America’s farm labor shortage and concerns over immigration enforcement actions targeting farms and food processing facilities were among the topics brought up during U.S. Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins’ recent testimony before the House Ag Committee.
“The moment that America is not able to feed ourselves any longer, that is the moment that we are no longer the superpower—the preeminent superpower—in the world,” said Secretary Rollins on Wednesday as she addressed concerns among members of the House Ag Committee regarding immigrant farm labor and the shortage of labor that is currently available for America’s farmers.
Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-15), who is also Chairman of the House Ag Committee, said that “recent enforcement actions have begun to impact and even target agricultural operations.” He asked Rollins if the Trump administration was working to ensure that widespread immigration enforcement actions on farms and at ag processing facilities were not causing labor disruptions in the food supply chain.
“There is no doubt that—first of all, significant reform needs to happen,” said Rollins. “It’s the H-2A and H-2B (Visa programs), which I know [the House Ag Committee is] leading on in a bipartisan effort, but also the importance of our administration and this President, which he does recognize that we have a major gap in the labor market for our dairy farmers and a lot of our row croppers, and how you balance that obviously with his commitment to America and to the American voters, which we don’t all agree on, but to address illegal immigration, so please know I’m committed to working around the clock to solve for that.”
Rollins added that Congressional lawmakers are in the driver’s seat when it comes to the ability to make changes to the both H-2A and H-2B visa programs.
“Clearly, the real reform has to come from Congress. I don’t mean to ‘pass the buck’, that is not it at all, but I have had lots of conversations [asking] ‘Can we do this? Can we do that? Can we do this without Congressional authorization?’ Our administration realizes the significant challenges and are open and welcome to trying to help however we can to solve that, including the President,” she said.
“I will continue that effort now within the Labor Department with Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. She is very focused on this issue. We have met about it multiples of times. But you have our commitment. We’re doing everything we can to work to solve for that as much as we can,” said Rollins.”
On Thursday, President Trump U.S. President Donald Trump said he would issue an order to address the effects of his immigration crackdown on the country’s farming and agricultural industries, which rely heavily on migrant labor.
“Our farmers are being hurt badly and we’re going to have to do something about that—we’re going to have an order on that pretty soon, I think,” Trump said at a White House event. However, he did not say what changes the order would implement or when it would take effect.
CLICK BELOW for Hoosier Ag Today’s radio news report:
CLICK BELOW to watch full testimony from U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins before the House Ag Committee.
