MAGA Farmers BEG For Workers After Cheering For Their Deportations

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]All these damn illegal aliens taking over American jobs. It ain't right because they're all criminals. You know, that's why we need a strong leader that'll put Americans first. That's why I vote for him because he say he's going to deport all them illegal aliens. Okay?

[00:00:12]Cuz I'm a proud American farmer. I don't need no illegal immigrants taking over my jobs. Ain't that right, Jose?

[00:00:21]>> People keep framing that question like it was an insult, but it was just a description of reality. Immigrant workers do pick the crops. The data from USDA confirms it. Over twothirds of crop workers are foreign born. The farms with the giant political signs. The ones at every rally were built on that labor foundation. And now 75% of workforces aren't showing up. Fruit is rotting on trees in Ventura County. Cherries unpicked. Fields empty. California farms alone produce 50% of the produce sold across this entire country. That disruption is not staying on the farm.

[00:00:59]It is coming directly for your grocery bill. And there is no political spin that changes the math.

[00:01:07]>> Jose Pedro, where did y'all go? Hey, where did they go?

[00:01:16]>> They left. Why did they leave? They got work to do. Because they were illegal and you voted for the guy that wants to deport them. Not really the most stable working environment. What? But I need their cheap labor to make my thin profit margins to make sense financially.

[00:01:33]>> Well, you should have thought about that cuz now you're going to have to hire Americans and they're going to unionize and ask for higher wages and eat into those profit margins.

[00:01:40]>> Are you saying that I have to face the consequences of my own actions? Cuz we can't afford this. We're going to all going to be bankrupt in two quarters.

[00:01:48]>> Funny how there it is said out loud with zero self-awareness. She cheered for the deportations, voted for them, and now she's standing there like, "Wait, I needed those guys. This is the farming equivalent of firing your entire crew."

[00:02:02]And then wondering why nothing gets harvested. The profit margins were always dependent on that labor. Everyone in agriculture knew it. And now the consequence is knocking on her door. And she acts genuinely shocked since the crops don't care about your politics.

[00:02:15]They just It works that way. The Trump administration now wants to make it easier for farms to hire immigrants after trying to deport all of them.

[00:02:23]After conducting mass deportation of farms and all the ICE raids, Trump is now trying to get all of those immigrant farm workers back. Because it turns out Americans never wanted those jobs and they still don't. Shocker. And the farms are really pissed off about losing a majority of their workforce. So he's going to make it cheaper for farms to hire workers on an agricultural visa called the H2A visa. Under this new rule, wages will be lowered even more.

[00:02:46]So, what should these farmers do? Apply for a labor trafficking visa, which can get them a green card if they can prove that they've been trafficked into the United States by their employer and then further exploited. So, then they can leave their employer and then file a lawsuit against them.

[00:02:59]>> You know, USA Today put an article out about Louisiana and its seven detention centers for undocumented immigrants. On its face, that's not that big a deal, right? But here's the thing, something to really understand about it is that uh Louisiana like imprisons a higher percentage of its population than any other state in the United States and as of a few years ago any place in the world. They were able to take seven different facilities and put them all in rural areas so that no activist and nobody will show up and really cause them problems about what they're doing. You know, I I just it begs the question, you know, throughout history, when people are deported, they're deported. They're not housed by the thousands in these facilities. History says that this is not what they say it is. History says this is just a political payoff to all these red states. I It's just providing terror. It's just simply I mean, they're they're they're jailing people that committed no crime. They're jailing people that are legal residents. They're jailing people who at worst, in most cases, committed a civil offense equal to jaywalking.

[00:04:16]H you know, I had a mega contact of mine say to me the other day that nobody's coming to the border. They just quit coming to the border. So, this is actually working. Incidentally, that that that person that told me that was a white immigrant. Different perspective, huh? Absolutely different perspective.

[00:04:31]History is not going to smile on this.

[00:04:33]Just remember the last three times we've >> sit with what he just said for a second.

[00:04:37]Three times in American history we've run this exact playbook. Push people out, watch the economy suffer, then quietly invited them back. But this time we built detention centers in rural areas specifically. So no activists, no journalists, nobody could see what's happening inside. That's not immigration enforcement. That's a performance of cruelty designed to stay invisible. And the seed time and harvest line is where it really lands. You build a machine that treats people as disposable and eventually that machine circles back to the people who build it. History is already writing the verdict on this one and it is not kind. Done this. We've had to invite these people back. But we never did this before where we stockpiled hundreds of thousands of people and treated them like they were less than human. I believe in a principle of seed time and harvest. This is scary because the harvest on this could be terrible for us. Disha. My name is Laura Sixmith. I'm a dairy farmer and a writer. Today I talked about how I found it very difficult for a long time to describe myself as a farmer. Whether it be imposttor syndrome or lack of confidence or feeling that other people didn't see me as a farmer. I want other women, no matter what age they are, to be able to claim their farming status.

[00:05:52]This is why I used to do my vegetable patches. So, they're very good at just keeping on the grass. We'll also fence off a bit of the farm or a bit of the yard say and let them off and they will just eat away at it. They're very very good and quiet as in they don't break anything. We had them in the hed over here. one of the hay sheds that has a bishop of anyways.

[00:06:36]Blueberries.

[00:06:39]Willies, temporary visas, H2A visas. Doesn't completely. different energy here, but honestly, it matters. She's talking about fighting just to be seen as a farmer battling imposttor syndrome in a space she literally works every single day. And that's real. Women in agriculture constantly have to prove they belong somewhere they built with their own hands. But zoom out because the labor crisis about to hit small farms is going to crush the people least equipped to absorb it. female farmers, small dairy operations, independent growers. They don't have the lobbying power Big Egg has. They can't weather the losses. So, while she's fighting to claim her identity, the policy landscape is actively making her survival harder.

[00:08:54]So, you're not gonna believe this. I saw someone on Twitter were saying the white farmers on Twitter were saying that when they had all these mass deportations that they just automatically thought that they were going to send the black people to work their farms, the black farmers who had already lost their farms and just, you know, other black people because they needed the help and they wanted the government to send them, I guess, criminals so they can work on their farm. So they can keep their farms because you know me keeping my farm and not caring about you and giving you low wages, that's just the American dream, right?

[00:10:00]Stop it. Y'all need to stop this. This is just totally ridiculous. Little Johnny, Lil Susie, all the ones that you're paying all this money because you've gotten all this government money for free. You need to go get them out of college, which is what they used to do in the olden days. Get them out of college. Get them out of their little jobs and get them working that farm on the weekend. There you go. See, I fixed it for you.

[00:10:26]>> Look at you now. Now you know you a USDA study found that over 2/3 of crop workers are foreign born. This same study found that 42% of crop workers do not have proper work authorization. But collecting reliable data for the industry as a whole is challenging.

[00:10:54]there's generally a shortage of farm labor, you know, which is the reason why you have a lot of these undocumented workers working on American farms. The administration contends that that there are enough workers, uh, native born workers to take their place.

[00:11:09]>> He said it and I need everyone to actually hear it. The immigrant workforce disappears and the immediate instinct is to look toward black people like they're just next in the rotation.

[00:11:19]That is not a labor solution. And that is a centuries old reflex and it deserves to be called out every single time without softening it. And the deeper cut is that black farmers have been systematically losing their own land for decades through USDA discrimination and deliberate policy failures. So the same system that stripped them of their farms now wants to conscript them as labor on someone else's. He's right to be disgusted. Full stop. But I think most people in agriculture just think that's not a not a realistic expectation to have people with, you know, no experience in agriculture, you know, take these jobs for very low pay.

[00:11:59]>> Your choice as a farmer and a worker is I'm not going to harvest my crops and make a profit or as a worker I'm not going to be able to get a job. You just work around that system and that's led to undocumented. This farmer just accidentally explained undocumented immigration better than any politician has managed in 20 years. Labor shortage exists. Legal pathways are too slow and too limited. Farms need workers now so people fill the gap. That is not a moral failure. That is economics responding to a structural hole in the system. And then he said it plain. People making agricultural policy just don't understand agriculture. That is the entire problem in one sentence. You've got decision makers who have never worked a field in their lives dictating the labor conditions of an industry that feeds the country. Christy Noam farms a few miles away and her own voters are sitting there hoping she won't do exactly what she promised. That kind of faith is going to cost them everything.

[00:12:58]>> Immigration. I really believe that this is a direct result of having people in control of agricultural policy that just don't understand agriculture. What percentage of your workers are not US born?

[00:13:10]>> Probably half.

[00:13:11]>> About half.

[00:13:11]>> Yeah.

[00:13:13]>> How many hours does this go on?

[00:13:15]>> It's 24 hours a day. You know, we could milk 8 hours a day, but it wouldn't be feasible or profitable for us to produce milk.

[00:13:23]>> So, you need workers like this year round.

[00:13:26]>> Yes. Yes.

[00:13:27]>> Governor Christine Noam of South Dakota, her farm is just a few miles away. this farmer who voted for her, who voted for Trump, who still supports them, doesn't believe that they would round up immigrants and ask them for their immigration status because it's an open secret that farms in this state are held up by undocumented workers. Are you worried like some of your other farmers that if there were a mass roundup of undocumented migrants that you might lose workers? You might not have enough workers.

[00:14:03]>> Well, the question I asked, how they what's how are they going to do that?

[00:14:07]Within 2 days, we will not have food.

[00:14:10]There will not be food anywhere.

[00:14:13]>> Two days.

[00:14:13]>> Yes. That that's why I predict nobody will be filling shelves. Nobody will be producing food. If we once have to shut down and be gone, it's never coming back.

[00:14:23]>> Does Governor Noom understand that?

[00:14:26]>> I would think so.

[00:14:27]>> You have a lot of faith that they're not going to do what they're saying.

[00:14:31]>> That's pretty much what I'm thinking. We have to uh trust in our officials that are put in place.

[00:14:37]>> The highest paying job in America. Would you take it? Donald Trump's farms are offering salaries so high they sound unreal. Pick carrots and you'll earn $20,000 a month. take care of cattle and make $10,000 a month. That's more than what many doctors or lawyers take home.

[00:14:51]But here's the catch. There are rules.

[00:14:53]First, you must be a legal US resident.

[00:14:56]No papers, no job. Second, every worker is given a car, but you're not allowed to sell it. It's for work use only. And third, laziness will not be tolerated.

[00:15:05]Slack off once and you're gone. Food and housing are included, so you won't spend a dime on living expenses. Trump has poured millions of dollars into agriculture, opening over 2,000 new positions in an attempt to transform the US farm industry. Think about it. Most Americans won't even touch farm work.

[00:15:21]Yet, these salaries could pay off your mortgage in just a few months. It's early mornings, hard labor, long days under the sun. Not glamorous, but the money is real. So, here's the question.

[00:15:31]Would you survive the grind for $20,000 every single month? Drop your answer in the comments and tag a friend you think could actually handle this job.

[00:15:39]California farmers are raising the alarm that the plans of President-elect Elon Musk and his first lady Donald John Trump to deport immigrant workers might significantly hinder those farmers ability to harvest the crops that they grow and might eventually lead to these farmers being ruined. Only here's the thing. Those farmers supported Donald Trump during the election. If you're a Trump supporter, probably thinking, "Well, I'm not a California farmer."

[00:15:58]Here's the thing. Those farmers create 50% of the produce that's sold here in the United States. Now, if you combine their inability to grow that produce with tariffs on imported produce, what the hell do you think that's going to do to your grocery prices? I'll give you a hand. They're going to go through the [ __ ] roof.

[00:16:20]>> This is what you voted for. He's doing exactly what he said he would do.

[00:16:29]And now you're out here crying, but I don't feel sorry for you.

[00:16:37]you.

[00:16:39]I don't feel sorry for you.

[00:16:48]You know who I do feel sorry for? Those of us who understood the [ __ ] assignment and we're still going to find out anyway.

[00:16:54]>> So, McDonald Trump just teased a brand new immigration policy for farm workers.

[00:16:58]And I'm not even kidding when I say it is the most backhanded compromise you've ever seen. Here's what he's pushing now.

[00:17:03]A touchback plan. Basically, if you've ever been an undocumented farm worker in this country, you know, working your ass off for years, you'd be forced to leave the country and then reenter legally through a visa program like H2A. Let me repeat that for you in case you missed it. Leave the country you've helped feed just to beg to come back in legally, even though you've already proven you're essential. And of course, this isn't about granting any kind of stability or citizenship. Trump already made that clear. No path to legalization, just more bureaucracy and red tape. Leave the country you've been feeding for years.

[00:17:36]Go touch your home soil. Then re-enter through a visa program that pays you less than before. No stability, no citizenship, no protection, just a permission slip to remain exploitable.

[00:17:49]Big agriculture was screaming about labor shortages. And the response was a system that makes workers even more vulnerable. Wages cut, housing costs deducted directly from pay, zero legal footing. This is not a compromise. This is the same exploitation with extra paperwork stapled to it. And the workers who built this industry for decades get to choose between that deal or nothing at all.

[00:18:13]>> Now, this sudden softening didn't come from nowhere, guys. Trump's been getting slammed by big agriculture. These farms are freaking out over labor shortages.

[00:18:21]They need workers, real ones, not just the fantasy ones that MAGA think will show up from the unemployment line. So now Trump's caught in the middle. Of course, farms are begging for help. MAGA extremists are calling any legal fix amnesty. And Trump, well, he's just trying to [ __ ] thread this weird little needle where he pretends to care about both without actually fixing a damn thing. And even if the visa system does expand, it's a mess. It's seasonal.

[00:18:44]It's slow. And it doesn't cover year round work like dairy. These farms are still left exposed to ice raids and labor chaos. So, I mean, in the end of the day, we got to be real about this.

[00:18:54]This is not a solution. It's a PR stunt.

[00:18:56]It's Trump trying to make it look like he's tough on the border while quietly bailing out the industries that keep the economy running. You know what would actually help though, guys? A real pathway to legalization. Stability for workers, protection for the food supply.

[00:19:10]But no, he'd rather dance for the far right while pretending he's doing farmers a favor. You can't fix a broken system when you're only worried about how it looks to the base. You either value immigrant labor or you don't. But this halfmeasure [ __ ] helps no one.

[00:19:23]The Trump administration is expanding migrant visas to solve a national farm labor crisis. Let's break it down. The country faces a critical worker shortage while deportations continue at record levels. To bridge this gap, officials are overhauling the H2A visa program.

[00:19:39]Here is what's changing. Faster hiring, less paperwork, and quicker access to workers. Wages could drop by $1 to $7 per hour. Housing costs can now be deducted from workers pay. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says these reforms will keep farms running, but the United Farm Workers has filed a lawsuit to block them. Critics say it makes migrant labor cheaper and pushes wages down for everyone. The moment also puts renewed attention on the farm worker movement and the policies shaping its future today. The policy highlights a dual strategy, opening legal channels for specific industries while maintaining strict enforcement elsewhere. This is a developing story.

[00:20:18]Follow us. We'll keep you updated. When the Democrats decided to open up the border and allow countless people to pour into this country, the moment that Donald Trump decided that he was going to do mass uh deportations and get all of the illegal immigrants out of this country or as many of them as he possibly could, the argument from the Democrats was, "Who's going to pick our crops? Who's going to clean our toilets?

[00:20:45]Who's going to clean our hotel rooms?"

[00:20:47]That is literally what they said. In fact, >> why are you shipping these immigrants uh up north? We need them to pick the pops.

[00:20:56]>> Food is not reaching our table because those who pick the crops have been removed.

[00:21:01]>> I mean, you're going to have vegetables rotting in the fields.

[00:21:04]>> US farm industry groups want President-elect Donald Trump to spare their sector from his promise of mass deportations, which could upend a food supply chain heavily dependent on immigrants in the United States that are here illegally.

[00:21:20]No, I am so sorry, girl. You cannot have your cake and eat it, too. The farms are the ones I saw with the huge 12 foot Trump signs. Okay, I like food. I like food as much as the next person.

[00:21:35]But you got to be [ __ ] with us. You're going to be [ __ ] with us, okay? You can't you can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't. Trump has already broken his number one promise to voters that he would bring the cost of foods down. That is just not going to happen.

[00:21:51]His deportations of immigrants has caused such a huge rippling effect throughout the farm industry that it's caused many laborers who are immigrants to just not show up to work. Many of them have self deported and gone back to wherever they're from. Going through the fields here in Ventura County, there was no one working. I'm hearing reports that some farmers are saying that 75% of their workforce did not show up to work on Friday. So, what does that mean? It means food is going to stay in the vines and rot and go bad. And it means we're going to have a disruption in our food supply chain. So, everyone better buckle up because food's about to shoot up really high. the cost of strawberries, the cost of avocados, the cost of lettuce, the cost of everyday things we eat and take for granted are going to shoot up because there is no one in the fields to pick them. So, I hope you all are happy who voted for this man. I'm not exactly sure how well MAGA is going to take this message from agricultural secretary Rollins here. Check this out.

[00:23:00]to ensure that we have a 100% American workforce stands. But we must be strategic in how we are implementing the mass deportation so as not to compromise our food supply. Ultimately, the answer on this is automation. Uh also some reform within the current governing.

[00:23:16]>> The agriculture secretary just suggested Medicaid recipients should go work the fields. Medicaid covers elderly Americans, people managing chronic illness, caregivers who are home because their family member cannot be left alone. And the solution offered is send them to pick strawberries. The comedian nailed it. If grandma wants her pills, she better go grab a bushel first. This isn't workforce development. This is punishment dressed up as policy. The cruelty is not accidental here. It is the entire point >> structure. And then also when you think about there are 34 million ablebodied adults in our Medicaid program. There are plenty of workers in America, but we just seriously the cruelty is the point at this. I mean, if grandma wants her pills, she's going to go have to pick a bushel of strawberries. I mean, come on. It's getting a little ridiculous here, don't you think? They're saying abledbody workers, people that have retired, already been through the workforce, or people that are taking care of disabled loved ones.

[00:24:26]What are they talking about? This is beyond cruel.

[00:24:32]This is heartbreaking.

[00:24:34]>> The new report from the Labor Department warns of possible food shortages that could be caused by President Trump's immigration policy. It found that deportation efforts and restrictions on new migrants are combining to create a farm labor shortage without enough people to do the harvest that increases the risk of supply shock induced food shortages. The Secretary of Agriculture has suggested that Americans on Medicaid could fill many of the jobs left vacant by immigrants. The Labor Department suggests most Americans though are not willing to fill those jobs. You've got more than 30 acres of this farm with fruit that looks well like this. Look, rotting on the trees. These are cherry trees. These are cherries that are more than two weeks past their prime. They weren't picked because the farmer who runs this farm says his workforce was too scared to show up this year.

[00:25:28]>> Our workforce is uh uh primarily immigrants. You could have all the children born in the United States, but if mom's still trying to work through the immigration system and has has an issue, the whole family might say like, "Look, we're not going to risk it because we don't want mom to get picked up, so we're going to stay down in California."

[00:25:42]>> Fear of ICE rates kept many of them from traveling north this year. To understand why, we head south to central California.

[00:25:50]>> So, we're hoping that one of those farmworking families will actually talk to us here and give us a sense of what life is like in hiding.

[00:26:00]I think I think you're good. No names or anything there.

[00:26:02]>> Behind closed doors making dinner with her mom, we meet Lisa.

[00:26:07]>> Like every single summer, we will go out there. My parents or myself, we will pick a cherries. But this year, we decided to stay home just to be safe >> because you're living essentially as though you're >> and this is the part that gets buried under all the policy debate. A family that has picked cherries every single summer, whose labor kept that harvest running, is now locked inside their house. Kids with no playground, no summer, cooped up because one grocery run could end everything. Mom in her 60s still working fields when she can. Three American citizen children watching their mother calculate every single trip outside. The farmer up north can't get his harvest in. The crops are rotting on the trees. The family that could pick them is too afraid to leave. Everyone loses. The farmer, the worker, the consumer at the store. This is what happens when people become political props instead of the essential human beings that they actually are. And no visa program with lower wages and no legal protection fixes what's been broken here.

[00:27:13]>> You're going to be targeted at any moment.

[00:27:14]>> Yes.

[00:27:15]>> You've got to buy food.

[00:27:16]>> Yes.

[00:27:17]>> You've got to go shopping. Do you do leave for that?

[00:27:20]>> Yes, I have to. I mean, someone has to in the house.

[00:27:23]>> Lisa's here under DACA, a program that gives temporary protection to people brought to the US as children. Her three young kids, all US citizens.

[00:27:32]>> This is my new.

[00:27:35]>> You can tell they get kind of bored, like cooped up inside.

[00:27:39]>> No playgrounds, no summer sun. She's afraid of getting picked up by immigration while out and the family getting separated. She's even thinking about homeschooling this fall just to keep them close. But it's her mom she thinks about most. Still picking crops in her 60s.

[00:27:54]>> I would like to point that out. My mom is not a criminal >> and it hurts.

[00:28:02]I'm sorry. Back in 2020 when the whole pandemic happened, >> my parents were being considered