Posted on 07/05/2025 11:27:14 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Let me just state this right up front. Farmers in America, particularly ones that employ several to more than a hundred workers, are not unsophisticated country bumpkins. There will be no whining in this essay along the lines of “Oh, the poor farmer! He does not know how to fill out online federal forms for income tax withholding, immigration, etc.” That’s farm animal excrement! Farmers EFT their own quarterly income tax payments, so they can certainly make payments for their workers’ withholding.
President Trump has listened to the sad stories of loving employers and their willing wage workers providing our food in harmony for years together. In his desire not to disrupt agricultural commerce, he has listened to descriptions of fields full of rotting produce. But sad stories aside, it’s a bad idea to exempt a small segment of the economy from the rules, and it’s entirely unnecessary. Let’s look at some statistics to see if we can’t acquire a better-informed perspective than random anecdotes have provided.
The latest Census of Agriculture reports that, in 2022, we had 1,900,487 farms in America on 880,100,848 acres producing $543 billion in market value of agricultural products sold. Eighty-five percent were owned by families or individuals, 7% by partnerships, and 7% by corporations. Of this number, only 1.5% of farms—28,464—hired migrant workers. Half of those employing migrants sold $1 million or more (market value) of agricultural products.
There were 3,693,391 farm workers, 41% of them unpaid (i.e., owners and their families). Of the paid farm workers, 32% were native-born Americans, 7% foreign-born US citizens, 19% authorized foreign-born workers (immigrants and temporary nonimmigrants), and 42% (917,487) were illegal aliens. Only 25% of all farm workers are illegal aliens.
What do we know about them? Almost all of them (86%) are...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
machines
There is already a guest worker program for AG workers like the H1b program for IT workers. In North Carolina there is a broker who does the paperwork for farmers and has brought in over 50k.
Most people prefer illegals with no paperwork, no visas and no rights.
and 42% (917,487) were illegal aliens. Only 25% of all farm workers are illegal aliens.
.........
I don’t know if I would have used ‘only’ describing 1/4 of something..
“Most people prefer illegals with no paperwork, no visas and no rights.”
Exactly, and that’s why it must be ended.
In a sane world, yes. But California law limits the use of autonomous farm machinery that would significantly reduce the need for manual labor.
I suggest you read the whole article; it is excellent! And it gives an equally excellent remedy which is neither cruel nor unfair to all parties concerned. Someone please send the article to President Trump!
machines
Same thing sort of happened in California. Machines and tomato strains were created to allow the harvesting of tomatoes. (One reason why store-bought tomatoes aren’t as good as home grown. The strains that could withstand machine harvesting have less flavor).
But there are still crops that require the human touch to harvest. The bracero program allowed poor Mexicans to make money here, but not live here permanently.
no taxes...So does the farmer.
THANK CAESAR CHAVEZ FOR THAT
Lots of American farm workers are still eligible to be paid below the minimum wage. Then illegals come on and work I godly hours for less, pretty mich as indentured servants. It is barbaric—and codifying illegals as legal will only make it worse.
Instead of then subsidizing rural America in other ways (e.g., their hospitals), we need to simply elevate them and their work to the level of all Americans. The one way to do that is to boot all the illegals. If all farms have to pay a bit more by no longer hiring/exploiting illegals, no fsrmer will be disadvantaged by going legit.
Amnesty is the absolute worst thing to do.
THE ENDLESS/HUGE TOMATO FARMS ALONG I-5 IN CALIF ARE GONE.
HUNT’S PROCESSING PLANT IS ALSO GONE
EVEN WHEN THE BRACERO PROGRAM WAS WORKING WELL-—FRESNO COUNTY SPENT OVER 80% OF IT’S WELFARE ON THOSE WHO ‘STAYED ALL WINTER’ LIVING wherever-—outdoors.
Practically all the hard, manual jobs can be replaced by machines. But, for a lot of farmers, the illegals are cheaper!
Time for the farmers to make the investments!
Thanks for posting. Very good information and I like his suggestions.
Crops that are suitable for machine picking are not going to taste as good as those which are hand picked.
Democrats:
“There is no such thing as a sh!th0le country!”
Also Democrats:
“You can’t force the invaders to go back to their sh!th0le countries!”
Yep...replace them with machines or Americans. There are also farms that offer customers the opportunity to pick their own vegetables for a price. We've had some around here for years.
When I was a teenager and in college, we all worked on the farms or the canneries. We didn’t have time to bury our heads in worthless chatter. There were no cell phones, no cry babies-you worked! A lot of teenagers and college students now are worthless, spoiled brats. That needs to change. We don’t need illegal aliens for farms. We need lazy citizens to get off their duffs, their phones and internet chats. No wonder so many teenagers and young adults are depressed.
Furthermore, many illegal aliens are getting tons of freebies from the government and don’t even need to work!
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