Farmers are desperate for workers amid Trump immigration crackdown
Immigration is one of those topics that always gets reduced to soundbites and slogans. But here’s the reality: it’s not just a political debate. It’s a workforce crisis that’s threatening the very foundation of America’s economy.
If you eat food in this country, this issue touches you.
In Pennsylvania — yes, the swing state President Trump won with 50 percent of the vote in 2024 — farmers are desperate for workers. They’re literally watching their livelihoods collapse because they can’t find enough people to milk cows, pick crops or keep farms alive. One farmer, John Painter, told Politico, “The whole thing is screwed up. We need people to do the jobs Americans are too spoiled to do.” That’s not coming from a progressive activist; that’s from a lifelong Republican farmer who voted for Trump three times.
And that’s the irony here: the very communities that backed Trump the hardest are now being squeezed the hardest by his immigration crackdown.
Deportations and red tape are slashing the supply of farmworkers. Economists say the U.S. lost 155,000 agricultural jobs in just a few months — and that’s before Trump’s latest promises to deport millions more. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that if he follows through, we’ll lose not only millions of immigrant workers but also millions of jobs for U.S.-born workers whose roles are tied to immigrant labor.
In other words: less immigrant labor doesn’t just hurt immigrants — it shrinks opportunity for everybody.
People are noticing the human side of this, too. Earlier this summer, Joe Rogan summed up what a lot of Americans are feeling:
“It was a visceral reaction that a lot of people had that people are just showing up, pulling people out of schools and pulling people out of Home Depot & pulling people that were just hardworking people that maybe snuck over here because they didn’t have a legal way to get over here, but since they’ve been here they’ve been good people and been part of communities, that’s what freaks people out. Because when people thought about ICE they thought, ‘great, we’re going to get rid of gang members’ … they didn’t think, ‘great you’re going to get rid of a landscaper.’”
That disconnect — between the political promise and the practical impact — is tearing holes in our economy and our communities. Farmers are being forced to sell off livestock, close operations or watch crops rot in the fields. Restaurants are shortening hours. Construction sites are slowing down. It’s the domino effect of a labor shortage we created ourselves.
Lindsey Granger is a News Nation contributor and co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising.” This column is an edited transcription of her on-air commentary.