The Trump administration’s assault on immigrants is starting to hit the American food supply.
In Texas, farmers who have for years depended on undocumented people for cheap labor – to plant, harvest and haul produce – have reported that workers are staying home to avoid raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). In Los Angeles, restaurants and food trucks have been forced to close as the immigrants who cook and wait tables fear Ice and other law enforcement.
“Farm workers in many states are thinking about leaving the country because they are facing more obstacles to work under this anti-immigrant administration,” said Elizabeth Rodriguez, director of farm worker advocacy with National Farm Worker Ministry, a longstanding organization in south Texas. “They are scared, there are fewer opportunities, and they are no longer prospering here. Their fear will soon be seen in the harvest, when the quantities of produce are depleted.”
From farm to table, at least one in five jobs in the food industry is carried out by immigrants, the equivalent of 14 million workers across the sector. This includes 27% of agricultural workers nationwide and 33% of meatpackers. In restaurants, 46% of chefs and 31% of cooks were born outside the US – mostly in Mexico, China, Guatemala and El Salvador.
These jobs are critical: immigrants made up a disproportionate number of “essential” workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, and many were exposed to unsafe conditions so that crops could be harvested, cows milked and takeout delivered.
“Whether it’s the workers behind the scenes in meatpacking plants or on the frontlines of the grocery store, our country relies heavily on the labor of immigrants to keep our food system running and our families fed,” said Mark Lauritsen, international vice-president at United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. “Without a stable, skilled workforce, safety and quality can decline, shelves can sit empty and grocery prices could rise even more.”
Yet food industry jobs, from fields to slaughterhouses and supermarkets to delivery drivers, are notoriously difficult and often low-paid: sometimes as little as $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum wage. Farmhands are often paid only a few dollars per box of tomatoes or cabbages harvested – backbreaking work with no shade. American food companies rely on undocumented people for almost half of the most physical jobs, including the farm laborers who cultivate crops, tend livestock and build fences, as well as the meat processors who slaughter, eviscerate and package at high speeds.
Most Americans understand this. In the run-up to last year’s election, 75% of registered voters told Pew Research that they believed undocumented immigrants mostly fill jobs US citizens don’t want to do.
And now, with Ice raids and mass deportations, these jobs have become even more dangerous. At least one farm worker, Jaime Alanís, a 57-year-old Mexican man, has died after falling from a greenhouse trying to escape armed Ice agents during a raid in southern California last week. In response to these terrifying Ice raids which are spreading and becoming more violent, some farm workers in California are planning a strike in coming weeks and will be calling on consumers to boycott produce.
“It is appalling to see the threat of violence and deportation that immigrant workers face every day. These people play a crucial role in restaurants, and more importantly in the community,” said Elyanna Calle, a restaurant worker in Austin, Texas, and president of Restaurant Workers United. “A raid, a deportation means the destruction of a life someone has fought to build; it means the destruction of families and vibrant communities. I have seen my co-workers fear for their safety, I have seen them go into fight or flight mode at the prospect of an Ice raid – this is not something that any person, any immigrant deserves.”
If the Trump administration oversees even a fraction of its promised mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants, it could lead to major disruptions across the food system: crops left to spoil in the fields, supermarket shelves unstocked, takeout deliveries delayed and food prices soaring even higher. It could also upend rural economies that depend on migrant workers and their families who live, work and go to school in small declining communities.
“All of this will have a huge impact on the rest of us because the immigrant community contributes much more than their labor; they pay taxes,” said Rodriguez. “They invest in the economy, and if they make less money, we all make less, and when corporations make less, they increase prices so we lose again.”
Data for this piece, unless otherwise noted, come from the Migration Policy Institute
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