Take a drive through the Salinas or Central valleys in California and you’ll pass from town to town advertising its specialty fruit or vegetable: strawberries in Watsonville, garlic in Gilroy, pistachios in Avenal and almonds in Ripon. More than 400 types of commodities are grown in the Golden state – including a third of the vegetables and three-quarters of the fruits and nuts produced in the United States.
Much of that food is grown by immigrant farm workers – many of whom are undocumented. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), about half of the country’s 2.4 million agricultural farm workers do not have legal status in the US. But farm worker advocates say the number is much higher in places like California, where it can be “as high as 70% in some areas”, according to Alexis Guild, vice-president of strategy and programs at Farmworker Justice, a non-profit based in Washington DC.
Donald Trump’s campaign promise to “launch the largest deportation program in American history” by targeting millions of undocumented immigrants could upend the lives of the majority of these agricultural workers who grow and harvest our food – which would dramatically hit California’s communities and economy, with ripple effects that would touch every table in the country.
“Without undocumented immigrant labor, we wouldn’t be able to sustain a food supply at the capacity that we have right now,” said Ana Padilla, executive director of the Community and Labor Center at the University of California at Merced.
Farm workers already perform dangerous and often underpaid labor. In the fields, they are vulnerable to pesticide exposure and workplace injuries doing work that is exempt from federal overtime laws. Trump and his allies have repeatedly said that undocumented immigrants have “taken” jobs from Black and Hispanic Americans, but farm worker advocates say these are not jobs US citizens are eager to hold.
“Rather than thinking about how immigrants ‘took’ jobs that existed, the historic wave of migration from Mexico that began in the 1970s is really a story of the growth of an industry and a very large and profitable one at that,” said Edward Flores, a sociologist and faculty director of the Community and Labor Center, who compares the size of California’s agricultural industry to Hollywood.
“The fact that there were so many people working in agriculture meant that the nation exported much more produce than it otherwise would have – that it opened up opportunities for people all along the supply chain.”
In 2023, California’s agricultural exports totaled more than $24.7bn, according to the USDA. The state was the nation’s sole producer of many specialty crops – including almonds, artichokes, figs, olives, pomegranates, raisins and walnuts – and the leading producer of other staples, such as lettuce and celery.
“Proposed deportations would be absolutely devastating not just for immigrant households, but most American households,” Flores said. “Mass deportations would disrupt the food chain at a time when inflation is one of workers’ most pressing concerns.” He added that such deportations would slow production and increase prices of many grocery store staples, including milk, wheat and eggs.
Without the undocumented immigrant workforce, the United States would probably import more of its food supply – making food prices vulnerable to fluctuations and to Trump’s proposed tariffs. (The United States currently imports about 15% of its food supply – including about a third of vegetables, half of its fruit and 94% of seafood.)
A mass deportation operation would face logistical and financial hurdles: a recent report from the American Immigration Council estimates that a one-time mass deportation would cost at least $315bn – so the real reason to threaten to deport undocumented farm workers, advocates and academics say, is to discourage immigrant laborers from organizing for better working conditions.
“There’s a contradiction in business owners who employ undocumented immigrants and at the same time support Trump and his proposal for the largest deportation initiative in US history,” said Flores. “Unless your aim is to have greater control over labor than ever before. Because under such a proposal, an employer could recruit a vulnerable workforce and then government would provide the means to get rid of them at will.”
During his previous administration and the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump expedited H-2A visas for agricultural workers – but his allies have voiced disapproval of even legal immigration options for farm workers. The now infamous Project 2025, authored by former Trump administration officials, proposes capping and phasing down the H-2A visa program in order to “put American workers first”.
Farm worker advocates worry that other immigration and labor protections for farm workers, especially ones recently introduced by the Biden administration, are at risk. Republican-led states have sued the Biden administration over a rule allowing H-2A workers to unionize. And Padilla worries that the upcoming Trump administration would also challenge a Biden policy called Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement, which protects undocumented immigrants from deportation when reporting labor violations.
“These types of programs are essential – especially in certain industries like meat packing, agriculture, construction, food service – to report employer noncompliance, unsafe conditions, so [farm workers] could feel protected in doing that,” she said.
“Most undocumented farm workers in California and across the country have been here for at least 10 years,” said Antonio De Loera-Brus, communications director for the United Farm Workers of America. This means “they’ve lived through a Trump presidency before”, he added.
Although many farm workers are anxious about another Trump administration, he said, “what we need to do is reassure communities that they will not be left alone, that they will not be abandoned” and “this union is your union, and your union will always stick up for you”.
Last week, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, called for a special session of the state’s legislature “to protect California values” including “civil rights, reproductive freedom, climate action and immigrant families”. In 2018, California became the first “sanctuary state” in the nation when its legislature enacted a law limiting local and state officials from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
“Farm workers of all immigration statuses are going to continue feeding America just like they have every day,” said De Loera-Brus. “And they don’t care if the food they’re picking is going to end up on a Democrat or Republican table. They just want to be paid fairly and treated with dignity for their literally essential work. And then they want to go home safely to their families.”
