ATLANTA – Georgia farmers have had a tough time in recent years.
They were recovering from Hurricane Michael in 2018 when Hurricane Helene struck in September, damaging thousands of acres of crops across the state. Added to this is the financial damage left by the storm, which can put a significant strain on their mental health.
“Fertilizer, fuel, labor, everything related to agriculture – all of our inputs are way up there. I mean, through the roof,” said Josh Simpson, who grows cotton, hay, peanuts and cattle on the Georgia-Florida line in Brooks County, west of Valdosta.
For farmers like Simpson, losing a large portion of their workforce would be icing on an already hard-to-chew cake. But that's the reality many could face if President-elect Donald Trump's administration begins mass deportations of immigrants living in the country without permission.
When Trump takes office in less than a month, farmers will still be suffering from the storm's devastating effects. He has promised that deportations will be high on his agenda.
Georgia farmers live in areas that voted overwhelmingly for Trump. For some, his proposed immigration policies bring conflict into their politics. On the one hand, they support the rule of law and want a fair entry system. On the other hand, they are well aware of how demanding farm work is and how few U.S.-born Americans want to do it.
“It is very difficult to manage labor on a farm. Most farmers are just looking for someone willing and able,” said Sam Martin, a farmer in Dixie Township near Quitman who grows winter vegetables and raises cattle. “Illegal immigrants don’t have a lot of options and are therefore more willing to do harder work that doesn’t really pay well.”
The challenge
Searching for farm workers can be pointless.
Agriculture is the No. 1 industry in Georgia, and most farmers would prefer to employ workers with American citizenship. The challenge is that domestic workers are more expensive and are less interested in agricultural work. So they turn elsewhere.
“Latinos, by and large, are doing jobs right now that many don’t want to do,” said Adelina Nicholls, executive director of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights.
Martin believes that's because U.S. citizens are eligible for unemployment benefits and the federal government has made it too easy to “pretend” to look for work.
“This type of work was never high paying and always hard,” he said. “It's a lot easier to fill out a bunch of paperwork, sit on the porch all day and pick up a check. Most people will just choose that option.”
In practice, however, the opposite is often the case: it is difficult to receive unemployment benefits. Many don't qualify because their income isn't high enough, and some max out their payments after 14 to 26 weeks. It is difficult to live on the maximum amount Georgia allows per week for an extended period of time.
Farm work is also seasonal, and many U.S. citizens would likely choose a permanent year-round job rather than temporarily working outdoors, which involves heavy labor.
This is where migrant labor comes into play, and Martin and Simpson have taken different approaches.
Simpson said he doesn't ask about the immigration status of his workers. “At some point we hired anyone who was breathing, had a heartbeat or was interested in farming,” he said.
Martin recruits workers through the federal H-2A program, which allows U.S. employers to hire foreign nationals to provide temporary agricultural labor. He said the program solved a huge problem: securing workers.
“When I have to harvest vegetables, I can hardly wait. I can't search for workers. We have to do it now,” he said.
Under the federal program, he is responsible for providing immigrants with a government-set wage – which can be almost double the minimum wage – and a contract for a certain number of hours, and is the only way to remain in the country legally Work for Martin. “We are bound to each other by this contract,” he said.
The downside, he said, is that the program is expensive and cumbersome.
“Not only is the hourly wage very high, there are also a lot of fees involved in carrying out the process, in addition to providing accommodation and travel to and from Mexico,” he said.
In January, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper called on the state's congressional delegation to freeze a $14.68 farmworker wage increase that he said would hurt both farmers and consumers.
Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff unsuccessfully tried last year to temporarily freeze the H-2A minimum wage at 2022 levels, citing a “sudden and massive increase in costs.”
But for now, H-2A workers are rejecting the alternative, Martin said.
“Before I used H-2A and worked as a domestic worker, these people could be here today and gone tomorrow,” Martin said. “You might have a crew picking pumpkins on Monday, and your crew might not show up the next day.”
How politics plays a role
Both farmers understand the value of migrant labor, but view the problem of illegal immigration separately.
Simpson said he has no problem deporting migrants found guilty of committing crimes, but he sees no reason to deport the others.
“Those who behave badly, who are up to no good, I will gladly send them back tomorrow. But I mean, there are good people in all walks of life,” he said. “You also give something back to society.”
But Martin said it would be unfair to others to allow migrants who are in the country illegally to stay in the United States.
“If you are allowed to come and stay here illegally, you are ahead of all the honest people who have tried to do it right,” he said. “We cannot support illegal immigration in any way because it only encourages more illegal activities.”
Nicholls, of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, said farmers want to circumvent immigration laws while supporting Trump's deportation plans. That was hypocritical, she said.
“On the one hand, you hire farm workers, with or without papers. On the other hand, you play politics and hide. You are not defending your own people who farm for a living,” she said.
Migrant workers are also often underpaid, Nicholls said, but because some do not live in the country legally, they are afraid to pursue their rights in court. In addition, many migrant families cannot afford a lawyer to defend these claims anyway.
“It’s a mess in terms of abuses,” Nicholls said. “I think it’s a moral obligation for farmers to fight back against Trump’s policies.”
Simpson and Martin agree on one thing: They are fed up with the current immigration and agricultural policies under Democratic President Joe Biden.
“I felt like we had less support under this administration that we've had in the last four years than any time I've farmed under,” said Simpson, who has been farming since 2005.
Different measures can call this claim into question. For example, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided loans and financial assistance to farmers. According to Politico, farmers' net income grew more quickly under Biden than under Trump.
The U.S. government did pay farmers $28 billion during Trump's time in office, but it was in compensation for farmers hurt by his trade war with China.
Some farmers supported Trump because they thought he would oppose environmentally conscious policies that they believed would be difficult to implement.
Harper, the state's agriculture commissioner, urged Biden to quickly sign an interim funding bill that Congress passed last weekend that, among other things, provides relief to farmers affected by recent natural disasters. Democrats supported it unanimously, but there were 34 Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Andrew Clyde and Rich McCormick of Georgia, who voted against the bill. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp had pushed federal lawmakers to pass a package that would provide much-needed disaster relief.
Simpson will be watching the next four years closely to see how Trump's administration affects his business.
“I really can't tell you off the top of my head, but all I can say is that it can't be much worse than what we just experienced,” he said.
