Fear of increased ICE raids has already had a negative impact on the nation’s agricultural sector, raising concerns that food prices will skyrocket in the near future as a result of Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies.
Bakersfield, California, saw a significant drop in the number of field workers showing up for work Tuesday as ICE agents in unmarked Chevy Suburbans rounded up and detained immigrants in the area, profiling those they thought were field workers, according to CalMatters.
The end result: acres of unpicked oranges roasting in the California sun during the peak of the season.
Bakersfield is a small part of California’s Central Valley, which produces roughly a quarter of the country’s food.
Kern County, where Bakersfield is located, has consistently ranked among the top three agricultural counties in the country, owing largely to the efforts of undocumented laborers, who are estimated to make up more than half of the county’s workforce, according to CalMatters.
Undocumented workers have been targeted while walking in and out of gas stations, eating breakfast, shopping at Home Depot, or driving down the 99 Highway, leaving many with no choice but to stay at home.
“We’re in the middle of our citrus harvesting,” Casey Creamer, president of the industry group California Citrus Mutual, told CalMatters.
“This sent shockwaves through the whole community. People are not going to work, and children are not attending school. Yesterday, about 25% of the workforce showed up; today, 75% did not.
Losing the majority of America’s agricultural workforce overnight would result in “absolute economic devastation,” according to Richard S. Gearhart, an associate professor of economics at Cal State Bakersfield who spoke with the nonprofit news outlet.
“You are talking about a recession-level event if this is the new long-term norm,” Gearhart said, claiming that the consequences of Trump’s policies will be felt in grocery store checkout lines across America.
The forty-seventh president has effectively promised a full-throttle immigration crackdown over the next four years, including an attack on birthright citizenship and high-profile ICE raids against undocumented immigrants across the country.
However, just two days into the administration, it appears that anti-immigrant efforts will be largely unrestricted.
On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would reverse an Obama-era directive that had allowed the immigration agency to detain people in sensitive settings such as hospitals, places of worship, courtrooms, funerals, and weddings.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a spokesperson for the agency stated. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
