Latest news with #BrookeRollins'
Economic Times
14-07-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
A ‘100% American' farm workforce? That's delusional
iStock Want a job picking fruit? There are thousands available right now on the US Department of Labor's Seasonal Jobs website. Orchard work paying $19.82 an hour in Washington, $17.96 in Pennsylvania and $15.87 in West Virginia. Berry planting and picking jobs at $19.97 an hour in California, $16.23 in Florida and $16.08 in Georgia. Employers have to offer these jobs to US workers before bringing in foreigners on H-2A visas for temporary agricultural work. The sharp rise in H-2A issuance the past decade indicates that they haven't been getting many takers. These statistics offer some context for Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' recent remarks that the agricultural workforce was headed 'towards automation and 100% American participation,' and that 'with 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly.' I'm confident that Rollins doesn't believe any of this. But after trying to get President Donald Trump to back off on deportations of farmworkers, briefly succeeding, then being overruled by guy-who-seems-to-be-in-charge-at-the-White-House-at-the-moment Stephen Miller, she had to come up with something to say. So let's unpack the Medicaid recipients. Almost two-thirds of the working-age adults on Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor, already have jobs. Most of those who don't are busy with school or unpaid caregiving, or suffer from an illness or disability. A recent KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation) analysis of Census Bureau survey data found this left about 2.1 million Medicaid recipients aged 19 to 64 who were not working for some other reason in that there's no real justification for restricting the view to Medicaid recipients, while sending 60-year-old newbies into the fields would be crazy, I looked at numbers from the same survey (the 2024 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey, available at the University of Minnesota's IPUMS-CPS) and found an estimated 2.1 million 18-to-44-year-olds — 59% of them men — who did not work in 2023 and did not name disability, caregiving or school as the according to the most recent jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2.3 million people were working for pay in agriculture and related industries in June. The number who are not US citizens is some fraction of that. So it'll be an easy swap, right? Well, no, unless the Trump administration plans to resort to forced labor. There may be some combination of technological innovation and higher wages that could lure more US citizens into farm work (want to operate berry-picking drones from your home computer for $50 an hour?), but it's certainly not going to happen quickly or Americans want to labor on farms because this is an affluent, urbanized (suburbanized, really) nation with ample less-grueling work on offer, and a prime-age (25-54) employment-population ratio that's near an all-time high. If government policy really were to shift to zero tolerance for not just undocumented immigrants but all noncitizens on US farms — which is what Rollins seemed to say — the short- and possibly longer-term outcome would be the collapse of American agricultural production. Already, the crackdowns have paralyzed farm work in some California counties. These statistics showing 42% of crop farmworkers to be undocumented come from an annual survey of just 1,500 to 3,600 workers, and may not be entirely reliable. One has to imagine that some farmworkers are wary of telling government survey-takers that they're here illegally. Plus, there's no sign in the survey results of the big growth that we know has happened in foreign farmworkers here legally on temporary visas. The survey also covers only crop farmworkers, who according to the USDA's quarterly farm labor survey make up about half of an overall hired-worker farm labor force that tops out in the summer at around 800, in turn is a lot less than the aforementioned 2.3 million agriculture and related industries workers estimated by the BLS from the Census Bureau's monthly Current Population Survey, with the difference partly definitional but also an indication that the available numbers on agricultural employment aren't ultra-reliable. The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages compiled by the BLS from state unemployment-insurance records doesn't count workers not covered by unemployment insurance, and reported an average of 1.2 million farm jobs last year. It offers what may be the best breakdown, though, of where those jobs are located. In these numbers, California has 34% of the nation's paid farm jobs. A 2022 analysis by the Center for Migration Studies of New York based on pre-pandemic Census data estimated that the Golden State accounted for 49% of the 283,000 undocumented agricultural workers in the US. The analysis also found that 70% of undocumented farmworkers had arrived in the US in the 1990s and 2000s — after the Immigration Act of 1986 had provided a path to legalization for an earlier generation and before increased border security made it much harder to cross over to the US and back undetected — and 88% were Mexican. The immigration wave of 2022-2024 appears to have been light on both Mexicans and wannabe farmworkers, so those numbers may not have changed all that much undocumented farmworkers are thus an experienced, aging bunch — in many cases quite skilled and hard to replace, but also facing bleak retirement prospects because while most have been paying into Social Security for decades, they've been doing so using fake IDs and won't be eligible for any benefits. For this and a lot of other reasons, widespread employment of undocumented workers is a bad thing. But I've heard many times from people in California's agricultural sector that they simply can't persuade US citizens or noncitizens with all-purpose work authorizations to take jobs in the sounds like a copout, but the evidence from H-2A visas does offer some support. To hire seasonal foreign workers, farmers not only have to offer the jobs domestically first, but also pay visa-holders prevailing local wages as calculated by the Department of Labor and provide transportation, housing and food. After decades of slow growth and complaints from farmers about the onerous requirements, the number of visas issued has tripled in the past decade, with Mexicans getting the overwhelming majority (other countries with significant numbers of H-2A recipients include South Africa, Jamaica and Guatemala).All in all the program, while not free of abuse, seems to be a successful effort to steer agricultural employment into legal channels, and so far there's no sign in the monthly visa numbers that Trump — whose own businesses are frequent users of H-2A and the smaller H-2B visa program for non-agricultural seasonal workers — is trying to slow it down. Immigration crackdown or no, a '100% American' farm workforce almost certainly isn't in our future. 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Time of India
14-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
A ‘100% American' farm workforce? That's delusional
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of Want a job picking fruit? There are thousands available right now on the US Department of Labor's Seasonal Jobs website. Orchard work paying $19.82 an hour in Washington, $17.96 in Pennsylvania and $15.87 in West Virginia. Berry planting and picking jobs at $19.97 an hour in California, $16.23 in Florida and $16.08 in have to offer these jobs to US workers before bringing in foreigners on H-2A visas for temporary agricultural work. The sharp rise in H-2A issuance the past decade indicates that they haven't been getting many statistics offer some context for Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' recent remarks that the agricultural workforce was headed 'towards automation and 100% American participation,' and that 'with 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid , we should be able to do that fairly quickly.' I'm confident that Rollins doesn't believe any of this. But after trying to get President Donald Trump to back off on deportations of farmworkers, briefly succeeding, then being overruled by guy-who-seems-to-be-in-charge-at-the-White-House-at-the-moment Stephen Miller, she had to come up with something to say. So let's unpack the Medicaid recipients. Almost two-thirds of the working-age adults on Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor, already have jobs. Most of those who don't are busy with school or unpaid caregiving, or suffer from an illness or disability. A recent KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation) analysis of Census Bureau survey data found this left about 2.1 million Medicaid recipients aged 19 to 64 who were not working for some other reason in that there's no real justification for restricting the view to Medicaid recipients, while sending 60-year-old newbies into the fields would be crazy, I looked at numbers from the same survey (the 2024 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey, available at the University of Minnesota's IPUMS-CPS) and found an estimated 2.1 million 18-to-44-year-olds — 59% of them men — who did not work in 2023 and did not name disability, caregiving or school as the according to the most recent jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2.3 million people were working for pay in agriculture and related industries in June. The number who are not US citizens is some fraction of that. So it'll be an easy swap, right? Well, no, unless the Trump administration plans to resort to forced labor. There may be some combination of technological innovation and higher wages that could lure more US citizens into farm work (want to operate berry-picking drones from your home computer for $50 an hour?), but it's certainly not going to happen quickly or Americans want to labor on farms because this is an affluent, urbanized (suburbanized, really) nation with ample less-grueling work on offer, and a prime-age (25-54) employment-population ratio that's near an all-time high. If government policy really were to shift to zero tolerance for not just undocumented immigrants but all noncitizens on US farms — which is what Rollins seemed to say — the short- and possibly longer-term outcome would be the collapse of American agricultural production. Already, the crackdowns have paralyzed farm work in some California statistics showing 42% of crop farmworkers to be undocumented come from an annual survey of just 1,500 to 3,600 workers, and may not be entirely reliable. One has to imagine that some farmworkers are wary of telling government survey-takers that they're here illegally. Plus, there's no sign in the survey results of the big growth that we know has happened in foreign farmworkers here legally on temporary visas. The survey also covers only crop farmworkers, who according to the USDA's quarterly farm labor survey make up about half of an overall hired-worker farm labor force that tops out in the summer at around 800, in turn is a lot less than the aforementioned 2.3 million agriculture and related industries workers estimated by the BLS from the Census Bureau's monthly Current Population Survey, with the difference partly definitional but also an indication that the available numbers on agricultural employment aren't ultra-reliable. The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages compiled by the BLS from state unemployment-insurance records doesn't count workers not covered by unemployment insurance, and reported an average of 1.2 million farm jobs last year. It offers what may be the best breakdown, though, of where those jobs are these numbers, California has 34% of the nation's paid farm jobs. A 2022 analysis by the Center for Migration Studies of New York based on pre-pandemic Census data estimated that the Golden State accounted for 49% of the 283,000 undocumented agricultural workers in the US. The analysis also found that 70% of undocumented farmworkers had arrived in the US in the 1990s and 2000s — after the Immigration Act of 1986 had provided a path to legalization for an earlier generation and before increased border security made it much harder to cross over to the US and back undetected — and 88% were Mexican. The immigration wave of 2022-2024 appears to have been light on both Mexicans and wannabe farmworkers, so those numbers may not have changed all that much undocumented farmworkers are thus an experienced, aging bunch — in many cases quite skilled and hard to replace, but also facing bleak retirement prospects because while most have been paying into Social Security for decades, they've been doing so using fake IDs and won't be eligible for any benefits. For this and a lot of other reasons, widespread employment of undocumented workers is a bad thing. But I've heard many times from people in California's agricultural sector that they simply can't persuade US citizens or noncitizens with all-purpose work authorizations to take jobs in the sounds like a copout, but the evidence from H-2A visas does offer some support. To hire seasonal foreign workers, farmers not only have to offer the jobs domestically first, but also pay visa-holders prevailing local wages as calculated by the Department of Labor and provide transportation, housing and food. After decades of slow growth and complaints from farmers about the onerous requirements, the number of visas issued has tripled in the past decade, with Mexicans getting the overwhelming majority (other countries with significant numbers of H-2A recipients include South Africa, Jamaica and Guatemala).All in all the program, while not free of abuse, seems to be a successful effort to steer agricultural employment into legal channels, and so far there's no sign in the monthly visa numbers that Trump — whose own businesses are frequent users of H-2A and the smaller H-2B visa program for non-agricultural seasonal workers — is trying to slow it down. Immigration crackdown or no, a '100% American' farm workforce almost certainly isn't in our future.
Los Angeles Times
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Letters to the Editor: Trump administration's comments about farm workers will likely backfire
To the editor: What I find fascinating about Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins' assertion that migrant laborers can simply be replaced by automation and Medicaid recipients is not just the underlying cruelty expressed toward both hardworking immigrant laborers and Medicaid recipients, nor is it the shocking ignorance ('Trump official suggests Medicaid recipients, automation can replace immigrant workers. California farmers disagree,' July 9). What I find fascinating is the apparent assumption by President Trump and his 'brain trust' that 'able-bodied adults on Medicaid' are all people outside of his very base. From a purely political perspective, it's the only way I can make sense of Rollins' proposal. I hate to be the bearer of bad news to Trump's team, but according to current statistics, the largest group of Medicaid recipients in the U.S. are white non-Hispanics (estimated to be 39.6% of all recipients). A majority 55% of white voters cast ballots for Trump in the 2024 election. This means that of Medicaid recipients who are registered voters, it's not unreasonable to assume that a large portion are Trump voters. Trump and his administration's seeming indifference to subjecting Medicaid recipients who may happen to be GOP voters to the type of contempt and cruelty they normally reserve for immigrants and people of color tells me that they (as is often the case) might not have considered the consequences of their proposals on their own voters. And in this case, it seems to me that this particular lack of judgment is like a rogue torpedo fired by the Trump administration that is headed right back at the GOP. It will be interesting to see how this affects the midterm elections. Matthew Singerman, Newbury Park
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
USDA's $1B bird flu plan uses money intended for schools, food banks
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' $1 billion plan for fighting bird flu will rely on money cut from programs meant to help schools and food banks support local farmers, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Rollins in February rolled out a five-step strategy to fight bird flu that includes importing eggs and researching and developing a poultry vaccine. But that raised questions about whether it would use new federal money, even as the Trump administration is generally cutting back. Instead, it will use the money previously intended for two food programs that USDA canceled earlier this year, according to the people, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The move tees up a major political fight over the Trump administration's priorities, as USDA struggles to use a relatively small pot of money to help farmers facing economic headwinds, curb a deadly avian flu outbreak and address a worsening hunger crisis — all while meeting the statutory obligations of the fund. Trump's rapidly escalating trade war with China could also pressure USDA to find new money to assist farmers who may no longer have a market for their products. USDA did not respond to multiple requests for comment. On a call with Hill staffers Friday, USDA said the money to pay for the bird flu response came from funds allocated to the Agricultural Marketing Service, which is the agency that administered the local food programs. But when one participant asked specifically if the money was repurposed from those programs, USDA declined to answer, according to someone on the call who was granted anonymity to share details of a private discussion. Former President Joe Biden allocated $1 billion in funding to the local food programs as part of his effort to build a more resilient food supply chain. The programs helped schools, child care facilities and food banks purchase fresh food from local farms and helped small- and mid-sized farms expand their businesses. Their abrupt cancellation sparked swift political backlash in Congress and online, as schools scrambled to find new funding for fresh food and farmers were left with unpurchased crops. Food banks are also feeling the strain of meeting increased hunger demands as prices soar. In addition to the local food programs, the Trump administration slashed roughly $500 million in funds to an emergency assistance program that supports food banks nationwide — though USDA says it's already making additional buys to counteract those cuts. The $1 billion for food programs — and now, for bird flu response — comes from a New Deal-era fund that gives the Agriculture secretary sweeping authority to provide disaster relief, support farmers and respond to market downturns. That fund, known as the Commodity Credit Corporation, has $30 billion to spend each year, but it has dwindled to roughly $4 billion in available funds. Its annual replenishment could be in jeopardy as lawmakers vie for leverage. Lawmakers will need to decide whether to replenish or even add more money into the CCC fund, though it'll likely be a long, uphill battle. Republican budget hawks are already skeptical of just about any spending from the CCC, and a few Democrats have floated voting against the fund's upcoming replenishment to protest the Trump administration's spending freezes. The cuts to local food procurement money reflect the Trump administration's plans to reorient the CCC fund toward its priorities, and rein in what Republicans view as the Biden administration's legally-questionable use of the fund. The $500 million in funding for the emergency assistance program for food banks also came from the CCC. And the Trump administration has frozen roughly $2 billion of the $3 billion Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, a CCC-funded initiative Biden established to help farmers mitigate their carbon footprint and adapt to climate change. Some food banks are hopeful Congress will provide permanent funding for the local food programs, said Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas. Until then, her state's network of food banks will need to rely on private philanthropy to keep up at least some of their contracts with farmers. 'I know this administration is committed to reevaluating and focusing on decisions made in the past administration,' Cole said recently. 'For us it's a matter of making sure in the interim we can meet the need.'
Politico
12-04-2025
- Business
- Politico
USDA's $1B bird flu plan uses money intended for schools, food banks
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' $1 billion plan for fighting bird flu will rely on money cut from programs meant to help schools and food banks support local farmers, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Rollins in February rolled out a five-step strategy to fight bird flu that includes importing eggs and researching and developing a poultry vaccine. But that raised questions about whether it would use new federal money, even as the Trump administration is generally cutting back. Instead, it will use the money previously intended for two food programs that USDA canceled earlier this year, according to the people, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The move tees up a major political fight over the Trump administration's priorities, as USDA struggles to use a relatively small pot of money to help farmers facing economic headwinds, curb a deadly avian flu outbreak and address a worsening hunger crisis — all while meeting the statutory obligations of the fund. Trump's rapidly escalating trade war with China could also pressure USDA to find new money to assist farmers who may no longer have a market for their products. USDA did not respond to multiple requests for comment. On a call with Hill staffers Friday, USDA said the money to pay for the bird flu response came from funds allocated to the Agricultural Marketing Service, which is the agency that administered the local food programs. But when one participant asked specifically if the money was repurposed from those programs, USDA declined to answer, according to someone on the call who was granted anonymity to share details of a private discussion. Former President Joe Biden allocated $1 billion in funding to the local food programs as part of his effort to build a more resilient food supply chain. The programs helped schools, child care facilities and food banks purchase fresh food from local farms and helped small- and mid-sized farms expand their businesses. Their abrupt cancellation sparked swift political backlash in Congress and online , as schools scrambled to find new funding for fresh food and farmers were left with unpurchased crops. Food banks are also feeling the strain of meeting increased hunger demands as prices soar. In addition to the local food programs, the Trump administration slashed roughly $500 million in funds to an emergency assistance program that supports food banks nationwide — though USDA says it's already making additional buys to counteract those cuts. The $1 billion for food programs — and now, for bird flu response — comes from a New Deal-era fund that gives the Agriculture secretary sweeping authority to provide disaster relief, support farmers and respond to market downturns. That fund, known as the Commodity Credit Corporation, has $30 billion to spend each year, but it has dwindled to roughly $4 billion in available funds. Its annual replenishment could be in jeopardy as lawmakers vie for leverage. Lawmakers will need to decide whether to replenish or even add more money into the CCC fund, though it'll likely be a long, uphill battle. Republican budget hawks are already skeptical of just about any spending from the CCC, and a few Democrats have floated voting against the fund's upcoming replenishment to protest the Trump administration's spending freezes. The cuts to local food procurement money reflect the Trump administration's plans to reorient the CCC fund toward its priorities, and rein in what Republicans view as the Biden administration's legally-questionable use of the fund. The $500 million in funding for the emergency assistance program for food banks also came from the CCC. And the Trump administration has frozen roughly $2 billion of the $3 billion Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, a CCC-funded initiative Biden established to help farmers mitigate their carbon footprint and adapt to climate change. Some food banks are hopeful Congress will provide permanent funding for the local food programs, said Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas. Until then, her state's network of food banks will need to rely on private philanthropy to keep up at least some of their contracts with farmers. 'I know this administration is committed to reevaluating and focusing on decisions made in the past administration,' Cole said recently. 'For us it's a matter of making sure in the interim we can meet the need.'
