Concerns about the rising cost of farm labor
As many as half of farm workers are not documented.
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - The President’s mass deportation program could potentially have an impact on the nation’s food supply.
Since January, the Trump istration has arrested, detained and deported thousands of undocumented immigrants. Tuesday, White House correspondent Jon Decker asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about whether the President’s mass deportation program could potentially have an impact on the amount of fruits and vegetables that make it to the nation’s markets.
Decker: “40% of crop farm workers in the U.S. are undocumented. And that’s according to the Agriculture Department. Do they have a carve out in of the president’s national deportation program?”
Leavitt: “The president and the Trump istration have been very clear. If you are in the country illegally, you are subject to deportation.”
Decker: " Is there any concern that given that large number, if that number is correct, 40% of crop farm workers being undocumented, that that could impact the food supply here in America, because those individuals that obviously help pick crops all across the country are deported."
Karoline Leavitt: “And again, this istration is focused, focused on deporting individuals who are in our country illegally. Something we have to do. We cannot allow the previous istrations invasion of our country of illegal immigrants to continue. We just can’t have it. And this is a law and order president. As for our farmers and their concerns. They have a president who has their backs and listens to their concerns and hears them. But we also have a legal pathway to come to this country and work in it specifically for agricultural work. So there’s a legal way to do it. And we encourage that, that legal pathway. And we’re currently working on strengthening our illegal immigration system for that reason. ”
In early April, President Trump suggested that undocumented farm workers would be allowed to leave the country - and then return as legal workers - if their employers vouched for them. The United Farm Workers campaigns to make this simpler for the thousands who harvest.
The American Farm Bureau has repeatedly raised concerns about the rising cost of agricultural labor.
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