Wisconsin dairy farmer John Rosenow says that if Donald Trump deports all undocumented aliens, Americans will have to get used to a whole new diet.
“Without immigrant labor, there’s no milk, cheese, butter or ice cream,” the dairy farmer said. “We all have to go vegan.”
Rosenow’s farm in Warmandy, western Wisconsin, is almost entirely dependent on foreign workers. The US president’s pledge to launch the largest deportation plan in American history could destroy that workforce and threaten the farm’s future, he said.
“Before Trump was elected, I had far fewer concerns,” said the 75-year-old, who openly campaigned against the policy. “We’re in a whole new world right now.”
Trump has made immigration reform the cornerstone of his second presidential term. Shortly after being sworn in, he deployed troops to secure the border.
Amid a surge in executive orders, he suspends resettlement of refugees, orders to expeditiously track undocumented pools of migrants, and expand facilities detaining illegal aliens. Ta. He also spoke about sending federal officials to eliminate thousands of people deemed to be in the United States without permission.
The move is working well with Trump’s base. However, the business group has expressed concern about the impact it will have on the agricultural sector.
The dairy industry is particularly vulnerable. Growers can recruit legal seasonal workers to harvest fruit and vegetables under the H-2A visa program for temporary farmers. But dairy farms don’t have that system. This requires workers to milk cows three times a day throughout the year.
Therefore, the countryside of Wisconsin, a thin, populous state with 3.5mn cows called “American Dairy,” has its own right for the upcoming crackdown on immigrants. It’s no wonder.
“We support deporting criminals, but Wisconsin needs a safe workforce,” said Tyler Wentzlaff, head of government relations for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation in Madison’s capital. Ta.
Many of the undocumented workers “worked on the same farm for years,” he said, sending their children to local schools and “part of the fabrics in the countryside of Wisconsin.” It’s become.
Hans Breitenmoser says “dairy industry will die a horrible death” if undocumented workers are deported © Guy Chazan/Ftwisconsin is called “American Dairy Products” © Jim Vondruska /ft
One farmer fearing the outcome of the new administration is Hans Brightonmoser of Lincoln County, northern Wisconsin. “Are you worried that some or all of my workforce will be wiped out? Yeah, certainly,” he said. “I’m more worried than ever.”
Brighton Moser, who employs 11 Mexican workers, said the Trump administration had no idea how repatriation would affect the economy of states such as Wisconsin.
“Let’s say the people of Washington can waving their magic wands and disappearing all these people. You’re stacking dead cows outside the dairy farm,” he said. “The industry will die horrible within 48 hours. No one is there to slaughter the cows, not to mention milk.”
Trump has long argued that illegal immigration hurts all Americans. In his first term, he undermines public safety, while also placing “huge tensions” in local schools, hospitals and communities, robbing valuable resources from the poorest Americans who need it the most.” I stated.
Allies such as Vice President JD Vance have allegedly suffocating a supply of revealing foreigners will force employers to hire US-born workers.
However, Rosenow questions whether there are any native-born Americans ready to work on his farm.
He said he was at the “end of Wits” before hiring foreign workers in 1998. The turning point was an incident in the 1990s when a US-born worker took the job he advertised. “All these cans of beer fell off when he opened the car door,” he said. “I rang one of his references and said he would never hire him.”
Rosenaud’s dependence on workers from the south of the border is typical of American agriculture.
About 40% of the 2.4 million farm workers in the United States are not allowed to work, according to Daniel Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University. “They play an important role that many US-born workers can’t or don’t want to do it,” he said.
This is supported by statistics. According to a 2020 survey conducted by US farm employers, 337 US-born workers applied for the 97,691 season of agricultural employment advertised between March and May.
As a result, he said the move to deport undocumented workers would “having a major impact on the US food system and “increasing the cost of producing food.” “Instead of lowering these policies, they’ll promote them.”
Rosenow said he was prepared the moment federal officials came to his farm. He created cards of local businessmen who were interested in buying herds for resale in Texas and South Dakota. “He’s the first person I’ll call,” he said.
He also showed the second card. He issued all workers, directed them in English and Spanish, instructing them not to open the door to immigration officers and to exercise their constitutional rights to not answer their questions.
Roberto Tecpile says he will go home if he is deported
His employees are stoic. “If I’m deported, I’ll just go back to where my family is,” said Roberto Tecpil, a native of Zongorica, a Mexican town in Veracruz, who has worked on a Rosenow farm for the past decade.
“The people who suffer the most are business owners and will lose a lot of money.”
His son Kevin, who works with him, is more militant. “We’re all going to leave this country, just leave this country and they’ll see what happens,” he said.
The number of daily arrests from immigration and customs enforcement, which reached a high of 1,179 on January 27th since Trump took office, has since fallen, but the number of daily arrests by immigration and customs enforcement is still inscribed. The White House social media accounts carry photos of immigrants being led by military aircraft on shackle. They also posted the names of foreigners accused of murder, theft and child abuse as “arrest and pending removal.”
But experts said the administration lacked money and talent, particularly to dramatically increase deportation, particularly from isolated areas in rural Wisconsin.
It also has broader economic constraints. “If there’s a significant execution event at a large farm or meat packing factory in the Red State, then the business owners in that state are saying, and this is not something we had in mind.” Non-partisan immigration. At the Policy Research Institute.
Workers fill adolescent cow water containers with individual enclosures at Rosenholm Dairy Farm in Cochrane, Wisconsin.
But even if implementation was delayed, Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric “had had a huge chilling effect,” Chishti said. “It instills a sense of fear and anxiety and brings out a lot of pain from people across the country.”
John Horrey, head of government relations for the International Association of Fresh Agricultural Products, a trade group, said it is particularly popular among workers in the fruit and vegetable industry.
“We’ve certainly heard intermittent reports of people who aren’t working in California,” he said. “We have seen enforcement measures at convenience stores in California, Texas and Florida.
In Wisconsin, which voted for Trump in 2024, some farmers support his immigration agenda, despite the White House relying on the type of worker it targets.
“Do you think we need to control the borders? Absolutely,” he said, saying that a common man voting for the Republican party refused to give him his name. “Do you think immigration reform is necessary? Absolutely.”
“Trump is good at putting the issues that need to be resolved to the forefront, and if he’s as good as he says, it’s going to be resolved.”
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But Brighton Moser, who is actively involved in Democratic politics, said the argument took away the negative tone “demonizes and scapegoats an entire group of people.”
As he spoke, a 50 mph wind suddenly blew the farm, blew snow away, carrying an empty calf hut and depositing it on a horse’s fence. It is a world away from his workers’ hot and humid Mexican hometown, over 1,000 miles south.
“These people show up every day and make sure that other people don’t want to do responsibly and always blameless for being rapists, murderers and drug dealers,” he says. I did.
At Rosenow Farm, Kevin Tekpill admits he is disappointed in Trump’s victory saying about America. “It was a surprise to see how much racism there is in American society,” he said. “They don’t seem to thank us.”
