Trump's immigration push has largely spared farms.
asserted
push → spar → farms
Idaho dairymen worry it won't last.
asserted
it → worry → ?
The floor-to-ceiling windows in Rick Naerebout's office afford a sweeping view of the stunning 500-foot-deep, quarter-mile-wide Snake River Canyon.
asserted
windows → afford → Canyon
Squint and you can still see what's left of stunt motorcycle rider Evel Knievel's ramp from his failed 1974 attempt to jump the canyon with a steam-powered rocket on his back.
asserted
what → squint → back
That put Twin Falls on the map in the 1970s.
asserted
That → put → 1970s
But these days, Twin, as locals call it, and its surrounding fertile river plain are better known as a national agricultural powerhouse, owing largely to the state's multi-billion-dollar dairy industry.
asserted
locals → call → industry
Today it's also an open secret — even in deeply Republican Idaho — that local farms rely heavily on undocumented immigrant labor.
asserted
farms → rely → labor
Naerebout estimates some 90% of the workers at the state's some 350 dairies may not have legal status.
uncertain
% → estimate → status
"We're not taking jobs from Americans," Naerebout, the CEO of the Idaho Dairymen's Association says..
asserted
Naerebout → take → Association
They just don't appeal to Americans."
asserted
They → appeal → Americans
American farmers have largely escaped President Trump's ongoing, aggressive immigration crackdown.
asserted
farmers → escape → crackdown
As the ICE sweeps continue, however, farmers here and across the heartland are growing increasingly uneasy because many couldn't find enough workers even before the recent wave of detentions and deportations.
"If we had a concerted effort to have enforcement activities within agriculture, you could really harm our ability to produce food to feed ourselves," Naerebout says.
uncertain
Naerebout → continue → ourselves
In Idaho, immigrants describe a lighter ICE presence
Like a lot of rural and Republican-controlled states, Idaho has not seen the level of immigration enforcement as some of its blue state neighbors, according to interviews with attorneys and immigrant advocates.
uncertain
Idaho → describe → attorneys
Still, twice a week, an ICE deportation plane lands at the tiny Twin Falls airport, in a rural area south of the small city surrounded by farm fields a half-hour drive from Interstate 84.
asserted
plane → land → Interstate
On Tuesdays and Thursdays around noon, Heather Muth and a small group of immigration-rights activists unfurl a banner facing the tarmac that reads "Human Rights, Not Shuffle Flights.
asserted
that → unfurl → Flights
"The whole purpose of [these flights] is for them to move around so that their attorneys and their families can't find them," Muth says.
asserted
Muth → move → them
One afternoon, using a telescope, she counted more than two dozen Idaho detainees, in shackles, being loaded from vans onto an ICE-contracted plane, headed to unknown federal detention centers.
asserted
detainees → use → centers
"It really makes you wonder, what's going on here and what is this doing to our community," Muth says.
asserted
Muth → make → community
But the sweeps are still casting a chill across this rural farming region that has relied heavily on immigrant labor since the 1950s.
asserted
that → cast → 1950s
And in nearby Burley, home to milk processing and fertilizer plants, Susan Rios' world has been upended by ICE's crackdown.
asserted
world → upend → crackdown
The 65-year-old farmworker activist and grandmother moved from Arizona to the area as a little girl to pick potatoes.
asserted
activist → move → potatoes
Her daughter and son-in-law, fearing ICE, recently moved to Mexico.
asserted
daughter → fear → Mexico
The husband is undocumented, so the family decided to self-deport.
asserted
family → decide → ?
"They were seeing how people were being detained and they did not want to take that risk," Rios says.
asserted
Rios → see → risk
She adds that the couple didn't want their two young daughters to potentially see their father taken away by federal agents.
asserted
father → add → agents
But since they left, Rios says things have actually been pretty quiet.
asserted
things → leave → ?
Nationwide, there have only been a handful of large raids at agricultural facilities in the nearly two years since Trump's sweeps began.
asserted
sweeps → begin → years
Rios says local farms already can't find enough workers, and it's getting worse due to the immigration crackdown.
asserted
it → say → crackdown
"I tell everyone, this is your opportunity, for all those that say Latinos are taking your jobs, right now, go to a dairy, go to a farm," Rios says.
asserted
Rios → tell → farm
"I'm sure that you will be hired immediately."
asserted
you → hire → ?
Farmers try but can't find any locals to hire
The data backs that up.
asserted
data → try → that
Last year, Idaho advertised 7,500 jobs through the temporary farm worker visa program known as H2A.
Only four local residents applied.
asserted
residents → advertise → H2A.
Rick Naerebout says that's despite the fact that dairy jobs pay more than most service jobs in small-town America.
asserted
jobs → say → America
So the industry is not eligible for those coveted temporary H2A visas and has to rely on migrant labor.
asserted
industry → covet → labor
"The uneasiness continues to grow," Naerebout says.
asserted
Naerebout → continue → ?
"The [workers] see all this activity around them, and it's not conducive to having your workforce feel welcomed or comfortable."
asserted
workforce → see → them
Idaho has also gone big for Trump in three presidential elections.
asserted
Idaho → go → elections
Naerebout, a registered Republican, says that for years, multiple administrations — including this one — have mostly looked the other way when it comes to the dairy business's mostly migrant workforce.
asserted
it → register → workforce
"Where we're at now is realizing, OK, the federal government understands the world we live in, but the average Republican voter doesn't," he says.
asserted
he → realize → world
The dairy industry is flexing its economic muscle, for now
There's only been one known large ICE raid in Idaho since Trump returned to office.
asserted
Trump → flex → office
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
