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Quick Recap of Last Week or So:
- ICE conducted several raids on Ag employers over last couple weeks
- Ag groups and Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins advocate for relief for ag employers and/or stress the importance of current ag workforce
- President Trump states farmers need help and administration will not seek out to deport employees from ag operations
- Administration pivots and says it will continue to conduct immigration enforcement on ag operations
Instead of including immigration and ICE-related articles in our “headlines” section above, we’re going to have a separate section just on immigration stories because there have been plenty since our last E-News.
First, ICE raids in California, Nebraska, and New Mexico on farming and meat-packing operations have led to increased concerns among producers and ag groups about the Trump administrations’ goals for deportations and immigration enforcement. ICE agents and cooperating law enforcement agencies arrested over 70 employees in Omaha, NE at a meatpacking facility, 9 employees on a dairy farm in Lovington, NM, and more than a dozen employees on a produce farm in California last week.
The outcry from ag groups led, in part, to Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins having a conversation with President Trump about the ag industries’ concerns, according to Axios. This led Trump to post on social media last Thursday, “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.” Later in the day, during a press availability at a White House bill signing ceremony, the President said “Our farmers are being hurt badly. They have very good workers. They’ve worked for them for 20 years. They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be great. We’re going to have to do something about that. We can’t take farmers and all their people and send them back because they don’t have what they are supposed to have.” When asked if the administration was going to issue a directive or order to allow for farm workers to remain in place despite their immigration status, the President said, ““we’re going to have an order on that coming out soon.”
This led to multiple news reports stating that the Department of Homeland Security (the parent agency of Immigrations/Customs Enforcement a.k.a. ICE) was instructing agents in the field to halt operations on hotels, hospitality, and agricultural operations for the time being as they awaited more guidance from the White House.
Unfortunately, this reprieve didn’t last long. Washington Post is reporting that yesterday (Monday) DHS officials told field agents during a conference call that the agency would still continue enforcement actions on employers in the ag and hotel industries. News outlets point to public comments made over the past few weeks and over the weekend from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, White House Border Czar Tom Homan, and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller that the “hawkish” immigration stances from this administration may still be winning the argument behind the scenes. Noem told Fox News “Those who think we can ignore these sanctuary cities and ignore laws so that we can keep somebody in a job is absolutely ridiculous…That’s not what America is about. We have a workforce and a generation of people who have been cheated out of jobs.”
So where does that leave us?
Exactly right back where we were a week ago. Until further guidance comes from Trump and the White House, ag employers should continue to expect immigration enforcement to continue. In fact, the administration (Noem, Homan, Miller, etc) are interested in beefing up enforcement activities.
So what can I, the dairy farmer, do?
Documentation is key. Employers are required to gather documentation to satisfy the I-9 form requirements when hiring new employees. This is where the farm owner/operator is going to be challenged by DHS if they come onto your farm. They’ll want to see the I-9 forms you filled out and verify that you are following the law.
If you have questions about filling out the I-9 form and all the documentation requirements that go with it, you have two options. First, you can consult an attorney. Attorneys can answer specific legal questions you might have about specific circumstances on your farm. Your second option if you have general I-9 questions is to reach out to HR consultants GMP has asked to help Georgia dairy farmers.
Stacy Fenn and Jason Smith are HR professionals with a combined 50 years in corporate Human Resources. Email Stacy at stacydfenn@gmail.com if you'd like help reviewing your I-9 files or have questions on the best management practices for staying in compliance.
What do I do if ICE/DHS come to my farm?
We are including several resources below that were part of the immigration webinars we promoted earlier this year. Mainly the "how to prepare your business" slides from Fisher-Phillips lawfirm, the employer DHS/ICE action plan checklist, and contacts for the Fisher-Phillips rapid response team.
Further Reading - Headlines on Immigration
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