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https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/verify/immigration/75-farmworkers-not- showing-up-work-trump-immigration-fact-check/536-e7be9ccb-7acf-42e4-b806- f00fb155ad4a

The 75% figure comes from a report about the effects of raids that took
place under Biden, not President Trump. It also hasn’t been confirmed by multiple sources.

President Donald Trump has promised mass deportations of people who are
living in the U.S. illegally as part of his crackdown on immigration.

Posts and headlines that have made the rounds online in recent days claim
the Trump administration’s efforts are causing many California farmworkers
to stop showing up for work.

“75% of immigrant farm workers didn’t show up yesterday in Bakersfield
because of ICE raids under the new presidency,” one person wrote in a Jan.
21 X post with 7 million views. Bakersfield, California, is home to many
farms that grow produce like potatoes, lettuce and tomatoes.

Other social media posts make similar claims about 75% of farmworkers
staying home from work following the inauguration, which took place on
Jan. 20.

Several readers reached out to ask us if those claims are true.

THE QUESTION
Did 75% of farmworkers miss work in Bakersfield, California, due to
immigration raids after President Trump’s inauguration?

THE SOURCES
Article published by nonprofit news outlet CalMatters on Jan. 10, 2025
United Farm Workers spokesperson
California Citrus Mutual spokesperson
United Farm Workers briefing on Jan. 16, 2025
U.S. Border Patrol El Centro Sector
Article written by the California Farm Bureau
Farmworker Justice
THE ANSWER
This is misleading.
These claims are misleading.

The 75% figure comes from a news report on the effects of Border Patrol
raids that took place during the Biden administration – not under
President Trump. The statistic also was not confirmed by multiple sources
and likely does not apply to all farms in the area.

WHAT WE FOUND
Claims that 75% of farmworkers didn’t show up for work due to immigration
raids after President Trump’s inauguration are misleading.

The 75% figure comes from a report published by nonprofit news source CalMatters about the effects of Border Patrol raids that occurred about
two weeks before Trump took office for the second time.

That number also hasn’t been confirmed by multiple sources and it likely doesn’t apply to all farms in the Bakersfield area.

Though Trump has promised mass deportations in his second presidential
term, VERIFY doesn’t have data yet on whether there have been raids at any farms or how many farmworkers have stayed home as a result.

In its article published on Friday, Jan. 10, CalMatters reported that
Border Patrol “conducted unannounced raids throughout Bakersfield” on
Tuesday, Jan. 7, while former President Joe Biden was still in office.
Casey Creamer, president of the industry group California Citrus Mutual,
told CalMatters that the raids “sent shockwaves through the entire
community.”

“People aren’t going to work and kids aren’t going to school. Yesterday
about 25% of the workforce, today 75% didn’t show up,” Creamer said on Thursday, Jan. 9.

When VERIFY reached out to California Citrus Mutual about how it obtained
the 75% figure, a spokesperson declined to provide further information.

“At this time, we do not have any additional comments beyond our
previously provided statements,” a spokesperson said.

United Farm Workers (UFW) has disputed that the statistic applied to all
farms in the area, with a spokesperson telling VERIFY the labor union
believes it is “false” or “at the very least is something that was just specific to some farms in the immediate Kern County area,” where
Bakersfield is located.

VERIFY didn’t find any other farmworker unions or industry groups sharing
the statistic.

Border Patrol activity did lead many farmworkers to stay home

It is true that many farmworkers in California’s Central Valley did stay
home while Border Patrol was in the area, the UFW spokesperson told
VERIFY.

On Jan. 16, less than one week before Trump’s second presidential term
began, UFW’s political and legislative director Areli Arteaga said the
union received calls beginning on Jan. 7 from Kern County farmworkers
seeking help and guidance after Border Patrol raids in the community.

Border Patrol was in the region for several days and said it arrested 78 undocumented people as part of what it called “Operation Return to
Sender.”

According to Arteaga, two UFW members who lived and worked in the United
States for over a decade were detained and are now in Mexico.

An article from the California Farm Bureau backs up the UFW spokesperson’s statement about many farmworkers staying home for several days. In that article, a citrus grower and packer who works east of Bakersfield said
that for a few days during the immigration enforcement efforts, only
around five people who are part of a 30-member contracted harvest crew
showed up for work. He was able to fill his orders with fruit that he had
in cold storage.

However, the UFW spokesperson said farmworkers ultimately had to return to
work because they “live paycheck to paycheck” and “can’t afford to take
three weeks off.”

“Our sense is that the vast majority of workers in the Central Valley are
going to work as they can't afford not to, but with a heightened sense of
fear and anxiety,” the UFW spokesperson said.

Many farms in the U.S. rely on an immigrant workforce. The Department of Labor’s 2019-2020 National Agricultural Workers Survey found that
approximately 44% of farmworkers are undocumented immigrants who lack work authorization, according to the nonprofit Farmworker Justice.

“I think we will see regional upticks in absentee rates after immigration enforcement activity, especially large sweeps, but then a return to a
(more anxious) normal as the operation ends and the underlying economic pressures of high cost of living, exclusion from the social safety net,
and poverty wage work make themselves felt,” the UFW spokesperson said.


--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
eradicated.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

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