ICE Raids in Crop Fields Worry Farmers. American Farm Bureau Demands More Legal Immigration

Credit: Omaha World-Herald ("An ICE bus pulls out of a tomato plant in O'Neill after an immigration raid at the plant Aug. 8. The dark windows of the bus obscured how many detainees were on the bus.")

PBS Minnesota reported last week on an ICE raid of farm fields in Morrison County, the state’s highest county for delivering Trump votes in 2016.

Watching his farm-hands taken away by ICE, a farmer who remained anonymous said last week:

“These are valued employees. We get their IDs and everything. Do we know if they’re legal or illegal? Well, we're going to say we're open on that. We don’t know that they are, we don't know that they aren’t. But they are employees and they are the most hard working people that you can find.”

Another resident said:

“I think there is room for everybody, whether you’re documented or undocumented. We’re all God’s people and I come from a faith perspective. We all deserve to have a part of the seven Catholic tenets is an opportunity work, have meaningful work. We’re not taking any jobs away from anybody.”

The American Farm Bureau is now making immigration reform a major legislative priority. It recently posted its position of farm labor and immigration, stating in part:

“U.S. agriculture faces a critical shortage of workers every year, as citizens are largely unwilling to engage in these physically demanding activities and guest-worker programs are unable to respond to the marketplace. This situation makes our farms and ranches less competitive with foreign farmers and less reliable for the American consumer. Securing a reliable and competent workforce for our nation’s farms and ranches is essential to agriculture and the U.S. economy.

Reforms to the immigration system can ensure that American agriculture has a legal, stable supply of workers, both in the short- and long-term, for all types of agriculture. This requires a legislative solution that deals with the current unauthorized and experienced agricultural workforce and ensures that future needs are met through a program that will admit a sufficient number of willing and able workers in a timely manner.”