CA Farmworker Deportation Crisis Looms: Report

CALIFORNIA — At least half of the state's 162,000 farmworkers are undocumented, according to estimates from the federal Department of Labor and research conducted by UC Merced.

That factor could put California's farmers — who grow half of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the U.S. — in a vulnerable position, as President-elect Donald Trump vows to carry out mass deportations of immigrants living in the U.S., the Los Angeles Times reported.

The incoming president has said in recent days that he plans to round up scores of undocumented people and put them in newly built detention camps.

But a mass deportation of that level could gut the workforce that the Golden State's farms rely on to plant and harvest fruits and vegetables.

“The American people reelected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, like deporting migrant criminals and restoring our economic greatness. He will deliver,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition team told the Los Angeles Times.

Swaths of farmers are staunch supporters of Trump, and many say they expect that the incoming administration will support their labor needs, The Times reported.

An H02A visa program could be a short-term solution as it would allow seasonal agricultural workers to be hired when the domestic labor supply is down.

“Most farmers are realizing that they’re going to need to implement the H-2A program at some level to assure that they have labor,” Steve Scaroni, the founder one of the largest guest-worker companies in the country, Fresh Harvest told The Times. “Because we just don’t know what the deportation is going to look like.”

Read the rest at Los Angeles Times: California farmers were big Trump backers. They may be on collision course over immigrant deportation