Trouble In The Fields

Many California farmers shuddered when President Donald Trump began making good on his campaign promise to find and deport undocumented immigrants. During the Trump Administration’s first 100 days, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 41,000 individuals known or suspected of being in the country illegally — a nearly 40 percent jump over the same period in 2016.

Because 70 percent of the state’s roughly 600,000 agricultural workers are undocumented immigrants, the immigration crackdown threatens to exacerbate an already acute labor shortage.