At least some farmers will likely get caught up in President-elect Donald Trump's mass deportation plans, and agriculture is unlikely to get much help from Congress on labor, according to an agricultural labor adviser in Trump's first administration.

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Kristi Boswell was a political appointee under Trump's first term, working as an adviser to USDA and the White House on agricultural labor issues.

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She noted Trump's supporters have said they will focus more on criminals and those considered a security threat.

"That said, it is very well known that agriculture does have some workers that are working in an undocumented status. I would not be surprised if there were a few examples made of some farmers -- some operations. It created a lot of instability, and even if there is not an enforcement action, what we saw in 2016 and in the first administration is that a lot of workers just stop showing up for work because they are nervous, and they don't know what's going to happen."

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Farmers have about 1.2 million workers overall, and it is estimated anywhere from 50% to 70% of those workers are undocumented or are using false documents on their jobs. Overall, about 90% of all farmworkers come from Mexico.

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...Boswell said she expects farmers are going to rely more heavily on [the seasonal H-2A visa] going forward.

Alexandra Hill, an associate professor of agricultural extension at the University of California-Berkeley, on the Farm Foundation panel, said getting rid of roughly 40% of the agricultural workforce "would be extremely detrimental." A mass exodus of farm workers would lead to a push for greater H-2A demand and increase food costs as well ...

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... "Farmers who are producing labor-intensive commodities are having to decide: What do I do over the next five to 10 years? Do I invest in labor-saving machines? Do I invest in housing and hiring migrant H-2A workers, or do I change crops in the U.S. and look to import from abroad?"

Another option will be shifting more fruit and vegetable production to countries such as Mexico and exporting that produce into the U.S. The U.S. already imports most of its fruit and 40% or so of vegetables. A large share of those crops come from Mexico, where workers make in a day what a farm worker in California or Washington state might make in an hour.

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