American Farmers Losing up to Half Their Crops due to Migrant Workers’ Fears and Deportations as Food Prices Increase

CNN

As the Trump Administration continues arresting and deporting non-criminal farm workers, some of who actually have visas and even green cards and are here legally, including many who are actually U.S. citizens, American farmers are losing up to half their crops right now (https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/06/us/oregon-cherry-harvest-immigrant-worker-shortage).

So it’s not surprising that a new poll published this week (https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/study-grocery-costs-stress-majority-165019751.html) found that the majority of Americans are stressed about their grocery bills as prices skyrocket for fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as meat.

From CNN (https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/06/us/oregon-cherry-harvest-immigrant-worker-shortage):

Deportation fallout: This farmer lost half his workforce. Now he’s losing his crop too

The Dalles, Oregon — The cherries are rotting on the trees in Ian Chandler’s orchards. Branch after branch hang heavy with fruit the Oregon farmer calls “mummified” — dark, shriveled and unappetizing.

They should have been picked a couple of weeks ago to tempt shoppers at markets and stores, or processed to garnish Shirley Temple mocktails, shiny and fat, promising bursts of sweetness.

The lost harvest has hit almost a quarter of Chandler’s 125 acres of cherry trees — not because of bad weather, disease or blight, just because there was no one to pick the fruit.

“What you’re going to see is a bunch of fat, happy raccoons this winter,” Chandler said ruefully, standing amid his still burdened trees. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to harvest these.”

He said he’s built up a loyal seasonal workforce for his Wasco County operation called CE Farm Management, about 90 minutes from Portland, with the same people coming year after year and staying in touch with birth announcements and Christmas cards in between.

But this year half of them did not arrive, and many of his neighbors were scrambling for pickers too. All told, Chandler said he will lose $250,000-$300,000 of revenue, left to rot on the trees.

Chandler’s pickers are mostly Latinos who follow the harvests in the west and northwest. But with raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on cities and workplaces and detentions and even deportations ensnaring many with no criminal records, he has seen a dramatic drop-off in labor this year.

Since April, 1.4 million people have dropped out of the US labor force — 802,000 of whom were foreign-born, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Everyone hired by Chandler provides identification and work authorization so he does not know who may be in the country illegally.

“We’ve had relationships with these workers for years,” he said. “You talk to a family, you get a good relationship with them, they recommend more family members, and that’s how you build up your workforce.

You could have all the children born in the United States, but if mom’s still trying to work through the immigration system, and has an issue, the whole family might say, ‘Look, we’re not going to risk it, because we don’t want mom to get picked up, so we’re going to stay down in California.’

So, then we lose our workforce.” Full article (https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/06/us/oregon-cherry-harvest-immigrant-worker-shortage).

Via https://t.me/healthimpact/2599