Will Minnesota tragedies lead to immigration reform?

PALM DESERT, Calif. — As the deaths of two American citizens in Minnesota put pressure on President Trump to change his policies on immigrants, panels of dairy leaders and analysts at the International Dairy Foods Association’s Dairy Forum said here Monday that support for agricultural immigration workforce reform is building in several ways.

A chart from Morning Consult shows that voters think President Trump has made immigration enforcement too high a priority while not delivering on other economic issues.

Eli Yokley, the U.S. politics analyst at Morning Consult, said that Trump’s position on stopping immigration is one of several areas in which his economic approach is “out of whack with most Americans.”

Yokley said 42% of Americans believe stopping illegal immigration should be a “top priority for Trump,” while 58% believe it is a top priority for the administration.

Asked by Chelsie Keys, the IDFA senior vice president for government affairs, if enforcement of immigration laws had been different in blue states and red states, California Farm Bureau Federation President Shannon Douglass said that, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not conducted widespread raids on California farms, the immigration raids in Los Angeles and other urban areas had made immigrant farm workers afraid to come to work.

Idaho Dairymen’s Association CEO Rick Naerebout said that in his red state there have not been raids but “there is an anxiousness within our workforce.”

Guidepost Solutions CEO Julie Myers Wood noted that while a raid on a cannabis farm was the only large-scale raid in California, there has been a “seismic effect” in workers being afraid to come to work. Wood also said truck drivers have become afraid they will get into trouble for working in ways not covered by their visas.

James O’Neill of the American Business Immigration Coalition said that under Trump administration policies, people in detention can no longer post bond unless attorneys enter the detention centers, and that is difficult.

But he said there has been an “environmental shift” in support for the Trump adminsitration’s policies, with the president’s enforcement policies “particularly unpopular” with Hispanic voters who voted for Trump, and the cost of labor becoming an issue in consumer prices.

In terms of action, Naerebout said, “This is a Trump Congress and nothing will be done unless there is a signal from the president.”

He said that farm leaders should push for action before the midterm elections in November, because after that Vice President Vance, who has taken strong positions in favor of immigration enforcement, will be running for president.

O’Neill said it’s more likely that Trump could make changes through executive action. Naerebout said the administration could change the length of time workers under the H-2A program can stay in the country, a key issue to the dairy industry because it needs year-round, not seasonal, workers. O’Neill added that legislation would be more enforceable in court.

Naerebout noted that Republican politicians in Idaho who have been supportive of immigration reform have not been beaten. A Boise State University study showed that 85% of Idahoans including 79% of Republicans believe that dairy workers who have been paying taxes should be allowed to stay in the country. O’Neill said his polling in Senate races shows the same voter attitudes.

But if Republican legislators lead on immigration reform, Naerebout said, the dairy industry must support them because they will be opposed in primary elections.

Douglass said that there has been concern about picking the right immigration bill to support but that it would take a long time for agriculture leaders to reach consensus on a bill. It would be better, she said, for ag leaders to support whatever bill might be pushed in Congress.

“Farmers just want improvement because it is really bad up and down the state and across the country,” she said. “I am frustrated with the idea we can get it perfect. I prefer we don’t let perfect get in the way of good.”

-The Hagstrom Report