The Take What do mass ICE raids mean for migrant farmworkers?
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Jul 21, 2025 Manuel Cunha Jr., President of the Nisei Farmers League, advocates for agricultural workers in California. He discusses the severe impact of recent ICE raids, highlighting the fear and anxiety among migrant farmworkers. Manuel points out the paradox of essential labor and lack of legal protections, emphasizing their vital roles during the pandemic. He critiques proposed solutions like using Medicaid recipients as labor substitutes and shares insights on the Dignity Act, aimed at creating legal pathways for undocumented agricultural workers.
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Farmworkers Fear Racial Profiling
- Farm workers worry about racial profiling and try to avoid looking Mexican to escape immigration raids.
- They have been in the US for many years and are integrated with families and schools, yet they live in fear.
Migrant Labor Vital for Agriculture
- Agriculture heavily depends on unauthorized migrant labor, especially in California.
- The current guest worker program, H2A, is broken and not functional for many farmers.
Welfare-to-Work Program Failed
- In the 1990s welfare-to-work agriculture program, only 500 of 22,000 eligible welfare recipients applied.
- Of those, only three went to work and none lasted due to work difficulty and other issues.