Trump's Mass Deportations Are Pushing US Farms to Breaking Point

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Newsweek

Published Apr 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM EDT


President Donald Trump's mass deportation plans are pushing American farms to a "breaking point," experts warned. Martin Casanova, founder of THX, a program that connects consumers with farmworkers, told Newsweek. "We are dangerously close to a breaking point. In 2022, an estimated 15 million tons of produce were left unharvested in the U.S.—enough for 30 billion daily servings."

Why It Matters

A key aspect of Trump's immigration agenda is the removal of millions of undocumented immigrants, with a focus on the immediate deportation of individuals who were in the U.S. illegally, especially those with criminal records. However, the president's flagship policy has sparked concerns about its potential ripple effects on the economy.

Business leaders are advocating for a more balanced approach that supports businesses while preserving the essential workforce crucial to their survival. Agricultural output will fall between $30 and $60 billion if Trump's flagship policy is carried out, according to the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC).

What To Know

The crisis facing U.S. agriculture is not just a political issue but an economic one. Labor shortages in the sector are already contributing to rising food prices. Farms are struggling to find enough workers to harvest crops, which results in lower yields, a tight supply, and higher costs for consumers. Perishable crops, such as fruits and vegetables, are particularly vulnerable.


Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/trump-mass-deportation-farms-breaking-point-2064190

[Lovie777]

1. Didn't shithole musk republicans .......

agree to send farmers money?

[Biophilic]

3. Maybe, but that won't help the rest of us as we pay more and more for produce.

[Dan]

2. It's well known that farmers pay a living wage to their workers.

[travelingthrulife]

16. lol.

[NickB79]

4. Still time for everyone here to start a vegetable garden for the summer

I'd suggest you get on that, if you have a patch of ground to work up.

[magicarpet]

5. DeSantis has the solution to not enough help to pick the fruits and veggies,....

..... change the state employment laws and allow 8 year old to be crop pickers out in the fields. An elementary, junior high, and high school education are becoming secondary.

If they are below 16 years old they should receive only half the federal minimum wage.

USA,... USA,.... USA.

A race to the bottom for the working class,... a race to unimaginable self-enrichments for the filthy ostentatious rich.

[Hekate]

6. MAGAGOP are blithering idiots

[Botany]

7. Hey Trump voting farmers FAFO

Watch your crops rot in the field, guess your dairy cows will learn to milk themselves,
and good luck getting the market for your sorghum back. Although some farmers will
get bailed out by Trump use of tax dollars but the cost of food will go way up.

[poozwah]

14. yeah, but...

the farmers were told what he was going to do, and they still voted for him! how stupid do they have to be? trump continues to receive votes from the idiots who are most adversely affected by his policies because those people do not see the high cost of hate. no foreigner has ever posed a threat as great as the one we have seen in the past and are seeing today. we have been dumbed down by religion, propaganda, xenophobia, the internet, and, most importantly, racism.

[Botany]

18. One of my late father's colleague who is a very prominent political scientist...

…. once told me that Trump has a 25 to 30% base that will never leave him because of
RACISM.

[Amaryllis]

8. Not to mention the food shortage issue.

[SunSeeker]

9. May they have the day the voted for. nt

[Martin Eden]

10. MAGA voters are clamoring to fill those agriculture jobs

Working on farms to harvest vegetables is VERY American. They will be PROUD to do that work.

[Keepthesoulalive]

11. They are getting what they voted for

They could have had a steady hand that would have helped them with trade and other ways to sell their crops , instead the voted for Freddy Kruger the mad slasher.

[Marthe48]

12. felon will air every action

even if his methods cost more with fewer results.
I saw a graph last week showing the number of people deported and the cost under each U.S. president since at least Clinton. Every pres. deported more people at lower cost than felon has, either in regime 1 or currently. If I can find the graph, I'll add it.
In my opinion, just like always, others will do the work, do it fairly, and do it better, while felon flounders around like an inept swimmer trying to keep up with the champs.
While other administrations used legal methods and law to deport, felon is kidnapping Americans, seizing protected people who believed they were safe and rounding up vulnerable family groups with relatives who could legally house them. So along with the tinsel, felon is also flooding the courts with suits that didn't need to be brought. And the media will air every story, either to prove felon is doing what he said, or to keep the cruelty in front of those of us hoping that humans will be humane.

[RhapsodyFav]

13. Mark my words..

They are going to start using prison slave labor, maybe even putting the "illegals" in the prisons and make them work for the farmers for free.

[travelingthrulife]

17. And kids...don't let those lazy louts sit around all summer. In fact, who needs school?

[ProudMNDemocrat]

15. Exposing the UGLY side of Agriculture.

As to whom is doing the actual work so we can have celery, tomatoes, fresh fruit, etc., that we ALL take for granted for low prices at the grocery store.

tRump did not think about that! He never does.

[republianmushroom]

19. What "Mass Deportations", so far there has ben less than 1500

deportations, I don't call that mass. But they have played to MAGMrats and have got lot of headlines and TV time.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. I saw this article yesterday

Numbers show no mass deportation of migrants, despite Trump immigration crackdown

But what has obviously happened is that their "day workers" have "disappeared" themselves and refuse to go in public lest they get rounded up. It ends up with the same result. No workers to work in the fields of the MAGat voters.

[Igel]

21. You saved me the trouble.

It's not like this hasn't been a somewhat frequent kind of post on DU.

Mock Trump because his deportation numbers are tiny. Be outraged that he's deporting so many that he's going to wreck entire industries, because the waves of deportees is "yuge."

The only way to make the circle even slightly eccentric is to say that the threat of deportation has had a chilling effect on labor, so that those who came for economic security are hunkering down. Since they're billed as all poor, indigent, and truly needy, I don't know how'd they'd survive, but at least it's a suggestion.