I’m not saying the farmers here don’t hire illegals- I do know farmers and ranchers that do NOT ever hire illegals though and somehow they make it work.
My original point was that the 4/10 number is crap. It is far higher than that, and on dairy farms even in the Northeast and Upper Midwest -- areas not traditionally associated with high levels of slave-agriculture -- the number is approaching 100%. It is ALL illegal, not "partly" or "mostly" illegal. It is also not "unknown" by these farmers. People who hire illegals know damn well that they are.
I agree also that these farmers do not need illegal labor. They need to install more robots and pay the human labor they still require what the LEGAL market will bear. That is MUCH higher than most of them want to pay. That's tough. In my experience there is NO job an American is not willing to do, as long as the price is right. If farmers don't like that, tough.
We need the awful businessmen who can't make a profit without subsidies and illegal labor to get the hell out of farming so that the good businessmen can make some money. People such as those in the article -- farming for no better reason than that their "family always did it" -- are often terrible businessmen who just drive food prices down for everybody in agriculture.
They also need to get themselves ready to go off farm subsidies: we are not going to be subsidizing anything much longer.