The federal crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is threatening the future of Washington’s farms and the entire food system, warned Markus Rollinger, a dairy farmer and president of Save Family Farming.
“The mishandling of deportation policies has created an atmosphere of fear, silencing voices and stripping away the dignity of those who contribute daily to our nation’s food supply,” Rollinger said.
A report from the Office of Homeland Security estimated there were 340,000 undocumented immigrants in Washington state as of 2022.
Many of these individuals work in the state’s agricultural sector, helping to produce a wide variety of crops, such as berries, apples and hops, as well as beef and milk. Nearly 2,500 farms in Whatcom and Skagit counties generated more than $877 million in agricultural products in 2022, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture Census of Agriculture.
“No fruit gets picked, no vegetables get picked, no cows get milked without … what you could call immigrant workers,” said Ray de Vries, an immigrant and the owner of Ralph’s Greenhouse in Mount Vernon.
“If you’re working on a farm, you are not a criminal. The work is way too hard,” de Vries said. “So ICE and the immigration people need to go look somewhere else to find the people that need to be deported.”
White House officials gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest quotas of 1,200–1,500 per day starting in late January as part of the Trump administration’s effort to fulfill campaign promises of mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.
It’s a move that will “increase the chance that officers will engage in more indiscriminate enforcement tactics,” according to a report by The Washington Post.
“We don’t know a ton of specifics,” Dillon Honcoop, the communications director for Save Family Farming, said of ICE actions in the state. “But what we can speak to is that it certainly has created a lot of fear.”
Honcoop noted the apprehension goes beyond undocumented immigrants to also include those who might get “swept up in this unfairly.”
While de Vries knows that people in farming communities have their “radar up” to see what’s happening, he said the level of concern is not as high as it was during Trump’s first term.
During those years, many workers just stayed at home because they didn’t know what was going to happen. Workers didn’t want their children to return from school to an empty home, he explained.
Immigrants play vital role in agriculture
Immigrants are crucial to U.S. food security, playing a disproportionate role in ensuring a reliable food supply in the nation, according to research by the Baker Institute for Public Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research organization at Rice University.
More than 60% of crop farmworkers are immigrants — 42% are undocumented — according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report.
“The immigrant community is so important,” Honcoop said. “There’s just so many stories of people that want to live the American dream, people that are motivated, that care about their families and are willing to work hard.”
Immigrants crossing the Mexican border to work in agriculture in the U.S. are skilled laborers who grew up on farms and know how to do the work, de Vries said.
While the majority of crop farmworkers are immigrants, they are not considered migrant workers. More than 80% of crop laborers work at a single location within 75 miles of their home, making them an intrinsic part of the fabric of agricultural communities.
“We’ve worked hard to try to make year-round jobs for the people that work with us,” de Vries said. “One of the things that I’m most happy with at Ralph’s Greenhouse is watching all these kids graduate from high school because mom and dad have a steady job.”
Yet, there has been a shortage of farm labor in the U.S. for decades.
Workforce shortages threaten farms
Even before the most recent wave of immigration actions, via executive orders from the White House, research shows that farmers have struggled to find and retain workers. The scarcity problem is particularly acute for farmers, such as those in Skagit County, who grow labor-intensive specialty crops.
Ralph’s Greenhouse is a labor-intensive farm specializing in cold-weather crops. However, last year was the first year in decades that de Vries didn’t struggle to find workers for his fields.
That situation is different from what Honcoop is hearing from many other farmers in the state.
Honcoop said that farmers are at a “breaking point in a lot of ways” as they face increased costs of labor and fewer people willing to do the work. The situation forces farmers to make the hard decision of whether or not they can survive in the industry.
“If people are worried about coming to work or worried about going out into their community, it makes it even harder to produce food,” Honcoop said.
The U.S. is reliant on undocumented immigrants to produce its food because there is no legal and reasonable way for needed laborers to get into the country, de Vries said.
“We call on federal leaders to immediately pursue real solutions to fix America’s broken immigration system,” said Rollinger, who believes both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for the situation.
“Justice demands a fair and orderly immigration process — one that does not rely on fear or intimidation to control the lives of those who simply seek to work and provide for their families,” he added.
Know your rights
It’s important for everyone in the U.S. — regardless of their immigration status — to know their rights, de Vries said. These include the right to remain silent and the right to demand law enforcement present a judge-signed warrant to enter a home.
A handout created by the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network in English and Spanish outlines some of these rights and provides practical recommendations for individuals facing immigration court and other legal matters. (The network also published guidelines for bystanders and observers.)
“As the threat of mass deportation looms over our loved ones, the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) remains steadfast in providing comprehensive care to those impacted by immigration enforcement,” WAISN Executive Director Catalina Velasquez stated in a Feb. 21 email to Cascadia Daily News.
The organization provides direct support to people in detention and those recently released, as well as their families.
WAISN expanded the hours of operation for its Deportation Defense Hotline (844-724-3737), which is available Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in more than 300 languages.
“If you witness or hear about immigration enforcement activity, please encourage those with firsthand knowledge to call our Deportation Defense Hotline during operating hours,” Velasquez said. “If no operators are available during your call, please text us with details so we can prioritize following up.”
The organization’s Fair Fight Bond Fund — the only community-sourced immigration bond fund in Washington State and the Pacific Northwest — pays for the release of individuals “from the violence and injustice of immigration detention.”
“WAISN’s work focuses on ensuring all Washingtonians know how to protect their rights and hold agencies accountable for human rights violations and abuse of power,” Velasquez said.
Isaac Stone Simonelli is CDN’s enterprise/investigations reporter; reach him at isaacsimonelli@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 127.
