A top Trump administration official\u2019s claim that Medicaid recipients could replace farmworkers has met with pushback from California\u2019s agriculture industry, which faces the loss of its workforce amid the federal immigration crackdown. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be no amnesty. The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way,\u201d said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins at a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. \u201cAnd we move the workforce towards automation and 100% American participation, which, again, with 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, left, with Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, speaks during a news conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n
(Manuel Balce Ceneta \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Helen McGrath, whose family farms citrus and avocados in Ventura County, said Rollins\u2019 comments were insulting. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can confidently say that most farmers in the country either laughed out loud or were just deflated by those comments,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just shows how uninformed and out of touch some of these officials are with what food production looks like in this country.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to 2022 figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a>, 42% of crop farmworkers had no work authorization, with California having the highest share of unauthorized workers. <\/p>\n Immigration raids at farms, ranches and dairies have recently targeted operations in Ventura County, as well as those in other states, such as Nebraska. Many farmers reported their workers had stayed home for days after such enforcement actions out of fear of arrest. <\/p>\n Last month, President Trump acknowledged concerns<\/a> among agriculture industry leaders that recent immigration enforcement was taking away critical workers. That led to a pause<\/a> of worksite raids in the agriculture, hotel and restaurant sectors. <\/p>\n Days later, though, his administration reversed course<\/a>. <\/p>\n Rollins acknowledged \u201cthere\u2019s been a lot of noise in the last few days and a lot of questions about where the president stands in his vision for farm labor.\u201d <\/p>\n She said that when she and Trump have spoken about mass deportations, he has agreed that they must be carried out strategically \u201cso as to not compromise our food supply.\u201d <\/p>\n Juan Proa\u00f1o, chief executive of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a national civil rights organization, dismissed Rollins\u2019 message, saying the Trump administration has flip-flopped so much that her words shouldn\u2019t be taken at face value.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t put too much credence on this,\u201d Proa\u00f1o said. \u201cThe president understands he\u2019s getting significant pressure from the agriculture industry. These workers really are irreplaceable in our food distribution system.\u201d<\/p>\n Proa\u00f1o said the idea that \u201cbackbreaking work in some of the worst conditions\u201d could be replaced by automation or by people receiving Medicaid is simply not a realistic plan. <\/p>\n \u201cThese are large conglomerates worth millions and millions of dollars,\u201d Proa\u00f1o said. \u201cIf they could have automated picking strawberries and oranges, they would have already.\u201d <\/p>\n A tractor in Gilroy, Calif. The Trump administration says automation can replace many immigrant workers. But California farmers say that\u2019s an unrealistic expectation at this time.<\/p>\n (David Paul Morris \/ Bloomberg \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n Automation is not just around the corner, said Mark Bolda, a farm advisor specializing in berry agriculture on the Central Coast of California. Machines have a particularly hard time with strawberries because the soft fruit tends to be hidden under leaves.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the secretary is being overly ambitious,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n A transition to automation would require an expensive and unfeasible overhaul of the way strawberries are grown, Bolda said. It would require, for example, replacing sprawling strawberry fields with tabletop beds in controlled greenhouses with flat floors conducive to wheeled machines.<\/p>\n For now, the work of picking strawberries relies on humans.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowers are very vigorously testing machines, but nothing\u2019s worked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In 2023, nearly two-thirds of adults ages 19 to 64 who were covered by Medicaid were working, and more than a quarter were not working because of caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability, or because they were in school. That\u2019s according to the health policy organization KFF<\/a>. <\/p>\n Manuel Cunha, head of the Nisei Farmers League, was skeptical of the idea that Medicaid recipients seeking employment would be a good fit for farm labor.<\/p>\n In the 1990s, he was part of an effort that included several California agricultural counties and state workforce leaders to make farm labor jobs available for people required to seek employment under the \u201cWelfare-to-Work\u201d program. He said farmers at the time were desperate for workers because many longtime farmworkers had recently become lawful permanent residents under President Reagan\u2019s amnesty program and sought jobs in different sectors.<\/p>\n But he said the effort was a disaster. <\/p>\n After diligent outreach, only three people showed up to work, he said. One was late. A second person showed up and worked for part of the day before sustaining an injury and returning to the employment office to say he had gotten hurt on the job.<\/p>\n \u201cWe lost crops,\u201d Cunha recalled. \u201cFruit literally rotted on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n During the news conference Tuesday, Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, mentioned her past as a farmer and rancher in South Dakota. <\/p>\n \u201cI recognize that food policy is national security policy,\u201d she said. \u201cA country who cannot feed itself, cannot take care of itself and cannot provide for itself is not secure.\u201d <\/p>\n Critics called her comments ironic, saying the Trump administration is taking farmworkers for granted and leaving the country vulnerable to food insecurity.<\/p>\n Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, speaks during a Cabinet meeting with President Trump, right, at the White House on Tuesday.<\/p>\n (Evan Vucci \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n \u201cThese deportations and this cruelty, it is affecting workers and their families and their community, but it\u2019s going to get to the point that we\u2019re all going to feel the pain,\u201d said United Farm Workers President Theresa Romero. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to find what we want and what we need, and whatever we find is going to be a lot more expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trump Organization has filed to bring in at least 1,880 foreign workers under temporary visa programs since 2008 to staff Mar-a-Lago, four of its golf clubs and its Virginia winery, Forbes reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n In an interview with Fox News last month<\/a>, Trump said his administration is working to develop a \u201ctemporary pass\u201d for immigrants who work in agriculture. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to do something for farmers, where we can let the farmer sort of be in charge,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThe farmer knows. He\u2019s not going to hire a murderer. When you go into a farm and he\u2019s had somebody working with him for nine years doing this kind of work \u2014 which is hard work to do, and a lot of people aren\u2019t going to do it \u2014 and you end up destroying a farmer because you took all the people away, it\u2019s a problem.\u201d <\/p>\n Asked about Rollins\u2019 comments<\/a> later Tuesday, Trump reiterated that \u201cthere\u2019s no amnesty.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is we\u2019re getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Rollins pointed to the H-2A visa program and other seasonal worker programs, saying the conversations around temporary farm labor continue. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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