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Picture this - in central California, there are miles of produce, miles of farmland, produce that needs to be harvested to make it to grocery stores across the country. The question is whether there will be enough people to pick the strawberries or the grapes and other fresh fruit. Farmers worry the fear of immigration raids could lead to labor shortages. Joshua Yeager from KVPR reports.
JOSHUA YEAGER, BYLINE: Murray Family Farms is an oasis along state Highway 58 in the hills just outside Bakersfield. Travelers like Loriann Carreon (ph) stop for gas but also tend to leave with heaping basketfuls of fresh produce.
LORIANN CARREON: I love blueberries and blackberries the best.
YEAGER: The market is housed in a giant red barn that evokes Laura Ingalls Wilder. Just outside, lush berry bushes and stone fruit orchards stretch for miles.
CARREON: Central California is probably the best place to buy any kind of fruits or vegetables because mostly it's harvested out here.
YEAGER: Kern County is the country's top agricultural producer. Farms here grossed more than 8 billion in sales in 2023. But growers are sounding alarm bells across this region often referred to as the nation's fruit basket.
BRYAN LITTLE: We're concerned about the disruption of food production.
YEAGER: Bryan Little is with the California Farm Bureau. He says fear caused by President Trump's immigration policies is sparking labor shortages in the state's agriculture industry.
LITTLE: I'm aware of some situations where people have been unable to conduct normal harvesting operations because there aren't enough people. And their employees don't want to go out, don't want to go to work, if they can avoid it.
YEAGER: If crops are left to rot in fields or packing houses during the upcoming harvest, Little says grocery prices could surge.
LITTLE: When a clamshell full of strawberries costs 8 or 9 bucks, how do you think consumers are going to react to that? I'm guessing not well.
YEAGER: Last week, President Trump suggested the agriculture industry might be spared from his immigration crackdown. But any thought of exemption was short-lived. Days later, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed there had been no change in policy. The mixed messages came as no surprise to many Central Valley farmworkers, including Alejandra (ph), who asked that only her first name be used because she hasn't obtained legal status.
ALEJANDRA: (Through interpreter) There's a lot of whiplash. One day, the president says he's going to attack. And then the next day, he changes his mind, while the migration agents are doing something else entirely.
YEAGER: Earlier this year, CalMatters found that dozens of farmworkers without criminal records were arrested in a Kern County border patrol operation. And recent videos showing federal agents on farms renewed Alejandra's concern.
ALEJANDRA: (Through interpreter) I have bills to pay and a kid to feed, so I'm going to work. But I'm going to work with a lot of fear.
YEAGER: Some 75% of all farmworkers in the state are here without legal status, according to research from UC Merced. That heightens the stakes, not just for Alejandra, but also shoppers.
ALEJANDRA: (Through interpreter) Without us, people won't be able to get those basic fruits and vegetables on their table.
YEAGER: Even some Republicans are beginning to push back. Congressman David Valadao signed a letter addressed to the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement urging the agency to focus on immigrants with known criminal records. Yet this week in a statement to NPR, DHS doubled down, saying there will, quote, "be no safe spaces" for industries that try to undermine ICE's efforts.
For NPR News, I'm Joshua Yeager in Bakersfield, California.
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