Democratic lawmakers are worried American farms will suffer under President Donald Trump's mass deportation initiative.
Approximately 40% of crop farmworkers are not approved to work in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Labor's National Agricultural Workers Survey, and Democratic lawmakers are curious about who will step in to work in the heat or cold.
As a result, senators questioned Trump's pick to lead the Agriculture Department, Brooke Rollins, about whether mass deportation under the Trump administration will undermine the farming workforce.
"Can we expect this administration to be raiding farms, going after the immigrant farmers?" Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said during Rollins' confirmation hearing before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Thursday.
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"Listen, the president's vision of a secure border and a mass deportation at a scale that matters is something I support," Rollins said.
Rollins then promised to help Trump execute his agenda, while also "defending" American farmers and ranchers.
"But when you're talking about massive deportation, we've gone beyond dangerous criminals," Durbin said. "I just wonder if we ought to give fair warning to farmers and ranchers across America that if you have immigrant labor, you can expect federal agents to come and search your property."
"I have not been involved in the president's current plan, I cannot answer that one way or the other," Rollins said.
Trump has promised to take an aggressive approach to border security and illegal immigration, and the Department of Homeland Security issued a notice Tuesday to green-light expedited deportation of illegal immigrants.
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Other Democratic senators, including Peter Welch of Vermont and Adam Schiff of California, echoed similar sentiments regarding the implications of mass deportation on farms.
While the lawmakers acknowledged that those who pose a public safety threat shouldn't remain in the U.S., they also said Americans are less inclined to work in the harsh conditions that farming requires than illegal immigrants.
Schiff said estimates suggest half of California's farm workforce is undocumented, and asked Rollins how farmers were supposed to survive if half their workforce is cut, because "Americans don't want to do that work," since it's "too backbreaking." As a result, Schiff asked who would work on California's farms.
Rollins said she would work with the committee and with the Labor Department on the matter.
"We will work together to understand and hopefully solve for some of these problems. The dairy cattle have to be milked, but if we've got a mass deportation program underway, then there's a lot of work that we need to do," Rollins said.
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Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also voiced concerns about how farmers will fare, should Trump follow through on his plans to implement tariffs. Trump's economic plan calls for imposing tariffs ranging from 10% to 20% on all imported goods.
When Trump's first administration imposed tariffs, China issued their own retaliatory tariffs that cost the federal government billions of dollars in government aid to farmers.
"I'm trepidacious that this is going to come back to our farmers," Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said.
"My commitment is that there will be no sleeping, that we will work around the clock to ensure that our AG communities across this country are represented in those discussions and at the table," Rollins said.
Rollins previously worked as the director of the Office of American Innovation and acting director of the Domestic Policy Council during Trump's first term. After working for the Trump administration, Rollins co-founded the America First Policy Institute think tank.
The secretary of the Agriculture Department is responsible for managing farm and nutrition, forestry, food safety, rural development, and agricultural research.
