Live
Panel
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What happens to our food system when immigration enforcement targets the very people helping keep it alive?
As one of our core supporters, we want you to be the first to know: This September, Investigate Midwest will host its first-ever live virtual panel — a conversation focused on one of the most politically urgent and morally complex issues facing rural America today:
What happens to our food system when immigration enforcement targets the very people helping keep it alive?
This panel will launch alongside our upcoming grant-funded reporting series, which investigates how Trump-era immigration raids, stepped-up ICE enforcement, and delayed federal reform have reshaped the agricultural labor force — and the lives of the noncitizen workers behind it.
With stories from Illinois, the Midwest and beyond, our reporters are examining how farmworkers, employers and communities are responding to labor shortages, visa backlogs and policies that treat food system workers as expendable.
The panel will bring together voices from policy, labor and immigrant advocacy to dig into questions that go beyond policy:
- How do raids and restrictive visa policies disrupt the supply chain?
- What does it mean for the U.S. to rely on undocumented workers while offering them little protection?
- And what is the human cost of enforcement-first immigration strategies?
From H-2A visas to detention center closures, the debate over immigration isn’t just political — it’s deeply personal for thousands of workers whose labor feeds this country. This panel will explore not only the economics of enforcement, but the human cost of a system in gridlock.
We’ll be sharing more in due time, including a panel lineup and our first story drops from the new series.
RSVP link coming soon!
Thank you, as always, for making this work possible.
- Lauren Cross
Assistant Editor & Audience Engagement Manager
Join our investigation into cancer in farm communities
Our Editor-in-Chief Ben Felder has already heard from dozens of families who believe pesticide exposure may be linked to cancer diagnoses and we’re just getting started. If this issue has touched your life, we want to hear from you. Your story could help shape a major investigative project now underway.
Our next 'Sunset on the Farm' is Sept. 14!
As we gear up for our immigration reporting series, we’re also gathering in person to celebrate the work your support makes possible. On Sunday, Sept. 14, join Investigate Midwest and our IowaWatch for an evening at Walker Homestead in Iowa City, featuring live music, wood-fired pizza, a silent auction and a sunflower to take home (weather permitting). All proceeds support independent, public service journalism.
P.S. Since you believe in the work we’re doing, do us a favor and share our stories with a friend. Word of mouth helps us grow. Here are a few worth passing along:
- California — world’s fourth-largest economy — hit hard by fed immigration raids
- ‘Farming in the dark’: Brooke Rollins’ leadership, DOGE’s grip and the cost to American agriculture
- During latest dust explosion, ADM’s prevention systems were insufficient, OSHA found
- Jack Link’s beef: How the snack giant is lobbying Trump and fighting the MAHA movement
