Since Donald Trump came back to power, no migrant has been calm, and Trump’s new immigration policies have made thousands of them alert every minute. Recently, the Trump government has been carrying out deportations and mass raids that have caused many migrants who were living and working in the country to have to leave the United States with their families.
What is Trump’s policy?
Since he was elected president, Donald Trump has hardened his stance against immigration, promoting raids in “protected” sectors (such as hospitals, schools and churches). He has a clear goal: to reduce the number of undocumented migrants in the country, and he is doing so with the deployment of the Military Forces and the signing of executive orders.
According to the American Immigration Council (AIC), millions of migrants work in essential industries such as agriculture, hospitality and construction. Without them, several of these activities face an unprecedented labor shortage.
A sector that depends on migration.
Agriculture is one of the industries most affected by these measures. The American Business Immigration Coalition warned that agricultural production has fallen by 50% in some areas due to the lack of workers. Many farmers depend on migrant employees who know the work of the field and work from sunrise to sunset.
This is what happened to a farmer who went viral on TikTok, where he recounted how his employees stopped showing up for work from one day to the next. Alarmed, he went to look for them at their homes, but found no trace of them. “They are like my brothers. I always gave them gifts at Christmas. I don’t know where they are now, and that breaks my heart,” he says sadly in his video.
This farmer has not been the only one to raise his voice against this unfair deportation process. Farmers in other states have also reported that their fields are becoming empty, which could translate into an increase in the price of food in the coming months.
And far beyond the economic impact, the situation leaves emotional scars. Many migrants have worked for years in their jobs and have actively participated in the social life of the places where they have worked, and in the same way they have forged ties with their employers and with other neighbors. Now, in the midst of uncertainty, we do not know what will happen to them or where they have gone.
And now what will happen with migration and agriculture?
As we said, a sector of farmers have grouped together and have called on the government to rethink its immigration policy, and one of the proposals that comes from this group is to make temporary work visa programs more flexible (in this way a collapse in food collection would be avoided). But the debate is open: is it possible to balance border security with the need to have workers in the fields? There are many American families that have been affected by these raids.
Another debate that could be opened is why there are no Americans working in the fields and why, if nationalism is so present in our country, we leave the hardest jobs (and the most important for our GDP and the growth of the nation) for undocumented migrants who, in addition, we are expelling from our country.
We will have to wait to see if the Trump’s Administration is going to modify its company policies, and above all, we hope that these people who have had to flee to avoid being deported are in good health and out of even more vulnerable situations.