US farm groups want Trump to spare their workers from deportation
US farm groups want Trump to spare their workers from deportation
U.S. farm industry groups want President-elect Donald Trump to spare their sector from his promise of mass deportations, which could upend a food supply chain heavily dependent on immigrants in the United States illegally.
So far Trump officials have not committed to any exemptions, according to interviews with farm and worker groups and Trump's incoming "border czar" Tom Homan.
Nearly half of the nation's approximately 2 million farm workers lack legal status, according to the departments of Labor and Agriculture, as well as many dairy and meatpacking workers.
"The only moral abortion is my abortion".
"The only moral undocumented workers are my undocumented workers"
Notice a pattern here?
They're not looking at the big picture. When child labor laws get repealed they can hire 10-year-olds at the same cost as undocumented workers. Having 10-year-olds running heavy farm equipment also mitigates abortion bans on the back end.
They don't care that they're hypocrites, it's what makes them right wing conservatives almost by definition. That and lacking empathy, having main character syndrome, and generally being racist or bigoted.
U.S. Representative John Duarte, a Republican and fourth-generation farmer in California's Central Valley, said farms in the area depend on immigrants in the U.S. illegally and that small towns would collapse if those workers were deported. Duarte's congressional seat is one of a handful of close races where a winner has yet to be declared. Duarte said the Trump administration should pledge that immigrant workers in the country for five years or longer with no criminal record will not be targeted and look at avenues to permanent legal status.
Wow, it's almost like when faced with the consequences of your profoundly cruel and destructive rhetoric, suddenly some form of tempered, compassionate approach seems like a good idea. 🙄
Assholes.
They're admitting to using slave-like labor to generate their profits. It goes well beyond rhetoric.
So, I do think what they're doing is shitty, and the way our government handles undocumented farm workers is shitty and immoral, but I also think it's not quite right to call the arrangement "slave-like".
The workers are getting paid, and they're getting paid enough to make them willing to violate immigration law, and in the case of undocumented migrant workers enough for them to enter the country and travel around it, often returning to the same places to work again.
It is very much exploitative and taking advantage of the worse economic situation elsewhere and their willingness to eschew what we consider basic worker protections.
Equating the arrangement to slavery creates the impression that it might be worth it to crack down hard to alleviate the moral injustice of the entire arrangement, despite the impact it will have on everyone involved.
A better tactic that relieves the gross injustice without hurting the people being wronged or ourselves is to make it easier for farm workers to enter the country in a safe way that allows them to benefit from the protections we believe workers should get, as well as the services we provide, like WIC. Amnesty, a path to legal residency or the citizenship process, and a harsher crackdown on businesses that look to bypass those protections.Even the workers don't want the arrangement to end, which tells me we need to bolster the protections they're missing, not end the system entirely.
Duarte said the Trump administration should pledge that immigrant workers in the country for five years or longer with no criminal record will not be targeted and look at avenues to permanent legal status.
Bwah hah hah! Sure, that's something that's going to be coming out of trump's mouth.
Sorry, no, they steal American jobs and undermine society.
Seriously what is wrong with these people? Are they eight years old?
i hate foreigners and socialism, send me my farm bill subsidy and someone to pick my tomatoes at less than minimum wage
They have only one real belief, and that's white supremacy.
That's funny.
US farm groups want Trump to spare their workers from deportation - yet they likely still voted for him.
Pro Palestinian groups want to spare Palestinians from genocide - yet they likely helped to support the re-election of someone who has a concrete track-record of being anti-Muslim and heavily pro-Israeli with explicit statements fully supporting Netanyahu's actions instead of voting for a party who at least meets at the table for peace talks and may be convinced by The People to take a stronger stance in support of peace.
The specific issues are irrelevant (don't at me about Gaza). It's how different people understand and act upon issues and politics differently.
None of that's new though. The U.S. elections have been purely vibe-based for a few decades now. The policy platforms of a given candidate stopped mattering as soon as the electorate forgot how to read.
These nincompoops all think it's the other people they're voting pain on, not themselves. They're welcome to everything they've brought upon themselves.
Oh wow you said “don’t at me about Gaza” 8 hours ago and no self-aggrandizing dipshit has stopped by yet to uhm ackshually you about how the Democratic Party was literally (read: figuratively) shooting Palestinian children in the face. I’d say that crowd might actually have collectively pulled their heads out of each others’ asses, but I think it’s far more likely that Rostelekom is having an outage today or something.
Folks, here's what's happening: fiefdoms and minor lords are the final goal of the GOP. Farmers will have workers who are protected from deportation as long as they are in the farmer's good graces. Likewise, H1B visas already operate like this - as long as you are loyal and useful you are protected from the sanctioned cruelty of the justice system.
Right wing thought does not care or support democracy. They don't want people to be free so much as "free". They want to control other people. It doesn't matter what the laws are when it comes to themselves - they exist outside that system. They have their own country club system. The right wants petty tyrants.
whoch relies upon them being here illegally
Wait what? Ok yeah if the system cant handle paying living wages then yeah fuck those farmers. People still dont deserve to get deported though
Imagine being so bad at running a business that it only works if you have near-slave labor.
Undocumented people who are paid cash don't pay income tax, social security, or Medicare. That allows them to be paid considerably less money, which keeps food costs down nationwide.
And cheap, plentiful food is absolutely essential to the US. Its political stability has always been tied to the economics of farming.
The Civil War was absolutely about slavery, but it was also about economics and food security. The South depended on slavery to keep prices low. There were millions in the South who didn't own slaves and knew slavery was wrong, but were so afraid that the economic impact from losing the free labor would prevent them from putting food on the table that they were willing to kill to keep the evil institution alive.
Look at all the most politically turbulent periods in American history (turbulent as in people were at or near to mass violent revolt), and you'll find food insecurity.
A hungry crowd is an angry mob.
So the US has worked HARD to keep food cheap. While there are people in the US who struggle with proper nutrition and may not know where their next meal will come from, you don't have many people literally starving to death. Food can always be found somewhere. For now.
Now we have an incoming administration that's threatening the food supply. And unlike 1861, there's no "greater good" to justify it. Trump just wants to deport the cheap labor specifically to hurt immigrants because he's fucking evil.
If he goes through with this insanity, crops will rot in the field and grocery prices will quadruple while the prices of imports also skyrocket from tarrifs. We have some really hard days ahead.
Deporting half the farm workers is going to do wonders for inflation, for sure. I'm sure all the people who voted for Trump because of "the economy" will be thrilled.
Couple this with his stupid ass tariffs (which he doesn't understand even a tiny bit) and we're going to see massive Trumpflation. It's going to a riot. Probably literally.
And people will be rioting against the Democrats, of course.
I just hope that when that happens, people don't burn the cities. The cities did not vote for this.
The small towns, and the farmers did. I hope people remember that.
Yeah, this could cause a huge spike in food prices along with everything else. If that happens, its going to hurt a lot of people who cant even afford current food costs.
Especially when one considers that food prices alone have already increased over 20% from pre-pandemic pricing and wages have definitely not kept pace.
I should not have belly laughed the way I did at this. Have fun having your faces eaten and the face eating party. Unless your lobbyists are able to pay enough for the god kings approval.
I still lowkey expect that Cargills of this world with ear of emperor will soften that stance, because it cuts in their profits
So they DON'T want to deport immigrants so that white people can have jobs picking vegetables for less than minimum wage?
🤣
The whole point is they want you to cut a "deal" with the right people. Appealing to their conscience isn't going to work.
Fuck that.
Get what you voted for.
(Yes I'm generalizing, but I'm pretty secure that the whole industry had a majority vote. Those in the industry that don't support it should be active within their industries to avoid such nonsense in the future.)
(And if they voted majority blue, I'm sorry and exceedingly surprised)
Tough shit. You fucks voted for him, this is what you get. You'd think farmers of all people wouldn't need to be told "You reap what you sow" but here we fucking are.
Maintain the right to keeping slaves. They tried this awhile ago. It’s part of their culture.
You don't say.
Shoulda voted Democrat.
Oh wait. You're serious? Let me laugh even harder.
Them leopards is hungry for faces
Nope. Them and H1B ... as much as I hate it... time to pay the piper.
The piper never actually gets paid.
Leopards & Faces, all the way down.
Well, they could pay for the process (and probably make a few donations to speed it up) to make these workers citizens.
Then the workers would have the documentation to get less stressful jobs that pay better.
Only big corporations who either kiss the ring or generate a ton of money and lobby like he’ll will be exempt.
The goal of republicans is to watch out for their clan and get their beak wet doing it. If some republican lawmaker or trump can make money off this they will.
ahahahahahahahahaha
Hahahaha good luck!
This is complicated and it's hard to summarize, but here's what I think we all should do:
- Support small farms by shopping at farmer's markets and/or buying direct. I know it's not always easy to pay the (sometimes) higher cost but know that your money is going to families and fair wages, not corporations. Small farms often do depend on illegal workers but the more you buy from them the better the chance they'll be able to cover their absence or even get them on visas. And - pro tip - there are ways to reduce the costs**
- Wherever possible, plant your own gardens. Do this collectively to maximize yield for any one individual's effort. Take over unused urban spaces and or find or found community gardens if you don't have space.
- Let the leopards feast
** 1. Buying direct means a shorter supply chain and thus much fresher produce which is nutritionally denser and lasts longer 2. Buy only what's in season and what farms have more of - they will usually discount 3. Make friends with farms and/or volunteer some time and you will be blessed with free veggies 4. Go right at the end of market and ask for anything vendors want to get rid of - there are almost always things that won't keep and which they'll sell for much less or even give away.
Buy only what's in season
That gets a lot easier the further south you happen to be.
Not a lot of locally grown fruit and veggies in season for the next 6 months up here in the snowing latitudes.
Not a lot of locally grown fruit and veggies in season for the next 6 months up here in the snowing latitudes.
Oh how we've lost touch with our food :(
Root vegetables and winter squash are available all winter. Carrots will store for a year. Butternut and similar squashes almost as long. Beets, onions, cabbage... Potatoes less so but still 6-9 months or longer. Right at this moment I'm eating some very fresh blackberries that freeze perfectly along with some pears that I picked over a month ago and which will last probably until January. Later today I'm going to make a nice stew using some canned tomatoes, frozen garlic scapes and a bunch of other random things none of which were harvested recently.
Cole crops will grow pretty well even in weather well below freezing - e.g. kale, turnips, cabbage, etc. A good frost cover (remay/agribon/old blanket) will help greatly.