PROSSER, Wash. \u2014 It\u2019s harvest time and Central Washington farmer Jim Willard is short apple pickers. He doesn\u2019t blame President Trump\u2019s crackdown on illegal immigration.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to immigration enforcement? I don\u2019t think so,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the normal situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
A labor shortage is normal, farmers have been saying for years. The Trump administration\u2019s vigorous enforcement of immigration laws raises concerns that the shortage will get worse. Months into the campaign, U.S. agriculture has retained its workforce, including the large percentage whose employment is based on phony documents.<\/p>\n
Federal law forbids employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. Yet, the law also discourages employers from using their judgment. Employers must accept documents establishing identity and eligibility to work if they \u201creasonably appear genuine.\u201c<\/p>\n
\u201cTo do otherwise could be an unfair immigration-related employment practice,\u201d according to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service fact sheet.<\/p>\n
Illegal immigrants can get a Washington driver\u2019s license by showing identification, such as a driver\u2019s license from Mexico or a birth certificate, Department of Licensing spokesman Nathan Olson said. That takes care of identification.<\/p>\n
Social security numbers can be simply made up and printed on card stock paper. There are helpful websites.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very easy to get very good-looking documents,\u201d said Enrique Gastelum, CEO of the Washington-based Worker and Farmer Labor Association, a labor recruiter. \u201cI\u2019ve seen great documentation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keith Veselka, the CEO of Yakima farm management company NWFM, agreed. \u201cSocial security cards are easy to fake,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you got the documents, you\u2019re working, man. Why would I argue?\u201d<\/p>\n
Awash in fake documents<\/b><\/p>\n
The Des Moines, Iowa, school district paid a consultant $41,000 to vet superintendent candidates and still hired an illegal alien. Guyanan native Ian Roberts \u201cprovided the documents to show he was eligible for the position,\u201d according to the consultant\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n
The counterfeit document trade has thrived since immigration reform in 1986 legalized 3 million people. To discourage future illegal immigration, Congress took steps to penalize employers for hiring illegal aliens.<\/p>\n
Since then, job applicants have had to attest on Form I-9 that they are in the country lawfully and eligible to work, and present supporting documents. \u201cThe I-9 process was effectively undermined by the ready availability of genuine looking fraudulent documents,\u201d according to the Congressional Research Service.<\/p>\n
Presenting a fake social security card or green card to an employer is a felony under federal law, as is fraudulently attesting to having legal work status on the I-9. Possessing and using fake IDs is often also a violation of state laws.<\/p>\n
Congress created E-Verify in 1996 to stop the illegal hiring. Employers, voluntarily, can check documents from job seekers against federal records. E-Verify denied jobs to 241,983 illegal aliens in 2024, according to its annual report.<\/p>\n
E-Verify, however, is little used by agriculture. Only 612 agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting employers nationwide are registered to use the system. Nine agricultural employers in Washington are registered; three in Oregon.<\/p>\n
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, reintroduced a bill this year to make E-Verify mandatory. Agriculture shudders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019d shut the country down,\u201d Veselka said. \u201cIt\u2019d get messy real quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump defends farm workforce<\/b><\/p>\n
Making up social security numbers can cause problems for the people who happen to have that number, like when they apply for unemployment and records show they\u2019re working. But the Social Security Administration stopped sending \u201cno-match\u201d\u00a0 letters in 2021, informing employers that a worker\u2019s supposed social security number belonged to someone with a different name.<\/p>\n
The letters had a tortured history and were the targets of lawsuits. The American Civil Liberties Union accused the government of using \u201cerror-ridden\u201d records to enforce immigration laws.<\/p>\n
The Obama administration stepped up \u201csilent raids,\u201d sending bookkeepers to audit farm payrolls, but illegal immigrants uncovered by the audits were dismissed, not deported, and moved on to the next farm. The One Big Beautiful Bill funds more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who could be used to conduct audits. ICE did not respond to a request to comment.<\/p>\n
If ICE steps up immigration enforcement on farms, it will be at odds with Trump\u2019s acknowledgement that agriculture relies on illegal immigrants. \u201cWe can\u2019t let our farmers not have anybody,\u201d he told a cable news show\u00a0 in August.<\/p>\n
ICE in July raided two marijuana farms in California and arrested 361 illegal immigrants. National Council of Agricultural Employers CEO Michael Marsh said he has not heard of more recent mass raids on farms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the administration is kind of keeping its promise to take care of the farmer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Just the fear of deportation has the potential to destabilize the agricultural workforce, said Ben Tindall, executive director of Save Family Farming, a Washington-based advocacy group.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not aware of farm operations as a general rule being targeted. I\u2019m aware of a lot of concern,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s another thing farms have to face and work through when it already feels like the wheels are turning against them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Help Wanted<\/b><\/p>\n
Immigration enforcement isn\u2019t agriculture\u2019s only labor issue. Washington\u2019s new overtime law that removes the exemption for agriculture is \u201ccrushing,\u201d Veselka said. Oregon has a similar law.<\/p>\n
Farms need more workers to avoid overtime and workers need second jobs to avoid pay cuts, he said. \u201cThey work for you Monday through Friday and work for somebody else on the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
But immigration enforcement grabs headlines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported there were 155,000 fewer jobs in July than in March in \u201cagriculture and related industries,\u201d inspiring news stories about a \u201ccritical labor shortage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The category includes forestry, fishing and hunting, and counts farmers and unpaid family members. The same BLS report showed there were 46,000 more wage and salaried jobs that month than in July 2024, a better comparison because of the seasonal nature of farm work.<\/p>\n
The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service reported that farm employment was up 3% in April compared to the year before. NASS has discontinued the survey.<\/p>\n
The Department of Labor reports a slight increase in foreign farmworkers so far this year, though nothing out of line with past increases. The department this month adopted rules to lower the cost of employing foreign farmworkers. The department anticipates fewer illegal immigrants in farm jobs in the future.<\/p>\n
Gastelum said more farmers are inquiring about hiring foreign farmworkers for next year or the year after. \u201cI think the interest will only increase, especially with a wage that\u2019s a lot more manageable,\u201d Gastelum said.<\/p>\n
The Congressional Research Service this year estimated 680,000 farmworkers are illegal immigrants and make up 35% of the agricultural workforce. It\u2019s a larger percentage than U.S. citizens (27%), foreign guest workers (16%) or non-citizens with authorization to work in the U.S. (22%).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unrealistic to think illegal immigrants could be replaced by simply letting in more foreign farmworkers, Marsh said.<\/p>\n
The Labor Department doesn\u2019t have the capacity to process that many applications for workers, he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not enough hands to do the job, like on farms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Solution standing by<\/b><\/p>\n
Kennwick, Wash., farm labor consultant Erik Nicholson said Congress can solve agriculture\u2019s labor problem by passing the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a solution,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy is this even an issue?\u201d<\/p>\n
The act would grant \u201ccertified agricultural status\u201d to farmworkers. It wouldn\u2019t be citizenship, but it could legalize one-third or more of agriculture\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n
The bill passed the House in 2019 and 2021, but didn\u2019t get out of the Senate. A Heritage Foundation issue brief called the act a \u201cclear-cut example of amnesty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHad they passed it, we wouldn\u2019t have this extreme anxiety right now,\u201d said Nicholson, a former United Farm Workers national vice president.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though farm raids haven\u2019t happened, this year has been traumatic for farmworkers,\u201d he said. \u201cParents have had to have conversations with their children about what to do in case mom and dad don\u2019t come home.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy fear is this is the quiet before the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willard, the Central Washington farmer, said he won\u2019t be sorry if people looking for trouble are deported. \u201cI support the administration cleaning up those people who have warrants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And although he\u2019s short of workers, the present system \u2014 dependent on reasonably genuine documents \u2014 works for him, he said. \u201cThe people who work for me are here to work and raise their families.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PROSSER, Wash. \u2014 It\u2019s harvest time and Central Washington farmer Jim Willard is short apple pickers. He doesn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":309744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,420,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-309743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115387458544978628","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}