‘Who's going to milk the cows?': Vt. farmers, migrant workers fear Trump crackdown could cripple dairy farms

Boston Globe

22-05-2025

'All the dairy farmers who voted for Trump were under the impression they weren't going to come on farms and take our guys,' said Machia, 37. 'It's happening more than we'd like. It's scaring the farming community and we're like, 'This wasn't supposed to happen.''
Farm owners and workers alike in this agricultural region near the Canadian border have been on edge in the month since US Border Patrol officers detained eight Mexican men on Vermont's largest dairy operation, Pleasant Valley Farms, about 20 miles east of Machia's barns. Two weeks before that, another Mexican national, Arbey Lopez-Lopez, was detained while bringing groceries to workers at Pleasant Valley, according to his attorney.
Four of the men have since been deported. Within the past week, immigration judges in Massachusetts have ordered two released on bond, including Lopez-Lopez. The others are in detention in Texas, their lawyer says.
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Last month, US Border Patrol officers detained eight Mexican men at Pleasant Valley Farms, Vermont's largest dairy operation.
Paul Heintz for The Boston Globe
Federal immigration authorities say they are not targeting Vermont's
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The enforcement actions have only added to the list of woes Vermont dairy farmers were already experiencing: unstable milk prices, rising costs due to tariffs, the threat of avian flu, and the lingering effects of two major floods and a global pandemic.
'Migrant workers are essential to the dairy industry in Vermont, New England, and the nation,' said Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts. The recent law enforcement actions have created 'tremendous anxiety' for everyone in the industry, he said.
'I think our farmers are concerned about the well-being of their workers. That's foremost,' Tebbetts said. 'They're also concerned if (the workforce) was to go away, who's going to do the work? Who's going to milk the cows?'
One of the more than 700 cows at Machia & Sons Dairy in Sheldon, Vt.
Paul Heintz for The Boston Globe
Though relatively few immigrants call Vermont home, they play an essential role in the state's dairy industry as farms have consolidated, requiring more hired help, while economic pressures have kept wages low.
Since 2013, about half of the state's dairy farms have gone out of business,
'The workload on these farms is intense,' said Jackie Folsom, a former dairy farmer and president of the Vermont Farm Bureau. 'And we are not able to find locals who want to work on farms anymore.'
According to the University of Vermont, 94 percent of dairies in the state that hire outside help employ migrant labor. That amounts to an estimated 750 to 850 workers, mostly from Mexico, plus 150 partners and children.
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Though another 500 farmworkers, mostly from Jamaica, obtain seasonal agricultural visas to work legally in Vermont apple orchards, berry farms, and elsewhere, there is no applicable visa for year-round operations such as dairy.
'To replace your whole milking crew every 10 months is not a thing,' Machia says. 'It takes months to train these guys up. It wouldn't work.'
Machia employs around 25 people year-round, including 11 migrants. Like many Vermont farmers, he
said he's careful
to follow the law and asks each worker for documentation required by the state and federal governments. It's not his responsibility to verify the accuracy of the paperwork.
After the arrests on April 21 at Pleasant Valley, federal officials said they were not seeking out undocumented workers. Rather, according to US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Ryan Brissette, the officers were responding to a tip from a concerned citizen that two people carrying backpacks had emerged from the woods onto the farm, which is less than three miles from the Canadian border. After one fled, the officers searched the property and detained the other men, Brissette said.
'Claims that this was a raid targeting farm workers (are) false,' said Hilton Beckham, assistant commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, adding it 'was not a special operation or a worksite enforcement operation.'
Regardless, the result is the same, according to Brett Stokes, an attorney who represents the eight Pleasant Valley workers. Though none had criminal records and most had family in the area, he said, they have been rushed through removal proceedings and given little opportunity to defend themselves.
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'No matter what your position on immigration is, these are folks who were working, paying their taxes, and providing an essential service to an essential industry in the state of Vermont,' said Stokes, who runs the Center for Justice Reform Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School.
Amanda St. Pierre, a co-owner of Pleasant Valley, declined to comment, other than to say her family was focused on supporting its employees and maintaining its operations.
According to Will Lambek, an organizer for the Vermont advocacy group Migrant Justice, the enforcement actions go well beyond Pleasant Valley.
'We've seen a vast increase in the calls we're getting about people getting detained in Vermont,' he said. 'Most of these stories don't make headlines. They're not publicized. And most of them end in deportation.'
That's led many migrant workers to hunker down and avoid leaving their farms — particularly those closest to Canada, where Border Patrol officers have expanded authority and are a frequent presence on the road and in town.
Dan Baker, a research professor at the University of Vermont, said his surveys of dairy workers show they already faced serious stress due to social isolation and fear of deportation, among other factors.
'And this was prior to the current immigration crackdown,' he said. 'What those detentions did was remind everyone to be scared and to feel vulnerable.'
On a farm not far from the Canadian border, one undocumented worker told the Globe he was going into town less frequently to avoid taking unnecessary risks. He asked to be identified only by his nickname, Chepe.
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'Everything they're doing is just about trying to instill fear in the community,' Chepe said through an interpreter, sitting in the living room of the trailer where he lives. 'It's all about trying to make us afraid.'
Like many migrant dairy workers, Chepe works 12 hours a day, six days a week, beginning at 4 a.m. He said he left Mexico eight years ago in search of financial stability and sends money home to his children, whom he hasn't seen since.
Chepe has become an organizer with Migrant Justice and credits it with improving working conditions on his farm. It's also helped Vermont enact policies such
as making it easier for noncitizens to obtain driver's licenses, restricting collaboration with federal immigration authorities, and providing COVID relief funds for immigrants.
Chepe said he had been feeling safer and more secure in the US — until Trump was elected again.
'Now it's like going back to the dark ages,' he said.
Despite the risks of leaving the farm, Chepe attended two protests recently in the Burlington area — advocating for the release of the Pleasant Valley workers and for better working conditions.
'I think it's crucial that we're united right now, all together, fighting against an oppressive system that's trying to instill fear in us,' he said. 'We need to keep raising our voices and fighting for our rights.'
Despite his misgivings about the immigration crackdown, Dustin Machia says he doesn't regret voting for Trump.
'I'd still do it again. I like a lot of his policies,' Machia said. 'I feel he's more for the rural people like us, the middle-class type person.'
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