MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Florida’s agriculture sector remains a key economic driver for the state.
“Agriculture depends on workers and there are a lot of workers that may or may not have legal status yet and may go into hiding,” said Arturo Lopez, Executive Director of the Coalition of Florida Farmworker Organizations. “That impacts the businesses, which impacts the cost to consumers and could in turn create an economic downturn. But ultimately, we just don’t know yet.”
In Miami-Dade, many foreign workers till the land under H-2A temporary agricultural work visas.
“A lot of persons from different countries -- a lot of persons from Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico,” said Lopez. “The community right now is not sure what is going to happen. I think most of them hope that what was proposed does not happen.”
Lopez said at this time, it remains unclear what labor market impact, if any, a Donald Trump campaign promise of mass deportations could have.
“We don’t expect anything because basically we don’t hire and employ illegal aliens,” said Sam Accursio, of Sam S. Accursio and Sons Farms. “I think they are going to go after the immediate influx of illegal aliens and primarily the criminals.”
President-elect Trump’s so-called border czar Tom Homan spoke about the issue with ABC News recently.
“We will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats,” he said. “We have to have the resources to do the job. I have been asked a thousand times how many people can you remove the first year. Well, how many agents do I have? How many buses do I have? How much money for airplanes, right? Can (the Department of Defense) assist? So there is a lot of what if’s.”
Local 10 News spoke to immigration attorney Laura Kelley.
“We also heard recently that the Trump Administration transition team is looking at expanding the use of private prisons and increasing detention facilities,” she said. “It would require an act of Congress to get more funding. The question is going to be, are our elected representatives in Congress willing to spend money and resources on increasing detention facilities to round up migrants in our communities? In Florida, (there are) approximately 150-200,000 agricultural workers and approximately half are on temporary work visas. Meantime, there is a national cap on those visas of 66,000 per year in the entire country, so how the Trump policy could impact agriculture workers would depend on if the Trump administration expands or tightens that cap, which currently doesn’t meet labor market needs.”
Local 10′s Christina Vazquez asked Accursio, “If they leave as a family, do you lose your legal workers?”
“We are concerned,” he replied. “We don’t know what it is going to look like, but I have faith in the administration that they are not going to target the people who have been in this nation, illegally, for 50 years.”
Said Kelley: “I do believe even though there are workers who are legal in the industry we have in Florida, as a family unit, some people will leave -- it has already happened.”
Related Link: Here is how Florida’s E-Verify mandate is already affecting workers, employers
A potential wild card is what multi-generational families of mixed-legal status plan to do, with several community stakeholders pointing to what the state already experienced last year.
“There are a lot of mixed families with documented and undocumented individuals within the family unit, and what we saw after SB 1718 was passed is that many migrants left Florida for other states to work in the agriculture industries there,” said Kelley.
Related: Read SB 1718
Kelly said they may choose to stay or perhaps move to a blue state, where a governor may be more inclined to fight to keep families together.
“We haven’t heard any persons saying they are going to leave the state, but that might be because this time, it doesn’t matter where they go, this is going to be a federal program,” said Lopez.
According to a recent report about Miami-Dade’s agricultural industry:
“Workforce availability for agriculture is complicated by low compensation rates, difficult working conditions, high cost of living, and lack of affordable housing. Nearly one half of all agricultural workers in the U.S. are unlawful or undocumented immigrants. Labor markets in Florida are highly uncertain due to recent state policy changes to enforce immigration law. Use of foreign workers under the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers visa program is expensive and logistically challenging.”