Raids ramp up, and farm fields stay empty

Essential report on the impact of raids on farms

Oct. 30, 2025

As deportations surge, immigration reform efforts stall

President Trump is taking a two-pronged approach to undocumented immigration — especially in the agriculture sector.

First, the administration wants to deport 1 million undocumented people each year. Second, Trump believes the vacant jobs in farm fields and along meatpacking lines will be filled with American citizens and legal immigrants.

The first part of that plan is well underway, with nationwide raids targeting homes, workplaces and neighborhoods.

But when it comes to the second part, not only are American citizens not rushing to fill those jobs, new legal pathways also aren’t being created.

In this week’s feature story, senior reporter Sky Chadde examines how Trump’s deportation drive has far outpaced any effort to reform immigration policy. Some lawmakers have called for expanding legal visas for farmworkers, while the meat and dairy industries want broader access to temporary foreign labor. Yet there’s been very little movement by the president or Congress.

Meanwhile, about 750,000 immigrants have left the workforce since January, according to the Pew Research Center. With the ongoing federal government shutdown halting the H-2A visa program, the labor crunch is only getting worse.

“I would love for Americans to want to do those jobs,” Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the U.S. labor secretary, recently said. “I can just tell you, none of the Americans I know want to do some of these jobs.”

Sky’s story provides an important overview of where immigration reform efforts stand and what the impact could be on the nation’s food system.

— Ben Felder, editor-in-chief

DATA HARVEST: US farmers face $44 billion in losses as costs rise and markets shrink

By Juan Vassallo, Investigate Midwest

Soybeans sit in storage, farm bankruptcies are rising, and total farm debt continues to climb. By nearly every measure, American farmers are struggling.

Experts say financial pressures are expected to continue mounting.

Due to rising costs, low crop prices and the effects of the trade war, economists project that growers could see roughly $44 billion in net cash income losses from their 2025–26 crops.

At a September conference on agriculture and trade uncertainty hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank, Shawn Arita, professor at North Dakota State University and former senior economist with the USDA, presented projections showing losses across nine major crops.

Click to learn more about crop loss projections

OPINION: Federal judge missed the boat on ‘forever’ chemicals

By Dave Dickey, Columnist

Let's state the obvious. Forever chemicals are becoming a huge problem. Especially when they are sold as part of sewer sludge used as agricultural fertilizer. Fertilizers laced with forever chemicals?

Yup.

It's everywhere. The Environmental Working Group estimates right now almost 70 million acres of U.S. farmland may be contaminated by forever chemicals.

A lawsuit brought last summer by five Texas ranchers and farmers attempted to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to start regulating polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in sewage sludge.

Unfortunately, Judge Dabney Friedrich, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, didn't agree.

More about the fed judge’s ruling here

ICYMI: When enforcement fails, meatpacking pollution hits hardest

By John McCracken and Mónica Cordero, Investigate Midwest

As Iowa officials face scrutiny for quietly settling with a major meatpacker, our 2024 analysis showed how enforcement gaps let meatpacking plants pollute low-income, nonwhite communities with little consequence. These same facilities often employ the residents most affected by their waste.

Explore our original reporting