SFF Immigration Raids Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. Farmers here in Washington and around the country are trying to figure out how to deal with the fear of immigration raids on farms.
Ben Tindall, Executive Director at Save Family Farming, says farm workers and farmers a worried their farm will be the next target …
TINDALL … “We are hearing from individuals who are closely connected to farm workers that there is a lot of unrest, a lot of fear, a lot of concern, a lot of fear of going to work because, I don’t know that it’s safe.”
And this, Tindall says impacts everyone involved …
TINDALL … “This is not just individuals who are undocumented. These are individuals who are both documented and undocumented that are concerned simply because of their jobs, because of demographics, languages that they speak, color of their skin, things that really shouldn’t be a concern but there is fear of that profiling.”
Warranted or not, Tindall says this is what’s happening …
TINDALL … “What we are saying though is this issue needs to be addressed responsibly and it needs to be addressed in a way that this back and forth that we’re seeing where, oh, one day you’re saying, we’re going to work with the farming community, and then the next day, you know, we’re going to crack down even harder on immigration and never mind what we said two days ago.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on Save Family Farming’s perspective on immigration enforcement fears on farms.
