Trump's Immigration Plans Are Already Wrecking Food Industry. Immigrant farm workers are too scared to show up to work [View all]

[Jack Valentino]

Full Article: https://newrepublic.com/post/190555/donald-trump-immigration-deportations-farm-workers

My chosen excerpts:

:::snip:::

Undocumented workers have been targeted walking in and out of gas stations, getting breakfast, at Home Depot, or while driving along the 99 Highway, leaving many with no other option than to simply stay at home.

“We’re in the middle of our citrus harvesting,” Casey Creamer, president of the industry group California Citrus Mutual, told CalMatters. “This sent shockwaves through the entire community. People aren’t going to work and kids aren’t going to school. Yesterday about 25 percent of the workforce, today 75 percent didn’t show up.”

Losing the bulk of America’s agricultural workforce overnight is a recipe for “absolute economic devastation,” according to Richard S. Gearhart, an associate professor of economics at Cal State-Bakersfield, who spoke with the nonprofit news outlet.

“You are talking about a recession-level event if this is the new long-term norm,” Gearhart said, arguing that the end result of Trump’s policies will be felt in the grocery store checkout lines across America.

:::snip:::



Better gorge on oranges now, folks--- you may not want to pay what they may cost later, if you can even find them---with California's next crop "roasting in the blazing sun" right now, with hardly any workers showing up to pick them--- !!!