President Trump’s decision to scrap the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is unlikely to have a major impact on the nation’s agricultural workforce, says Capital Press, quoting an immigration attorney who estimates that “only 5 to 10 percent of the 800,000 people benefiting from DACA … work in agriculture.”
“Most of them are in their mid-20s and have been here since before they were 15 years old,” said Tom Roach, a Pasco, Washington, attorney who has helped 440 people get DACA deferrals. “They grew up here, speak English, and a lot of them have finished college. Their parents urged them into other occupations. They are mainstream America.”
DACA, which was created in 2012 though a President Obama executive order, will expire in March 2018, according to Trump’s directive. The president urged Congress to find a legislative fix for the program before then.
“Frank Gasperini Jr., executive vice president of the National Council for Agricultural Employers, told Capital Press he’s never been able to get a good number on how many Dreamers are in agriculture.” But he added that any loss of ag workers in “this era of short ag labor supply is significant.”
A spokesman for the American Farm Bureau Federation said “the bureau does not view DACA as a significant ag labor issue.”