Central Valley growers, undocumented farmworkers condemn Trump's 'emergency' (2024)

Margarita and Jonathon arrived a recent early morning at a table grape vineyard on the outskirts of Delano, just south of the Tulare County line.

They tied vines and worked to prepare hundreds of acres ofplants for the upcoming harvest.

It was 7 a.m — technically sunrise — but they could hardly see it behind a dense thicket of dark gray storm clouds. They worked fast to accomplish as much as possible before rainfall drove them from the muddy fields back home.

Aroundthe same time in Washington, D.C., President Trump declared a national emergencyfrom the neatly manicured lawns of the White House Rose Garden.

“We’re going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border, and we’re going to do it one way or the other,” he said in a televised statement just hours after Congress passed a spending bill that kept the government open, but fell far short of the President's $5.7billion demand to fund a border wall.

Margarita and Jonathon are both undocumented farmworkers— two of an estimated 1.5 million working in the U.S.They have pruned, tied and harvested millions of grapes across nearly 20 years combined.

"I have lived every day in fear since Trump'selection," Margarita said. "I'm afraid to leave my home, to drive. I worry about my diabetic husband. What happens if he has an attack, who will take him to the hospital?"

Margarita is not alone in her fear.

Growers across the state have condemned Trump's immigration policy. They sayit has contributed to a mass labor shortage that is devastating farms across California— and inflating grocery store prices for citizens across the country.

"I agree with Trump on keeping drugs and the criminal element out, but he does an injustice tothe overwhelming majority of (immigrants) who want towork and earn an honest living," said Joe Garcia,Jaguar Farm Labor Contracting CEO.

Margarita counts herself among the lattergroup. She has a message for Trump.

"I invite the president to spend a day in the fields with us, to see how hard we work and what we contribute to the Valley."

H-2 'Nay'

Garcia contracts with wine and table-grape growers across California to provide laborers.

Business is booming — Garcia says he can't keep up with farmers' demands. Last year, his company distributed more than 7,000 W-2 tax forms.

"That's another thing people don't always realize," he said. "Immigrant laborers are paying the same taxes as everybody else."

He estimates that in the 15 years he has worked as a labor contractor, the labor force has declined by 10 percent each year.

Garcia attributes that dwindling labor force mainly to "a tightening of the border wall."

"Hispanics are not able to get across as easilywhich puts a strain on farmworker availability," he said. "That translates to higher prices at the grocery store."

While the federal government provides a temporary work visa program to ag laborers called H-2A, Garcia says it's not a practical option for many growers.

"Only the large-scale operations can afford H-2A," he said. "That's because growers have to house and transport those workers, as well as pay them a higher, federally-mandated minimum wage."

That's not counting Garcia's fees: He charges 45 percent overhead to connect growers, laborers and the government.

Some industries— such as Tulare County's multi-billion-dollar dairy industry— are locked out of the H-2A program altogether, because the work isn't seasonal.

"Every farmer I work with wants to see immigration reform," Garcia said. "Growers understand that our farmworkers are our most important resource."

'All talk, no action'

Hernan Hernandez is a firsthand witness to that fear.

He operates theCentral Valley Farmworker Foundation, which works with Margarita, Jonathon and hundreds of other immigrants— some legal, many not— throughout the country's most productive ag economy.

Despite the Valley accounting for more than $30billion ofCalifornia's ag revenue, the foundation is one of few organizations thatworks directly with growers and farmworkers in the fields.

Since the foundation opened its doors in 2016, shortly before Trump's election, Hernandez has seen an evolving response to the president's rhetoric.

"The day after the election, these fields were empty," he said. "Nobody showed up to work, because they were afraid of deportation."

Some undocumented residents, such as Jonathon, have taken to tuning out the media altogether.

"I don't watch the news anymore," he said. "It was the same stories every day— always promoting fear. I'd come to work but I couldn't concentrate because I wasn't focused."

He said that fear caused him to become suspicious of police and made him feel like he couldn't leave his home; an attitude he believed he was transmitting to his two grade-school-aged children.

Nowadays, Jonathon says he isn't scared, "just cautious."

"Most (undocumented farmworkers) have learned that this president is all talk, no action in the Central Valley," Hernandez said. "You won't see mass raids here, because farmers are reliant upon their work."

It's a different story for those attempting to cross the border.

"You don't see much migration anymore," he said "(Immigration officials) have long been targeting areas where it used to be easier (to cross the border)."

Innovative solutions

Earlier this month, some 1,500 exhibitors from countries as far-flung as Italy and Japan lined the muddy grounds of the annual World Ag Expo in Tulareto show off their wares.

Amid the multi-million-dollar John Deere and RAM truck exhibits stood a slightly more modest booth in Pavilion A: AgHires.com

AgHires serves as a kind of Craigslist for farmers, matching job seekers toemployers around the country.

"I found there wasn't a great resource for connecting jobs in the ag industry," said Lori Culler, who founded the service.

Although Culleris based in Minnesota, hundreds of farmers in the Central Valley and California make use of her job board.

She flashed an iPhone screen with the AgHires app, it read:"Search from over 7,421 jobs!"

"That number is updated in real time," she said. "The need for specialized labor is overwhelming in the ag industry, as workers move on to less-demanding and more-lucrative jobs."

While immigration policy plays a big role in that crunch, Culler says that an historically low unemployment rate — 4 percent as of last month — is hitting industries across the board.

"We have to be more creative about who we're pulling from," she said. "To stay competitive, farmers need to be mindful of prospective employees' needs."

Culler's family's farm employs dozens ofimmigrant workers through H-2A. She would like to see the program expanded.

"It's a win-win for everybody if we can take away some of those roadblocks," she said.

Other Expo exhibitors pushedautomated solutions in the form of cutting-edge equipment, such as The Cyclone, a "Top-10 New Products" award winner at this year's Expothat uses vacuum technology to assist with harvesting.

"This technology isprohibitively expensive to many farmers," Garcia said. "Plus, the technology just isn't there for many crops. Pickers need to observe the color of the grapes and their sugar content, for example. A machine can't do that yet."

Garcia mainly uses Facebook and old-school notice posting on marketsin rural communities, for example, to recruit farm workers.

Hernandez pointed out that many field workers have no knowledge of the World Ag Expo — only Jonathon was an exception.

"Yeah, I know about the farm show," he said. "They asked me to go clean it last year when things slowed down (in the field)... It was a mess."