Immigrant farmworkers are preparing for incoming US president Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations, including by assigning guardians for their children if they are detained, according to groups providing them legal support.
Rising demand for such legal services reflects anxiety that Trump will follow through on a campaign vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants once he is sworn in to office Jan 20, something that could have an outsized impact on the country’s agricultural sector, which heavily relies on their labour.
About half of hired farmworkers nationwide lack legal immigration status, according to the US Department of Agriculture, and farm trade groups have warned deporting them could bring the country’s food production to a halt.
“The administration is not yet sworn in, but people are already afraid,” said Sarait Martinez, executive director of the Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño (CBDIO), an organization that supports indigenous Mexican farmworkers in the Central Valley of California.
Representatives of four US rural and legal advocacy organizations, including CBDIO, told Reuters they have seen as much as a ten-fold increase in interest from immigrant farmworkers in workshops and resources they provide on what to do if confronted by immigration officials and how to ensure their family’s security if they are detained.
The workshops can include role-play confrontations with immigration officials and instructions on how to prepare for potential enforcement: like filling out forms assigning temporary guardians to their children, assigning an alternate to pick up pay, or giving permission for their children to travel internationally in the event they are deported.
Alfredo, a farmworker in Washington State who asked to be identified only by his first name due to concerns he could be targeted, said he is taking part in some of the training so he can pass along what he learns to fellow workers.
“We are definitely very concerned,” he told Reuters. “We really take pride in doing farm work, but it’s becoming very hard to look forward to going out to work.”
