Trump’s flip-flops over ag workers are a new threat for California farmers | Opinion

For a brief moment, President Donald Trump seemed to get it.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Trump that farmers were having difficulty getting workers as a result of the crackdown on undocumented immigrants. So last Thursday, Trump posted on social media that farmers and hotel operators “have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.”

As a result, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials paused arrests at farms, hotels and restaurants, The New York Times reported.

Finally, it seemed, reality had set in to the Trump administration on the need for farmers, the leisure industry and restaurants to have a stable workforce.

The stand-down lasted all of three days.

On Monday the Department of Homeland Security announced it was reversing the guidance that agents were not to conduct immigration raids at farms, hotels and restaurants.

It was back to deporting anyone here without proper documentation — even if their jobs put food on the tables of Americans.

The head-spinning series of decisions reflects the ongoing battle between Rollins and Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff who has a strident anti-immigrant stance. He has pushed ICE to arrest 3,000 people a day as part of Trump’s campaign to achieve 1 million deportations in a year.

Once again, fear joins crops as what is being harvested at California’s fields, vineyards and orchards this summer. Now growers are back to wondering if laborers will even report for work.

The entire episode is a reminder of just how badly America’s immigration laws need to be reformed. However, as long as political points can be scored over the issue of immigration, there is little chance of meaningful improvements.

ICE raids reported

Reported sightings in recent weeks of ICE vehicles and personnel at farms has sparked fears among agriculture workers from the Central Coast to the San Joaquin Valley.

As told by Fresno Bee staff writer Marina Peña, workers reported seeing federal agents and Border Patrol trucks in fields near the Fresno County city of Kingsburg, according to the United Farm Workers. There were also unconfirmed reports of ICE officers at a work center in a park in Reedley, east of Fresno.

Immigration agents were spotted near a Tulare County field where workers were picking blueberries, causing some to leave, the Los Angeles Times reported. In the Ventura County city of Oxnard, federal immigration agents were reportedly near fields and entered a packinghouse at a farm.

Teresa Romero, the president of the United Farm Workers, says the union has received calls, photos and videos of ICE activity and unmarked vehicles with people wearing uniforms.

“Farmworkers are terrified,” she said last week. “ICE has been driving around and picking up people.”

Romero said the UFW received calls fromworkers in Kern County, Ventura, Tulare, Salinas, Oxnard and other agricultural areas in the state.

Threats to farmworkers impact the entire food supply chain, said Bryan Little of the California Farm Bureau.

He’s the senior director of policy advocacy for the statewide organization. In a statement, Little said “California agriculture depends on and values its workforce. Farm employees are not just workers — they are partners in this industry.”

Little said deporting workers — or even having the threat hang over them — will ultimately affect shoppers looking for produce at grocery stores.

“If federal immigration enforcement activities continue in this direction, it will become increasingly difficult to produce food, process it and get it onto grocery store shelves,” Little said. “A stable and reliable workforce is crucial to maintaining the nation’s food security.”

Daniel Hartwig, president of the California Fresh Fruit Association in Fresno, said the policy reversals have come at a key time of the year. (Hartwig’s association advocates for the California table grape and fresh deciduous tree fruit industries.)

“California is entering into its busiest harvest season and policies from the federal government continue to change, which has caused concern amongst farmers and even more so, their employees,” he said in an email response to questions. “Uncertainty is never good for business.”

Make ag labor legal

What is needed most, Hartwig said, are new laws setting out legal immigration.

“It has been almost 40 years since a comprehensive immigration reform has been dealt with,” he explained. “Legislation like the Farmworker Modernization Act, while not perfect, would be a step in the right direction to help address the labor needs of the agricultural industry.”

Democratic congressmen Jim Costa of Fresno and Adam Gray of Merced, along with Republican David Valadao of Hanford and three other representatives, have reintroduced the act into this session of Congress.

Among its provisions would be an updated guest worker program that lets laborers earn legal status through continued farm employment.

If Trump truly cares about growers’ needs for workers to tend and harvest crops, he must champion the Farmworker Modernization Act and encourage Congress to pass it.

Further delays just hurts California’s $59.4 billion agriculture industry. It is time to create a permanent process for farm laborers to work legally in America and stop the flip-flops.

This story was originally published June 18, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Trump’s flip-flops over ag workers are a new threat for California farmers | Opinion."