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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump impact in my rural area. Local meat producer loses key staff ahead of Trump reign.
It's happening. Buckle up.
I live on the coast in Oregon. We have some local, small meat producers who strive to follow humane and healthy animal husbandry practices. Customers generally subscribe in advance to purchase locally raised and processed meat.
I just received notice that they are having to cancel orders, or indefinitely postpone because their key staff are quitting to return to Mexico. The workers cite hostile interactions with locals, and rising rents making it unaffordable for them to stay.
My local school district, where I work as a sub, may also be losing students of local immigrant workers. Job listings and sub assignments are way down.
The impacts of immigrant worker persecution will be deeper and more pervasive than many realize.
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Leghorn21
(13,753 posts)makes his way towards the unsuspecting tourists…you have, for me, with this post, marked the sad, sad beginning of the tons of misery now about to crash down upon America and her (many) unsuspecting people
Have MERCY
jmbar2
(6,239 posts)There was a vicious letter circulated around the region encouraging people to report "the brown people". https://www.opb.org/article/2024/12/20/lincoln-county-oregon-letters-undocumented-immigrants/
It is stochastic terrorism. One, or a handful of people encouraging spying on and reporting of vulnerable people in the community. A Panopticon of hate.
The school district responded immediately, saying that immigration actions are not legally allowed around schools. But the damage was done. It will cause teacher layoffs, one of the few jobs around here that pay enough to afford to live here.
It will be a chain reaction: Loss of immigrant workers, businesses going under, loss of kids in school, teachers leaving the area, etc. Makes my heart hurt.
Leghorn21
(13,753 posts)and she was marching with her little school friends to protest all the disgusting crap rump was saying, and she was terrified at the thought of losing family and friends because of him…later, I was outside, and as I turned to come back into the house, I thought, hey, there’s no way that fucker’s going to be elected, but that doesn’t matter because the damage is already done. He had dissolved these darling children into helpless puddles of tears and fear — they were traumatized now, and how long would it take for them to recover??
Well yeah, he was elected and we heard and saw children pulled from their mothers’ arms and yes, here we are, living in the land of hurt hearts…
”living in the land of hurt hearts”. So very true.
Sin
(476 posts)jmbar2
(6,239 posts)The talent from that family seems to increase with every generation. Thanks for posting.
Oneear
(108 posts)People do not understand that we do not have people to replace trained workers to come in and pick up where people have left due to the lack of understanding and respect for people. Mexican People are hard-working people, and when they leave, it will be an eye-opening event for the GOP not thinking there are no people to replace them who are trained in the skills to do the Jobs.
jmbar2
(6,239 posts)
Random Boomer
(4,270 posts)Without immigration, the U.S. workforce will shrink and the economy will falter. Our brand of capitalism is founded on perpetual growth, and we can't grow with fewer people.
Trump wants only white immigrants, but good luck with that. With our lack of national health and our out-of-control gun violence, Europeans are less likely to find the U.S. an appealing place to relocate. Hell, at the rate we're going, we're going to be a less appealing place for simple tourism.
Trueblue Texan
(3,021 posts)They are a very hard working people and do not deserve what we have put them through up to now and certainly not what the future will bring.
Lonestarblue
(11,983 posts)They think if they cut off welfare and all programs to help the poor, they can force some people to take terrible jobs. The problem is that the majority of people getting benefits already work. Others are caring for children or elderly parents or are too disabled to work. It’s both ignorance and hatred for the poor.
dutch777
(3,585 posts)I pity those uprooted suddenly. I feel for the businesses, many of which have finally just restabilized after the pandemic. And the local communities and government entities like school districts that lose workforce and revenue. Not that collateral damage will mean much to the Repugs until Musk and Wall Street scream which will take awhile if ever.
Kali
(55,878 posts)but don't most Mexican migrant workers try to get home for the holidays? I know around here they always did. Even residents with family in Mexico go this time of year.
jmbar2
(6,239 posts)Here in Oregon, the question is will they come back? From what the local meat producer is saying, they have bailed for good.
That will also be the question for the schools. How many will bail for good?
Kali
(55,878 posts)is going to actually do. hopefully he continues his record of incompetency.
oldmanlynn
(514 posts)Now that meat producer will have to pay someone $25 an hour to do it or go out of business
Nigrum Cattus
(233 posts)They are here to earn money & send some of it home.
It's expensive for them to go home. Don't make excuses,
you're being delusional.
Kali
(55,878 posts)I live a few miles from the border, this is my lifetime experience. I know why they are here and how hard it is to get here for many, but for folks that have some legal status, they go home for xmas. it has always been that way.
Trueblue Texan
(3,021 posts)
mahina
(19,054 posts)Traveling outside the United States can be difficult for many immigrants, especially those navigating legal or financial barriers. It’s natural to feel the desire to reunite with loved ones, and when that isn’t possible, it’s important to acknowledge these limitations and find healthy ways to cope with the frustration. Attending faith-based services or other community events can provide a sense of connection and comfort.
In general, it is not recommended to leave the country during the immigration process, but if it is a case of force majeure and you are waiting for the Green Card, you can ask for a permit from USCIS. This permit is called Emergency Advanced Parole, and its approval depends exclusively on the decision of the immigration agent. Asylum or TPS (Temporary Protected Status) applicants can technically apply for Emergency Advanced Parole. However, they should not travel back to their home country as that undercuts their claim for Asylum and TPS.
If you are undocumented, unfortunately you cannot leave the country. According to the law, a stay in the United States as an undocumented person of more than 180 days translates into three years without being able to enter the country, while a stay as an undocumented person of one year or more would imply a ban on entry to the United States for ten years.
https://iilosangeles.org/experiencing-holidays-as-immigrants/
For many, Christmas is a time for holiday songs, presents, family feasts and sacred ceremonies. But it also can be a painful reminder for some that they can’t go home for the holidays — or perhaps ever. So said Beatriz Cruz, who works with Parenting Communities in Michigan. Cruz is an advocate for Hispanic families and makes home visits to to families, although the number has been as high as 37 when her agency’s funding was higher. She doesn’t ask about the families’ legal status, but some talk about not being able to go home. “I ask them, ‘What would you do if your parents fell ill or passed away?’ They tell me, ‘We came to this country knowing we might never see them again.’ I can’t imagine that,” she said. “It’s not like they’re coming here not knowing what they’ll go through. Maybe the knowing helps them a little bit, leaving everything behind and never returning.” Cruz knows firsthand what they go through. Before her husband gained legal status, he couldn’t return to Mexico for five years, she said.
https://ctlatinonews.com/undocumented-immigrants-never-go-home-for-the-holidays/
For many Mexican immigrants living in the United States, the holidays have come to represent a time of sadness. Separated by a border that has become harder and harder to cross, many immigrants must make the agonizing choice between staying away from family south of the border or risk not being able to return to their jobs here.
This holiday, as we sit down to eat our feast with family, it would behoove us as a nation to remember that some of the food on our table was put there by immigrant workers who cannot go home.
https://progressive.org/latest/many-immigrants-going-home-holidays/
jmbar2
(6,239 posts)
LittleGirl
(8,499 posts)The US government kept my husband’s passport while he was applying for his green card. He couldn’t travel for work! He was so afraid to lose his job! This was long before covid, zoom calls and transparency.
I feel absolutely disgusted that trump wants to end immigration! We need to expand it and treat people like humans.
Nigrum Cattus
(233 posts)The local businesses are going to be hurting soon. This is going
to add to the economic contraction to 100% occur when you don't
care about consequences. Nothing good will come from this.
keithbvadu2
(40,531 posts)Now get your lazy welfare asses off the couch and go back to work.
johnnyfins
(1,485 posts)IronLionZion
(47,131 posts)Cruelty is the point. As if Americans are applying for meat processing jobs. Trump already reversed his promise to lower grocery prices.
Bernardo de La Paz
(51,286 posts)IronLionZion
(47,131 posts)and they say: bacon slicer, vegetable picker, house cleaner, etc. 
Bernardo de La Paz
(51,286 posts)Cirsium
(1,158 posts)The same thing is happening here (Michigan). I talked to a grower about this yesterday. The war on farm workers has been going on for a long time and the situation is now critical. I was talking to a MAGA person about this a while back, telling him that there was a serious labor shortage on the farms here. He was quite confused by that. "But they are pouring across the border!" he said.
That idiot Vance was here a while back trying to talk ag. He said food prices are high because other countries are dumping produce here. Uh, no dumping would mean lower prices. Then he went on to say that farmers are not making enough. OK, Mr. Hillbilly genius, prices are too high for consumers, but farmers are not making enough, and Trump is going to fix that? How? By running farm workers out of the country and putting tariffs on imports? The tariffs hurt consumers, the loss of workers hurts the farmers. But Vance said that he is "the baker in the family" so he knows all about this.
The crowd went wild over Vance's remarks. But they weren't farmers, and that is important to understand. Trump and Vance supporters are a bunch of Walter Mittys - "ordinary, often ineffectual persons who indulge in fantastic daydreams of personal triumphs." They imagine themselves to be farmers, ranchers, lumberjacks, jet pilots, and other macho stereotypes, and Trump is a master at appealing to that, better than Reagan or W were. You can see that in his use of Village People's "Y.M.C.A." and in those ridiculous cosplay Trump digital trading cards. Remember, history repeats itself, "the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."
I blame Hollywood. Warner Brothers studio head Jack L. Warner wrote "to the Walter Mittys of the world Errol Flynn was all the heroes in one magnificent, sexy, animal package." Trump does not need to actually be "all the heroes in one magnificent, sexy, animal package," he just needs to evoke the fantasies. "He is one us" as so many MAGA folks say, because he is a mediocrity, "an ordinary, often ineffectual person who indulges in fantastic daydreams of personal triumphs," not in spite of that.
Random Boomer
(4,270 posts)Rural areas voted overwhelming for Trump, which means most farmers voted for Trump. They knew exactly what he was going to do, right? I'm genuinely confused as to what their Plan B is when their Mexican labor is gone.
The "farm vote" is a myth. Farm owners are a tiny percentage of the population.
johnnyfins
(1,485 posts)Can we get.some of what he is smoking?
Blue_Tires
(56,760 posts)And they'll lap it up as always
Texasgal
(17,161 posts)Ironically, one of the birthplaces of the anti-immigration movement.
Construction, farming, childcare and other industries will suffer HARD.
Fuck Abbot and TRUMP and all their anti-immigration followers. We will ALL suffer under this ridiculous and extreme plan!
Joinfortmill
(16,638 posts)
Initech
(102,515 posts)And this time it was with malicious hatred. How do things have to get before these dumb fucks get it? Just... 
weissmam
(906 posts)his businesses are all failures, iif it wasn't for apprentice he would have gone broke
Srkdqltr
(7,782 posts)Who's kid would work all day in the heat or cold doing labor work for $10 -$15 an hour? Yours? I doubt it. The days of low pay for hard work are numbered. We will loose our low wage people.
I'm not sure its necessarily an all bad thing.
Maybe it will wake up people to value the labor of others.
I doubt it. People never learn.
Kaleva
(38,547 posts)At age 66, I currently have a part time job with the township that pays $17 an hour with no benefits. The work can be hard especially when repairing a broken water line six feet deep in the ground which is saturated with water and the temps are below freezing.
Srkdqltr
(7,782 posts)I worked at Hudsons for less than a dollar an hour. Husband started in his trade for $2.50 an hour no benefits except retirement which was $25 a month.
That was then.
You are worth way more than $17 an hour. That wage is awful.
Kaleva
(38,547 posts)As long as I take care of emergencies when they arise and take care of routine things when and as needed, I can set my own hours. The township doesn't care how long I work and when I work.
As I am my wife's primary caretaker, this flexibility is very important as there are some days I have to stay home to take care of her. I couldn't hold a part time job that had a set schedule even if the pay was double.
You are right about the pay though. The only people who can take this job are those on SS or some other pension. A younger person couldn't make it on these wages. They wouldn't be able to hold a second job either because this position requires one to be available 24/7 in case of an emergency like a broken water line
Cirsium
(1,158 posts)For immigrants it is a vast improvement over their lives in the home country, and it gives their children a future that would otherwise be impossible. Rich people immigrate with no problem - see Elon Musk. They go where they want to go when they wantThe "immigration" issue is not really about immigration at all. Wealthy people (capital) can move freely across borders. Poor people (Labor) have a difficult time. The issue really isn't immigration, it is freedom for rich people, wage slavery and a police state for poor people.
Beyond that, why work on the farm? The pay is terrible. The hours are ridiulous. But you are part of a community, and you are doing real work, essential work that is unambiguously beneficial to society. It is challenging and there are new problems every day. There is nothing more satisfying than successfully getting the harvest in. You are outdoors most of the year. There is lots off fresh food.
Cirsium
(1,158 posts)I worked on the farm for $16,000 a year not so long ago. That was about average for the county.
Hotler
(12,390 posts)jmbar2
(6,239 posts)Our local fishing industry may lose fish processors - a truly terrible job. This company brings in a lot of Guatemalan workers from a remote region where they only speak a dialect, not Spanish. The Dungeness crab season just started - a huge part of our local economy. In some cases, they provide dormitory lodging for the workers because of the shortage of affordable housing.
If they lose these workers, the fishing industry will be in a world of hurt.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seafood Processors $16.50-17/hr
Summary:
As a Seafood Processor, you are responsible for properly processing various species of seafood, ensuring maximum use and yield of product. You will consistently maintain a high production pace in all areas of production.
Key Responsibilities:
Place product in containers or on conveyers.
Run tips through tip machine and collect the meat.
Weigh and clean product.
Place product in proper packaging as instructed.
Adhere to all sanitation and product quality policies.
Communicate quality issues to supervisors and leads.
Maintain plant safety at all times.
Perform other duties, as assigned.
Physical requirements:
Occasionally required to lift and/or move up to 50 pounds
https://secure.emp.state.or.us/jobs/index.cfm?location_content=jobdisplay.cfm&ord=4179689&system=new&type=N&lang=E
------------------------------------------
There are nearly 200 listings for ag/fishing and forestry workers currently on the Worksource Oregon website. Plenty of jobs for all the MAGAs that want to drive migrant workers away.
Farmer-Rick
(11,538 posts)If it must have cheap foreign labor to produce food.
Why can't we just pay normal wages to average Americans to work on farms?
As the system is set up now it is impossible. I have tried it. I have a small farm and tried to hire people at a decent rate. But my farm couldn't produce enough to pay good salaries.
Honestly, I don't think it was the higher wages so much as the low, low prices I got for my produce. All the lucrative markets are taken up by corporations. I can't sell to grocery stores because they got contracts with cheaper out of state distributors and wholesellers. I can't sell to school's because they are required to buy the factory farm produce from the USDA. The USDA won't buy my produce because they want tons not pounds, they always cater to the rich large corporate farms.
Doing specialty sales for customers willing to pay a premium price for organic cruelty free produce wasn't enough money to hire people at decent wages. It may be my location that really doesn't have a lot of sophisticated and decerning customers. It's like there are 100 farms trying to compete for the same 200 customers.
Anyway, I found less labor intensive produce and products and hired a few locals seasonally. It was just enough to make ends meet. But it's very difficult to compete with corporations who hire 100s of cheap migrant workers and sell the vast amounts of produce for pennies.
There is something wrong with this picture. Why must we have cheap labor to operate? Why can't we offer decent wages while farming? It's a systemic thing.
I really think Trump is not going to deport the migrants. He's just going to put them in concentration camps and send them out in vast chain gangs to work at corporate farms and warehouses. So, it will actually be a boon to Bezos and Tyson.
Srkdqltr
(7,782 posts)Farmer-Rick
(11,538 posts)Why do we pay farm labor so low??????
Right now if I pay a decent salary, I have to compete against corporations that get cheap foreign labor. I have no choice, I have to get cheap foreign labor too in order to be competitive.
But that's not necessary. We could change that. We could enforce decent wages. We could subsidies farmers like we subsidies corporations. We could make farm workers state or federal workers and develop a programs that supports organic cruelty-free farming. There's a lot we could do as a country to not have to rely on cheap foreign labor to farm.
Cirsium
(1,158 posts)There is no money in farming, for anyone.
Hermit-The-Prog
(36,623 posts)
Dan
(4,159 posts)Back slavery.
Not sure who will volunteer to be the slaves tho’.
mn9driver
(4,595 posts)It’s the idea of arrest and being shipped off to a camp. Also, the likelihood of being separated from children. I imagine a lot of people are getting out due to an abundance of caution, before they find out the hard way that it’s happening for real.
LT Barclay
(2,777 posts)jmbar2
(6,239 posts)I was looking for a link to the movie and found the original short version which was redone to make the movie. Enjoy - 28 mins.
Ollie Garkie
(214 posts)Rethuglicans exempt themselves from the "unintended consequences" they yell about liberal laws and programs.
"OH shit this leopard is eating my face!"
-Hispanics and business owners who voted for Trump, sometime next year.
FirstLight
(14,312 posts)Think of all the hotel workers, room cleaners, cooks, etc... I'm waiting for our economy to go Pffft!
PoindexterOglethorpe
(26,848 posts)"No one wants to work any more." Nope. People want to work. They also want decent wages.
Current unemployment is at record lows. Lots of jobs, not many available workers.
orwell
(8,002 posts)...says nobody with functioning brain cells.
Sit back and watch the FAFO... 
KT2000
(20,954 posts)At the time it was the result of aggressive border patrol making life miserable for the legal immigrants. It affected the local economy, but no one wants to talk about it. They now have to hire from temp agencies in the city to staff nursing homes but that is higher pay and better benefits, just one example.
The real danger here is that small-minded people will be given power over other human being, just on the basis of their skin color.
