"‘Mass deportations would disrupt the food chain’: Californians warn of ripple effect of Trump threat,"

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More than 400 types of commodities are grown in the Golden state – including a third of the vegetables and three-quarters of the fruits and nuts produced in the United States.

Much of [the USA's] food is grown by immigrant farm workers – many of whom are undocumented....

Donald Trump’s campaign promise to “launch the largest deportation program in American history” by targeting millions of undocumented immigrants could upend the lives of the majority of these agricultural workers who grow and harvest our food – which would dramatically hit California’s communities and economy, with ripple effects that would touch every table in the country...

Farm workers already perform dangerous and often underpaid labor. In the fields, they are vulnerable to pesticide exposure and workplace injuries doing work that is exempt from federal overtime laws. Trump and his allies have repeatedly said that undocumented immigrants have “taken” jobs from Black and Hispanic Americans, but farm worker advocates say these are not jobs US citizens are eager to hold...

Without the undocumented immigrant workforce, the United States would probably import more of its food supply – making food prices vulnerable to fluctuations and to Trump’s proposed tariffs. (The United States currently imports about 15% of its food supply – including about a third of vegetables, half of its fruit and 94% of seafood.)...

“There’s a contradiction in business owners who employ undocumented immigrants and at the same time support Trump and his proposal for the largest deportation initiative in US history,” said [Edward Flores, a sociologist and faculty director of the Community and Labor Center] Flores. “Unless your aim is to have greater control over labor than ever before. Because under such a proposal, an employer could recruit a vulnerable workforce and then government would provide the means to get rid of them at will.”...