If Donald Trump expels all undocumented aliens, Americans will have to get used to a brand new diet, says John Rosenow, a Wisconsin dairy farmer.
“If there is no immigration labor, no milk, no cheese, no butter, no ice cream,” the dairy farmer said. “We all have to go vegetarian.”
Rosenow’s farm in Waumandee, western Wisconsin, relies almost entirely on foreign workers. He said the U.S. president promised to launch the largest deportation program in U.S. history, which could destroy the labor force and threaten the future of his farm.
“I had much less worries before Trump was elected,” the 75-year-old said. “We are in a whole new world now.”
Trump has made immigration reform the cornerstone of his second presidency. Forces were deployed immediately after being sworn in to secure the southern border, citing a national emergency.
In a series of execution orders, he also suspended resettlement of refugees, expanded the unrecorded immigration pool but was deported by rapid deportation and ordered the expansion of facilities to detain illegal foreigners. He also said that sending federal officials to round up and remove thousands of people without permission is considered in the United States.
These actions are closely related to Trump’s base. But business groups expressed concern about the impact they would have on the agricultural sector, saying they would not be able to operate without immigration labor.
The dairy industry is particularly vulnerable. Under the H-2A visa program, producer growers can recruit legal seasonal workers to harvest fruits and vegetables. However, there are no systems for dairy farms, which require workers to milk cows three times a day each year.
So, it’s no wonder that rural Wisconsin is a densely populated state nicknamed “the dairy farm of the United States”, ready for the upcoming crackdown on immigrants.
“We support deportation of criminals, but we need a safe workforce,” said Tyler Wenzlaff, head of government relations at the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation in Madison, Wisconsin.
He said many undocumented workers “worked on the same farm for many years”, sending their children to local schools and becoming “part of rural Wisconsin fabrics.”
One farmer who is worried about the consequences of the new regime is Hans Breitenmoser of Lincoln County, Wisconsin. “Am I worried that some of my employees would be swept away? Yes, for sure,” he said. “I’m more worried now than ever.”
Breitenmoser, who employs 11 Mexican workers, said the Trump administration has not considered how repatriation affects the economy of countries such as Wisconsin.
“Suppose people in Washington can wield wands and make all these people disappear – you’ll pile up dead cows outside the dairy farm,” he said. “The industry will die within 48 hours. Because no one will slaughter cows there, more Needless to say, milking.”
Trump has long claimed that illegal immigration has hurt all Americans. In his first semester, he said it hurt public safety, while also putting “tremendous pressure” on local schools, hospitals and communities to “tend valuable resources from the poorest Americans who need them the most.” take away.”
Allies such as Vice President JD Vance believe that stifling the supply of foreigners who are prone to explosion will force employers to hire U.S.-born workers.
But Rosenow questioned whether any Americans born were ready to work on his farm.
He said he was in a “end of wit” state before he began hiring foreign workers in 1998. The turning point was an event in the 1990s when an American-born worker appeared in the work he promoted. “All of these beers fell off when he opened the door,” he said. “I hit one of his references and he said he would never hire him.”
Rosenow’s reliance on workers in the southern border is a typical feature of American agriculture.
Daniel Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, said about 40% of farm workers in the United States fail to work. “They play a key role that many American-born workers cannot or are reluctant to perform,” he said.
This is proven by statistics. According to a 2020 survey conducted by the National Agricultural Employers Council, only 337 U.S.-born workers applied for the 97,691st quarter of agricultural work that was advertised between March and May of that year.
As a result, any large-scale expulsion of undocumented workers would have a significant impact on the U.S. food system and “increase the cost of producing food,” Ortega said. “Instead of raising the prices of these policies won’t push them.”
Rosenno said he was ready for federal officials to come to his farm. He made a card from a local businessman that expressed interest in buying cattle herds in Texas and South Dakota. “He was the first person I called,” he said.
He also showed a second card – he had sent all workers a card in English and Spanish to instruct them not to open the doors of immigration officials and to exercise their constitutional rights without answering their questions.
His staff is solid. “If I were deported, I would go home, my family’s residence,” said Roberto Tecpile, a native of Zongolica, a small Mexican town in Veracruz, who has been doing for the past decade Working on a farm in Rosenow.
“The people who suffer the most are business owners, and they lose a lot of money.”
His son Kevin, who works with him, is even more aggressive. “We should all say, well, leave this country and they will see what’s going on,” he said.
Since Trump took office, the number of daily arrests in immigration and customs enforcement has increased, reaching 1,179 on January 27, although the trend has been declining since then. White House social media accounts have carried photos of immigrants, which were taken to a tied military plane. They also released the names of foreigners accused of murder, theft and abuse of children, who were “arrested and removed.”
However, experts say the government lacks money and manpower to significantly increase deportation, especially from isolated areas such as rural Wisconsin.
There are also wider economic restrictions. “If there is a major law enforcement activity in a large farm or meat packaging factory, you will have business owners in the state saying that this is not our idea,” Muzaffar Chishti said at the Institute for Nonpartisan Immigration Policy.
But even if the implementation lags behind, Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric “has a huge and terrifying effect”, Chishti said. “It’s instilling a sense of fear and insecurity and drawing a lot of pain from people all over the country.”
John Hollay, head of government relations at the trade group International Fresh Agricultural Products Association, said fear is particularly common among workers in the fruit and vegetable industry.
“We have heard intermittent reports that people are not at work, of course in California,” he said. “We have seen law enforcement actions in convenience stores in California, Texas and Florida and there is news.”
In Wisconsin, which voted for Trump in 2024, some farmers supported his immigration agenda, even though their goal of relying on the White House is to rely on that kind of workers.
“Do I believe we need to control the borders? Absolutely. “Do I believe we need immigration reform? Absolutely. ”
“Trump is good at bringing up problems and needs to be solved, and if he and he said it is as good as he will be solved.”
But Bretten Moser, who is active in Democratic politics, said the tone of the debate was a negative tone of “demonizing and replacing a bunch of people.”
As he spoke, a 50 mph wind suddenly blew across the farm, whipping the snow, pulling out an empty calf kitchen and placing it on the horse fence. It’s a world of hot and humid homes of Mexican workers, more than 1,000 miles to the south.
“These people show up every day, responsibly and reliably do the hard work that others don’t want to do, but they are often accused of being rapists, murderers and drug traders,” he said.
On Rosenow Farm, Kevin Tecpile admitted that Trump was disappointed with what the American victory said. “It’s a surprising thing to see how much racism is in American society,” he said. “They don’t seem to appreciate us.”
