| | | Trump administration says immigration enforcement threatens higher food prices
In an unusual acknowledgement, the Labor Department said that tougher immigration enforcement is hurting farmers and the food supply.
Updated
October 11, 2025 at 12:24 p.m. EDTtoday at 12:24 p.m. EDT
washingtonpost.com
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excerpt:
The Trump administration said that its immigration crackdown is hurting farmers and risking higher food prices for Americans by cutting off agriculture’s labor supply.
The Labor Department warned in an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that “the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens” is threatening “the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.”
“Unless the Department acts immediately to provide a source of stable and lawful labor, this threat will grow,” with increased funding for immigration enforcement from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Labor Department said in the Federal Register, which is the place where all proposed rules are recorded for the public to view and comment.
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Also, contradicting comments made by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins that the U.S. farm workforce will become “100 percent American” as a result of mass deportations, the Labor Department noted that Americans are not willing to step into farm work and lack the skills to fill agricultural jobs that undocumented immigrants are abandoning.
“The Department concludes that qualified and eligible U.S. workers will not make themselves available in sufficient numbers,” the agency said.
The American Prospect first reported on the Labor Department’s comments that immigration policies are endangering the food supply and that American workers are unwilling to take agricultural jobs.
The Labor Department’s comments appear to be the first time that the Trump administration has publicly acknowledged that its hallmark immigration policy — sealing the border and deporting undocumented immigrants — threatens labor shortages and higher food prices. However, economists have been sounding the alarm since Trump campaigned on the issue during last year’s presidential election.
The Labor Department made this case in paperwork documenting a new rule that took effect Oct. 2 that effectively lowers pay for seasonal migrants working in agriculture under the H-2A visa program. The move is aimed at giving farmers easier and legal access to foreign workers “to avoid imminent widespread disruption across the U.S. agricultural sector,” the agency said, and is expected to cut farmers’ labor costs by $24 billion over the next 10 years.
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