legislation to make it easier for those that are coming into this country to work to find legal work, meaning they either have an easier time with work visas or they have a better path to naturalization. Punishing farmers (or any industry) rarely punishes those that deserve it. Instead we’ll have even more shady practices involving labor, and we’ll also see an increase in food costs.
The punishment to the farms should be that people stop buying their products. We can’t rely on the government to hand out justice, because that really isn’t something they are capable of (as they have proven time and time again). We have to rally together and force these companies to do good or crumble. There has to be a concerted effort from the populace. I understand that may seem impossible, but we are capable of it. Here is an article about recent boycotts that have started to force change in companies: https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycotts/history-successful-boycotts
Unfortunately, it’s a slow machine, but it can make a difference. Put pressure on grocery stores that carry items from farms with known labor issues. Contact your local representative about it. Tell your friends and your family. We often make the mistake in thinking that because we know something, everyone else must know it, too, but that isn’t the case most of the time. When I tell people about the horrors that Nestle has done, or the fact that Tom Cruise movies fund slavery and torture on a global scale through his close association with Scientology, I often find that people don’t know about them. Talk, talk, talk. Don’t make yourself into a nuisance, but get some facts together and have them locked and loaded for when the topic comes up.
Why don’t you do it? (I don’t mean rhetorically, I mean literally.)
They’re rounding up Mexicans at farms, for a start. Besides, if you’re the one eating the food, it should be you out there busting your back. Why do immigrants have to do everything for you?
So pay $50 then.
Do you want to go out and pick strawberries for 12 hours a day all week? It’s absolutely brutal work and why anyone who has an opportunity to do anything else takes it.
Oh no, those poor white Americans, we wouldn’t want to subject them to the near slavery conditions they’ve been subjecting immigrants to! That would be so tragic!
Then pay living wages. It’s hard to feel sorry for you when you’re crying about losing your slave labor.
This is a problem that’s been brewing for a long time. Their business model is untenable at the scale they’re at without relying on near slave labour. Their massive profits come more from scale, than absolute margin, so if they actually payed a living wage they’d be in the red.
So now y’all will have to wait until the coming food shortages drive up prices before the pay is enough to interest other Americans that’d otherwise have no interest in those sorts of jobs.
The owners won’t play ball without getting their pound of flesh.
We could subsidize the farms that grow actual food crops picked by humans at a high enough rate that the food is affordable and the workers are paid reasonably well. And do that instead of subsidizing farms that grow feed corn, ethanol corn, and grain/soy for export.
That sounds like socialist propaganda boy. Get back to greasing that engine.
Food for humans? That’s crazy, where does the animal suffering comes into play?
Every time a ceo whines about how they “can’t” do something, everyone should add “…without stopping the siphoning of ever more money to our shareholders and ourselves.”
Lisa Tate, farmer in Ventura county who donated $250 to republiQan Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares?
Sen. Valladares who founded a Republican Latino caucus in the CA legislature, saying
the Democratic-led Latino Caucus would support “antiquated solutions” to issues such as farmworkers’ rights that “keep Latinos under the monolithic umbrella of being poor, agricultural workers.” ?
Huh.
That sounds straight-up stupid.
“That’s not the modern-day Latino,” she said.
…The 35-member Latino Caucus, historically led by Democrats after the first Latino lawmakers were elected in 1962, has focused on a wide range of policy priorities, including giving protections and equal access to immigrants regardless of legal status, promoting STEM programs in schools and expanding paid sick leave and housing to farmworkers.
“Even in the Latino Caucus, you have moderates, progressives and everything in between,” Miguel Santiago, a Democratic former Assembly member and Latino caucus member. “But one thing that has always united us through every argument is our unwavering support for Latino communities, particularly those who are undocumented.”
Santiago said that he is “skeptical about the sincerity” of the Hispanic Legislative Caucus representing Latino interests, particularly when it comes to protecting the undocumented and that those differences “are irreconcilable.”
Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood), former Assembly speaker who left behind a legacy of progressive reforms, including giving farmworkers overtime pay and expanding childhood education, agrees that there should be a Latino caucus for each party.
“I never understood why they wanted to be part of our caucus other than obstructing us,” he said. “They would just yell, we’d take a vote, and they’d lose.”
Latinos for Republicans are just brown people begging to be considered white but will always be bean-eating wet backs to Republicans.
While I was initially frothing at the mouth at your comment, and I still think that her donation obviously wasn’t in her best interests, the vast vast majority of her donations on that page are to either libs or labor groups (͡•_ ͡• )
“This is ICE! Round up all your undocumented day laborers”
“Sir, I’m too busy for that right now. If you and your men can help me pick all these tomatoes, I’ll have time to tell you where they’re all hiding.”
— 8 hours later —
“Thanks for helping get all the produce in. As you can see, we no longer have any undocumented day laborers, so now we depend on regular ICE raids to keep the farm going. Have a nice day!”
“They’re hiding the strawberries! Pick them all and you’ll find them!”
Oddly, in some videos where the masked ICE cowards are talking, they sound like Chicanos.
Hah, the reality is they would arrest them for harbouring illegals and beat the shit out of them until they got their answer.
Anything to keep Stephen Miller happy, eh?
Luckily, CA voted to remain a slave state, so we can have affordable food on our plates again soon!
