These California farmers went for Trump. Now he could deport half their workers.

[BumRushDaShow]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Politico

12/26/2024 05:00 AM EST


SACRAMENTO, California — California farmers could soon enjoy bumper crops thanks to President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to lift water restrictions. But who will pick them if he follows through on his deportation threats?

The country’s largest agricultural constituency backed Trump in November, bucking California’s deep-blue electorate over his campaign promises to “open the faucet” and deliver more water to the state’s parched, conservative-leaning Central Valley. But now it’s reckoning with an uncomfortable contradiction: Trump also campaigned on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, who make up at least half of the state’s agricultural workforce.

That’s left California’s agricultural barons, who employ the most farm workers of any state in the nation and grow half the produce consumed in the United States, nervously parsing Trump’s rhetoric.

“To say it would have an impact on California would be an understatement,” said Chris Reardon, vice president of policy advocacy at the industry group California Farm Bureau Federation. Reardon, who declined to say who he voted for, has been fielding calls from members asking him what exactly will happen to workers. “We just don’t know yet,” he’s told them.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/26/california-farmers-trump-water-workers-00195839

---

Trump also campaigned on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, who make up at least half of the state’s agricultural workforce.

That’s left California’s agricultural barons, who employ the most farm workers of any state in the nation and grow half the produce consumed in the United States, nervously parsing Trump’s rhetoric.

[tanyev]

1. Almost there....

[flamingdem]

22. Surprised that the members are admitting to it

Link to tweet

[liberal N proud]

25. The MAGA are proud of their membership in the cult.

[Mr.Bee]

40. In a Year

they'll be wishing Biden were back in office...

[liberal N proud]

69. Not that they will ever admit it

[bucolic_frolic]

2. No pickers. No roofers. No landscaping. No bus boys.

No cash economy. No workers under age 74.

This is going to be ugly.

[TheFarseer]

3. Another way to look at it

If you farm so much land that you need an army of workers, you have too much land. Sell some off and give someone else a chance.

[Omnipresent]

8. Less growing land means less money.

I’m sure they know how to sneak migrants onto their farms to resume being the hypocrites they are.

[cstanleytech]

4. They shouldn't receive one single dime in federal aid IMO

[walkingman]

6. Totally agree but the welfare farm bill, because it also include SNAP benefits,

will always pass by both Dems and GOP. Most of the farmers with their hand out are wealthy and are corporate.

[walkingman]

5. It will never happen - Trump will make some high profile arrests, get a lot press,

and then make some other insane comment or move regarding foreign policy and the entire issue will go away, making people like Abbott in Texas look like the dunce he really is.

[sop]

7. Trump will sell exemptions to his deportation policy.

The queue of industry lobbyists seeking carve-outs will form at the front gate at Mar-a-Lago.

[Chin music]

48. +1z

And therein lies the grifting rub.
Also, expect the return of prison labor en masse.

[riversedge]

52. Sad and HORRIBLE that this is what the #USA has fallen to!!

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Problem is

they have now brainwashed their whole base to "snitch", so they will continually target anyone who "fits the description", and "turn them in" to the new Stazi, who will not know whether they "might be the 'property' of the wealthy corporate farmers" who were exempted. The MAGats have no way to "distinguish".

I suppose these "exemptions" can be "microchipped".

That's the issue of the "do what I say, not what I do" method of "governing".

[Joinfortmill]

27. Back to the Future to 1934 Germany.

[Autumn]

10. They voted for it.

No sympathy here.

[Puppyjive]

11. They are already breaking the law

All workers require a social security card to work. They can't get one if they arrive illegally. If they are worried, it's a problem they brought on themselves.

[Attilatheblond]

13. Gotta think a lot of big dealers who require a lot of cheap labor, AKA illegal imegrants, also 'know a guy'

who can provide pretty convincing identification documents like Social Security cards and such. Do we/will we ever know what % of the economy relies of providing such 'papers, please'? It is likely a booming industry supported by major employers of the workers who need such documentation.

[DENVERPOPS]

35. Does anyone recall

when the FBI raided one of Trump's golf resorts????? They found countless blank Social Security Cards and a printing press.........
If that had been your or my company, we would have been in prison....Instead, it just quietly went away. How many of his other U.S. golf courses and resorts were set up the same way? Did the FBI check any of them??????
Then, he also gets a bunch of employees on the H1b?????? visas??? to work in housekeeping, laundry, grounds maintenance, restaurant, dishwashers etc.........

As I understood that type? of Visa was to procure immigrants with very special talents that couldn't be had by people here....

[Attilatheblond]

49. Trump's likely H1b employees ART people with special talents that people here don't have!

They will work for sub-standard wages and put up with more abuse that US citizens. THAT is the special 'talent'.

[DENVERPOPS]

58. I would love to see

Green Card checkpoints set up at the entrances/exits of gated Uber Rich communities, and at Meat processing plants....but it will never happen.......any more than you will see DUI checkpoints anywhere but in the lower class communities.........

[Raine1967]

50. I remember this.

I wish I saved that article/link.

[CousinIT]

12. FAFO ya morons!

When SHitler slaps tariffs on everything coming in to this fascist oligarchy we'll have to bail their asses out AGAIN just like first time.

They keep voting for goddamned Republicans.

WE keep having to bail them out.

NO sympathy from me, sorry.

[nycbos]

14. FAFO

https://m.

[travelingthrulife]

15. Open the taps, huh? My brother worked in Salton Sea area. The farmers

would just let the water run without a thought. They don't practice good water management on their own.

[MurrayDelph]

42. I just drove I5 from Oregon to Los Angeles

The Central Valley is full of MAGA signs blaming their lack of water on Newsom and Pelosi.

I'd say they don't think of the consequences of their actions, but that sentence would be too long by half.

[Auggie]

16. Those who can could/would switch to less labor intensive farming

I know a Central Valley farmer already pondering such a move. He’s already created new equipment and modified others to reduce the number of workers needed.

[Ray Bruns]

17. All I have to say is

[keithbvadu2]

18. No worries! Repubs who lost their jobs to immigrants are ready to go back to work.

Better get moving. That lettuce ain't gonna pick itself.

Get your lazy, welfare ass off the couch.

[Justice matters.]

63. That would require them to get the F off X...

Not gonna happen.

[hadEnuf]

19. Tough shit for those farmers.

I hope they go broke.

[Attilatheblond]

53. Not a good thing to hope for

The more producers who go under, the more productive land that goes to either HUGE corporate farming businesses that create monopolies, OR to land developers who put good land under concrete and asphalt.

[hadEnuf]

62. Not hoping for it at all, but it is these very farmers who will be putting themselves under, not us.

They were told and told and told and told but instead chose to tie a noose around their own necks. They will help ruin the country and their own livelihoods. I will not feel sorry for them if they personally go broke because of their own idiocy.

They clearly knew better.

[AllyCat]

20. So, this requires some multidirectional thinking that

MAGAts can’t do. They will NEVER understand this as they are only one way thinkers.

Nice try politico, but they will just be told “who to blame” and that will be the end of it. It will never be the fault of their orange god and they will support him no matter what.

[orleans]

21. they might have to do that "shuttle support" crap that the a billionaire in illinois uses to bring workers to their

wisconsin warehouses

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/20/uline-mexican-workers-trump

[milestogo]

23. Well, that was stupid.

Price of kleenex probably going up too.

[AverageOldGuy]

24. And where is all this water coming from?

[Dave Bowman]

31. Good question. nt

[Joinfortmill]

26. Stupid does not discriminate.

[bottomofthehill]

28. Fuck Around meets Find Out

And we all believe food prices will go down right…

[Martin68]

29. So many MAGAts voted against their own best interests in pursuit of an empty illusion.

[Oneear]

30. I do Believe we are going to have Open Jobs with No one skilled people to fill these Jobs

It will be interesting to see how the GOP will Plant the Seeds and Harvest the Crops. BINGO Card: Load up all People who do not have a Green Card, NO One to Plant the seeds, No One to Harvest the Crops, No one to work at the Feed Lots, No one to collect the Eggs, No one to cut the grass.

[DENVERPOPS]

38. Not to mention

all of those MASSIVE food processing plants/slaughter houses.....Chicken, Turkeys, Pigs, Cattle, Dairy farms, etc

[onecaliberal]

32. They don't care, they're gonna get free money and watch shit rot in fields.

We’ve seen this movie before. People are sickening.

[the_liberal_grandpa]

33. How much will they have to pay non immigrants to work in fields?

this past year as I drove up and down Hwy 99 through the central valley of California and saw all of the elect trump signs along the road I wondered what they were thinking.

Many, many of these farms would "die on the vine" without immigrant workers to work in the fields.

Their workforce are either going to get deported or, more likely just vanish as they have done in other states
like Florida once things start happening.

One thing they won't do is wait around to have their families ripped apart and put in cages.

Central Valley farmers are going to have to pay a lot more to find workers replace them (if there is anyone else even willing to do this back breaking work) , or reduce the amount they produce to what they can pick themselves making the food prices in America increase dramatically.

I hope they get a big mouthfull of the shit they voted for.

[Dave Bowman]

34. Food prices will rise significantly because of crops rotting in the fields.

Importations will be necessary but with the clown's stupid tariffs food will be expensive.

[AllaN01Bear]

36. where are we going to get the water? we are in a drought year. where are we going to get the water?

the rest of us is urged to cnserve and we should be conserving all the time/

[pazzyanne]

37. Non-thinking people...

... don't stop to think about the consequences of their actions. Sad, isn't it - for all of us!

[WhiteTara]

39. the half they are going to lose are the REAl workers.

Other than we lose our food supply, I'm happy those rich/barons get hosed.

[Dem4life1234]

41. I hate it for us

Because that would cause the prices of produce to explode.

This shit would never have happened in western Europe or Australia because for one the people are smart enough not to vote against their best interests and number 2, they do not have a mainstream media which spreads lies.

[Old Crank]

43. Hiring undocumented workers is a crime,

both ederal and state. The growers need to be charged, fined and jailed.

Also the Central Valley has trouble with subsidence from over pumping the ground water. The last 2-3 years have helped with surface water. I don't know how much has recharged into aquifers. Plus once an area subsides that volume is lost forever.

[kimbutgar]

44. Driving down highway 5 from Northern California going to Arizona

I saw many dumpt signs and how he was bringing water to the state. I laughed seeing those signs knowing they were fools who supported him. And don’t get me started on the Harris ranch guy with the cows that smell to high heaven. I used to go there and buy stuff now I only stop to use the bathroom.

[Figarosmom]

45. If there is a next time they will

Still vote repub or even for a trump because they will say they liked his policies.

And we sant rely on "he's destroying the Republican party" because he's already done that and
Old school Republicans still voted for him. Because " they liked his policies " even though they could not name one .

[Irish_Dem]

46. Trump will set high priced exemptions for all his policies.

If farmers pay out huge amounts of cash to Trump he will allow them to do whatever they want to do.

[Lovie777]

54. Smaller farms will suffer....

Oh wait, the GQP don’t give a shit.

[Irish_Dem]

59. This is the plan.

Only large corporations with lots of cash will get what they want from Trump.

[maxrandb]

47. What do you think they're building all those private prisons for?

We suffer from a lack of imagination. With those guys, you have to imagine the most despicable, putrid evil you can think of, then think lower and more despicable.

Like Matt Gaetz, if you think he was raping 17 year olds, you need to think lower.

Maybe Leon can program a fleet of cybertrucks to pick crops.

[cbabe]

55. Exactly. Deport a few for show. Imprison the rest and lease out as the old chain gang. California

Perfectly set-up:

LAist
https://laist.com › news › politics › anti-slavery-measure-prop-6-fails-allowing-forced-labor-to-continue-in-california-prisons

Anti-slavery measure Prop. 6 fails, allowing forced labor to ... - LAist

Nov 11, 2024Other states, including Nevada, are deleting references to slavery in their constitutions and banning forced

[BradBo]

51. How incredibly stupid are those people!

[Ocelot II]

56. Here, kitty kitty...

[patphil]

57. There's nothing dumber than deliberately putting that sharp stick in your own eye.

These agricultural barons are the epitome of greed, so they'll probably end up giving large donations to Trump as a means of having their workers protected from deportation.
I'm sure that Trump will find a way if it means he'll benefit.

What I think will happen, is that all these undocumented workers will be given special "temporary" work visas that will allow them to continue working, without any hope of ever becoming citizens. That way they'll have less rights, can be forced to work for even less money, even less medical care, and with no agencies to protect them against abuses in their work environment, with the threat of deportation always hanging over their heads.
They'll be just a couple steps away from being actual slaves.
Their families will probably not be allowed to stay unless they can also work for the agricultural barons. Of course, if birthright citizenship is revoked, their children will always be aliens.

This is what the Republicans really want.

[DiverDave]

60. #FAFO

eom

[sakabatou]

61. The leopards are getting fat

[50 Shades Of Blue]

64. Talk about reaping what you sowed!

[ZonkerHarris]

65. oh well

[littlemissmartypants]

66. He won't spend the money. He's going to steal it.

He can't drain the Treasury and pay for deportations. Unless they plan to print a bunch of money which isn't out of the question.

Either way...

If his lips are moving he's lying. Even his fu>king cabinet members believe the bullsh¡t.

Good grief!

The price tag for Trump’s deportation plan is massive, with one estimate ranging from $88 billion annually for sustained efforts to $315 billion for a one-time mass deportation operation. Over a decade, the total cost could climb to $967.9 billion, making it one of the most expensive federal initiatives in US history.

Source:
https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/how-much-will-donald-trump-mass-deportation-plan-cost-can-the-us-afford-it-13847702.html

[Progressive dog]

67. The mass deportations will have to be paid for

Trump will try to make the undocumented deport themselves.. IMO Congress will mot give him anywhere near the money he will need.

[Nigrum Cattus]

68. We know the repubs will be getting pushback -

We will see how far they can go before they lose major support
for their "deport" stance.

[C Moon]

70. If those farmers give trump money, I'll bet he'll work something out.

The US will be all about bribes from here on out.

[samplegirl]

71. So did all the farmers in Ohio

Bunch of dumbasses!

[Omaha Steve]

72. AFTER a review by forum hosts LOCKING

Analysis and speculation of how it could turn out.

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