As farmworker community grapples with threat of immigration crackdown, some farms forced to leave fruit to rot with workforce down by as much as 80 percent
(WENATCHEE, Wash.) With cherry harvest in full swing, fear of federal immigration enforcement action is keeping thousands of farmworkers away from Washington orchards, threatening family farms’ futures, and in some cases forcing farmers to leave fruit on the trees to rot.
Not only are local workers worried about being targeted by federal agents on the job and out in the community, but many of the migrant workers who usually travel here from other states for fruit harvest are choosing to stay away, said Erik Zavala, Director of Field Staff at Wenatchee-based Blue Bird, Inc., a grower-owned cooperative of hundreds of small family farms.
“We started hearing on social media that people are posting, ‘Do not drive to Washington, because ICE is doing checkpoints,’ or even, ‘They’re doing raids on orchards.’ So a lot of the pickers, they just halted, and they’re not making the travel anymore,” Zavala said. Save Family Farming has been hearing similar stories from other farms and cooperatives as well, with some describing farmers’ desperation for workers as “panic.”
Driving the harvest crisis is the fear generated by the new federal administration’s immigration crackdown. What little official information the federal administration has publicly released on the enforcement effort has been unclear and conflicting, leaving media reports, activists’ social media posts and rampant rumors to amplify that fear and fan the flames of panic among the farmworker community.
Despite reports of arrests at some public locations, to date, Save Family Farming has not been able to confirm any actual immigration enforcement raid on a farm or other agricultural workplace in Washington state. But we have received reports of work stoppages at some farms and processing facilities resulting from rumors of raids.
“We have said from the outset that this reckless approach threatens the future of our farms and our entire food system, while failing to provide meaningful reform,” Ben Tindall, Executive Director of Save Family Farming said. “The situation is now a full-blown crisis. Farmworkers and the farms that rely on them need immediate solutions—not more delays and confusion.”
“Paying lip service to the farming community’s fears means nothing to the families on the brink of losing their livelihoods,” said Tindall. “Platitudes are not going to save farms and farmworking families. We need decisive action. Without it, Washington’s family farms–and the food they grow–will vanish. At the same time, activist groups that are deliberately stoking farmworkers’ fears are only adding to the harm.”
Related:
The Farming Show – Fruit Left to Rot in WA Orchards as Immigration Crackdown Keeps Workers Away