How Donald Trump can help America’s farm industry

When it comes to achieving his goals, President Donald Trump’s immigration track record so far is mixed. The federal courts have blocked his efforts to halt individuals from a handful of mostly Muslim nations listed as terrorism sponsors or terrorist safe havens from entering the United States. But the number of people caught trying to enter America along its southwestern border without legal clearance has plunged. While other explanations are possible, the simplest one seems strongest: Unauthorized immigrants see a U.S. government that is far less likely to tolerate their presence than under previous presidents — and they think the costs and dangers of trying to come here aren’t worth it.

Nevertheless, the Trump White House needs to resist simple, one-size-fits-all ideas about immigration. When it comes to “dreamers” — young unauthorized immigrants with mostly clean records and lives on constructive paths — the president seems to have figured this out, accepting for now Obama administration policies that gave these individuals some legal protections. For the good of California and U.S. agriculture in general, Trump needs to show similar wisdom and pragmatism with farmworkers.

Which brings us to the Agricumltural Worker Program Act, the measure introduced last week by California’s two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, and three colleagues from other states. It would allow farmworkers who have worked for at least 100 days in both of the past two years to receive “blue cards” conferring legal employment status. These workers would eventually be eligible to get green cards or legal permanent residency if they continued to work for at least three more years, providing a pathway to citizenship.

This law is desperately needed in California, where two-thirds of some 800,000 farmworkers don’t have authorized status, according to a 2014 UC Davis study. Even before Trump took office, the farm labor shortage in California was taking a toll on a $54 billion annual industry that supplies nearly half the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in the United States. This has led in recent years to substantial increases in wages and the first-ever offering of 401(k)-retirement benefits and other perks by some farming companies. Contrary to the theories of Harvard economist George Borjas and others, higher farm wages aren’t attracting job applications from U.S. citizens.

A March 2017 Los Angeles Times analysis depicted an industry on the brink of panic, and not just because of Trump’s strong immigration stance. Seasonal work involving manual labor is also increasingly unpopular in Mexico, long the source of most unauthorized immigrant farmworkers in California. Young Mexicans in a nation that’s become richer than ever find these jobs unappealing, paralleling what happened in the U.S. a century ago.

This means that in the long term, more mechanization of farm labor is inevitable, and labor-intensive crops like strawberries and asparagus are likely to have sharp price increases or decreased supply or both as farmers switch to easier crops. But in the short and medium term, the farms of the Central Valley and beyond badly need help.

In a 2016 campaign stop in Fresno, Trump vowed to help Central Valley farmers by increasing their water supplies. He should be at least as worried about maintaining their labor supply.

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