Our Food System is Sustained by Undocumented Immigrants
By Dalia Rodriguez-Caspeta
On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump signed 26 executive orders.[1] Amongst them was Executive Order 14159 titled “Protecting People Against Invasion.”[2] The order’s purpose is to “protect the American people by faithfully executing immigration laws of the United States.”[3] The order authorized the “efficient and expedited removal of [immigrants] from the United States.”[4] Since then, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has “arrested 66,463 [undocumented immigrants] and removed 65,682 [immigrants]” and counting.[5] “Over forty percent of hired crop farmworkers lack legal immigration status” in the United States.[6] In California, it is estimated that about 75% of farmworkers are undocumented.[7]
To understand the effect expedited removal of undocumented individuals will take on the nation, understanding California’s contribution to food production is crucial. “California is the nation’s sole producer . . .of a large number of specialty crops.”[8] The list includes almonds, artichokes, figs, olives, and walnuts.[9] “The state produces about half of the U.S.-grown fruits, nuts, and vegetables.”[10] In 2023, agricultural exports from California totaled $22.4 billion.[11] Essentially, food produced in California reaches the entire nation.
Amongst the fields, farmworkers are vital for the harvesting of the produce.[12] Yet, under the new ICE efforts, Latino farmworkers have stopped going to work.[13] Initially, the Trump administration refrained from ICE raids in farming communities, but quickly changed course.[14] ICE agents started conducting raids “at farm fields and packinghouses from the Central Coast to the San Joaquin Valley.”[15] Raids were documented on farms and fields in Tulare and Ventura counties.[16]
The Central Coast and San Joaquin Valley house some of the top food production counties in the United States.[17] At the top is Fresno County, followed by Tulare, Monterey, and San Joaquin.[18] Most of the farms located in these counties employ undocumented workers.[19] As the immigration raids began targeting these communities, farms have suffered. Farmworkers have stopped going to work for fear of being taken on their commute to work.[20] According to Marcy Kreiter, “Migrants are reluctant to take the chance of being hauled off to detention.”[21] Farmers are struggling to get their crops harvested as more than half of their workers have stopped showing up for work.[22] Farms expecting about 300 workers have only 80 show up after immigration raids.[23]
Farmers are not only experiencing losses in labor, but their crops have also gone unharvested, creating economic losses for them as well.[24] A farmer in Ventura County stated, “if 70% of your workforce doesn’t show up, 70% of your crop doesn’t get picked and can go bad in one day.”[25] Loss of labor thus means loss of crops and loss of food on American tables.
Outside of California, farmers are also experiencing crop and revenue loss. In Oregon, a farmer lost most of his workforce, leaving cherries to rot on the tree.[26] At the end of the picking season, the farmer will lose $250,000–$300,000 of revenue.[27] In Texas, Farmer Nick Billman lost his entire workforce.[28] He is struggling to find workers as he starts planning for the fall season.[29] Billman estimates that if he cannot find labor for his harvest plans, he is going to lose about $100,000 to $150,000 in revenue.[30]
In addition to the loss of revenue, grocery prices may be affected by immigration raids. From July 2024 to July 2025, food prices rose 2.9%.[31] If the produce is not harvested within a specific timeframe, it risks being sunburned or becoming over mature.[32] The labor shortage, in some instances, has prevented the harvest of crops, leading to loss not just for the farmers but for the nation.
The ongoing immigration raids affect the entire food system in the United States. Undocumented immigrants compose 75% of farmworkers in California[33] and 42% nationwide.[34] In addition to farming and agriculture, undocumented workers have a significant presence in food production, wholesale, and restaurants.[35] The fear of being taken away from their families has prevented many from going to work.[36] After a couple of days, others resume going to work due to economic necessity.[37]
The current approach to immigration in the United States is ineffective and harmful to the immigrant community. The leaders of this nation must take a different approach to immigration. Mass deportations are not the solution. Rather, our focus should be looking to new reforms tailoring pathways to legalization. Our food system depends on the immigrant community. They sustain our food system. No one should be living in fear.
[1] Sarah Fortinsky, Trump Executive Orders and Actions: By the Numbers, The Hill (Jan. 21, 2025), https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5098445-trump-executive-orders-first-day/.
[2] Proclamation No. 14159, 90 Fed. Reg. 8443 (Jan. 20 2025).
[3] Id.
[4] Id. at 8445.
[5] U.S. Immigr. and Customs Enf’t, 100 Days of Record-Breaking Immigration Enforcement in the U.S., (Apr. 29, 2025), https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/100-days-record-breaking-immigration-enforcement-us-interior.
[6] Economic Research Service, Farm Labor, USDA (Sept. 12, 2025), https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor.
[7] La Cooperative Campesina de California, 31 Farmworker Facts You Should Know (Mar. 28, 2023), https://lacooperativa.org/31-california-farmworker-facts-you-should-know/.
[8] FSA, USDA, California State Fact Sheet (2011), https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/10cafacts_v3.pdf.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] Cal. Dep’t of Food and Agric., California’s Agricultural Production Statistics, https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/Statistics/ (last visited Sept. 16, 2025).
[12] Marcy Kreiter, Crops Rotting in Fields with Undocumented Farmworkers Gone, The Food Institute (July 7, 2025), https://foodinstitute.com/focus/crops-rotting-in-fields-with-undocumented-farmworkers-gone/.
[13] Tim Reid et al., Immigration Raids Leave Crops Unharvested, California Farms at Risk, Reuters (June 30, 2025), https://www.reuters.com/business/immigration-raids-leave-crops-unharvested-california-farms-risk-2025-06-30/.
[14] Jessica Garrison et al., ICE Expands Immigration Raids into California’s Agricultural Heartland, L.A. Times (June 10, 2025), https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-10/ice-expands-immigration-raids-into-californias-agricultural-heartland.
[15] Id.
[16] Id.
[17] Office of Public Affairs, Nine California Counties Make Top-10 List for Ag Sales in the U.S., Cal. Dep’t of Food and Agric. (Feb. 13, 2024), https://plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov/wordpress/?p=27335.
[18] Id.
[19] La Cooperative Campesina de California, supra note 7.
[20] Rebecca Davis O’Brien & Miriam Jordan, A Chill Sets in for Undocumented Workers and Those Who Hire Them, N.Y. Times (Mar. 9, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/business/economy/immigrant-workers-deportation-fears.html.
[21] Kreiter, supra note 12.
[22] Reid, supra note 13.
[23] Id.
[24] Id.
[25] Id.
[26] David Culver et al., Deportation Fallout: This farmer lost half his workforce. Now he’s losing his crop too, CNN (Aug. 7, 2025), https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/06/us/oregon-cherry-harvest-immigrant-worker-shortage.
[27] Id.
[28] Edgar Sandoval, On a Quiet Southern Border, Empty Farms and Frightened Workers, N.Y. Times (June 27, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/us/politics/border-immigration-farms.html.
[29] Id.
[30] Id.
[31] Economic Research Service, Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings, USDA (Aug. 25, 2025), https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings.
[32] Reid, supra note 13.
[33] La Cooperative Campesina de California, supra note 7.
[34] Amrit Cheng, Mass Deportations, the Economy, and You, Nat’l Immigr. L. Ctr. (Apr. 16, 2025), https://www.nilc.org/articles/mass-deportations-the-economy-and-you/.
[35] Nicole Prchal Svajlenka, Undocumented Immigrants in the Food Supply Chain (2021).
[36] Carolyn Jones, ‘Afraid to go to school’: Immigrant families in the Salinas Valley are gripped by fear, Cal. Matters (Feb. 20, 2025), https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/02/deportation/; Mary Miliken & Arafat Barbakh, In California strawberry fields, immigration raids sow fear, Reuters (July 14, 2025), https://www.reuters.com/world/us/california-strawberry-fields-immigration-raids-sow-fear-2025-07-14/.
[37] Reid et al., supra note 13.