Scores of immigrant farm workers in the U.S. are avoiding work after President Trump removed "sensitive area" protections amid his immigration crackdown.
Around 75% of immigrant farm workers in Bakersfield, California, ditched their shifts after Trump ramped up his threats by removing protections against ICE raids in "sensitive areas," including schools and workplaces.
The farms actually pay alright. Migrant farm work is good work, but it's remote, and seasonal, making it impractical or impossible for most people. Usually farm workers move with the seasons to harvest and work in farms in different climate zones on rotation, these workers have been targeted by anti immigrant policy since the Clinton administration, and no one has ever worked to reduce their burden and the red tape it takes to migrate in and out of the US as these migrating workers tend to also work in Canada and Mexico. More and more, we can't harvest our own farms in CA and we import more and more food. Weakening our economy, eliminating exports, and losing power because we need other countries with less racist laws to provide our necessities. Again and again. The racist bullshit that is America harms and hinders everything.
I'm fine with prices going sky high so long as we are eliminating exploited labor.
The reality is though these folks will seek jobs elsewhere and without any social safety nets they are in for some harsh times. I can only hope they have enough friends and family here to make it.
Don't worry, it would t be like this for too long. They'll solve this "problem" by rounding up everyone brown into concentration camps private prisons. Then, they can hire them back out as slaves to the farms at what they were paying them before. The exploitation is about to get a lot deeper.
I agree with this. If this is a job that simply cannot afford... Or rather refuses to have a well paid work force then I welcome the automation. Better than humans being treated like replaceable working parts.