ROYAL CITY, Wash. — It has been an ongoing promise of President Donald Trump to deport millions of immigrants who are in the United States illegally.
“We will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came from,” said President Trump during Monday’s Inaugural Address.
According to a Pew Research study, Americans cite crime, fairness and limited resources as reasons undocumented immigrants should be deported.
So as President Trump settles into office, millions of people are waiting to see if he will follow through on that promise. This is especially true for those in the agriculture industry, which heavily relies on undocumented workers.
Washington is the largest producer of apples and sweet cherries in the U.S., and orchard owners in the state are anxious about what Trump’s deportation plans could mean for their harvest.
Jose Ramirez manages Stein Manzana Orchards in Royal City and also owns his own orchard. He said he’s concerned about President Trump’s promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
“There are people that are going to be taken away if this happens. It’s going to be detrimental to this industry,” said Ramirez.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, roughly half of the nation’s crop farmworkers lack legal immigration status. Stein Manzana General Manager Dain Craver said he’s well aware.
“If we had mass deportations, we would lose most of our workforce,” said Craver.
Both Ramirez and Craver fear that mass deportations wouldn’t only harm their businesses, but would also affect families at the grocery store.
“It will skyrocket. Prices will probably be twice as much as they are now,” said Ramirez.
Ramirez said many orchard owners rely on undocumented workers due to the strenuous work. While Stein Manzana Orchards pays around $20 an hour, others pay less.
“If regular American people come and do this job, it’s going to be more cost on top of what we already have,” said Ramirez.
Washington State University Professor and Extension Specialist, Karina Gallardo said that relying on guest worker programs like H-2A would also increase costs. She said in Washington, H-2A workers must be paid a minimum of $19.25 an hour.
“You have to add to this rate the fixed costs associated with bringing in H-2A workers in especially housing, administration cost, transportation and so on, which adds about $4.50 per hour,” said Gallardo.
Without undocumented workers, Ramirez fears some orchards might go out of business, meaning we might run out of home-grown fruit.
“We probably outsource it. We have regulations in place here to kind of not use illegal or really toxic chemicals, and if we outsource our stuff from other countries, and they don’t have these regulations, then you and I will be eating stuff that is not very safe to eat,” said Ramirez.
While some believe undocumented immigrants are taking away jobs from American citizens, Ramirez, Craver and experts said that’s not true.
Gallardo said there’s clear evidence of that when you look at the H-2A program.
“The H-2A program also mandates that the employer advertises the job positions for a number of days, and nobody responds to those calls,” Gallardo said.
The Washington State Tree Fruit Association echoed that message.
“This last year, there was 36,000 individual jobs in Washington state agriculture that could not be filled through that open, public process,” said Jon DeVaney, President of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association. “So that’s pretty clear evidence that we’re not getting the domestic applicants for well-paying jobs in agriculture.”
Craver has experienced this firsthand.
“I’ve been in this industry for 46 years, and about after the first ten, I never had an Anglo person ever pick apples for me or even pretty much run orchards,” said Craver. “They’re not taking American jobs.”
We asked Ramirez how many undocumented immigrants work at Stein Manzana.
“Right now, I think I have all my people documented, but I’ve been in times when harvest comes that, you know, I hire a bunch of people. So, I don’t know how many people can be illegal,” said Ramirez. “Again, we have to go through processing, hiring and we have to make sure they provide us with documentation. And, if that documentation looks good, we hire them.”
Ramirez said these workers receive a paycheck and pay taxes just like everyone else.
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants paid more than $96 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022.
There’s nothing these workers and growers can do now though, but wait.
But, as Ramirez remains patient he said he’s still worried. He asks those in power to help undocumented workers gain legal status instead of deporting them.
“It’s going to make this country better,” Ramirez said.
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