Increased immigration enforcement sets agriculture industry on edge

After hundreds of arrests of undocumented immigrants by immigration police, the Trump administration’s increased focus on immigration enforcement has some of the country’s largest farm groups worried.  Undocumented immigrants make up a significant portion of the country’s agricultural workforce. A 2016 Pew Research Center study showed undocumented workers are in about 26 percent of the nation’s farm jobs, the highest percentage among all occupations Pew included in the study. A crackdown on immigrant workers could put farms at-risk, and agricultural trade groups are taking precautions.  “I think it’s fair to say that everyone in agriculture is nervous and on edge,” says Jackie Klippenstein, an executive with Dairy Farmers of America, a co-op that counts 14,000 dairy farms in 48 states among its members. In the last decade, the nation’s dairies have frequently been the subject of immigration audits, where workers have been charged with using false documents and owners find themselves coughing up thousands of dollars in fines. Many dairy farmers already struggle to find enough labor to keep farms up and running, Klippenstein says, and raids make it even harder to fill positions milking cows and tending to the herd.