Overview

• On July 8, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins confirmed there will be no amnesty for undocumented farmworkers and said deportations will continue under a strategic 3,000-arrests-per-day target to protect the food supply.
• The USDA’s seven-part National Farm Security Action Plan bans Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries from buying U.S. farmland and has already canceled at least seven active agreements with designated countries of concern.
• Officials have highlighted automation and tapping 34 million able-bodied Medicaid recipients as replacements for deported workers but have not provided details on training, recruitment or logistical support.
• Farmers in California and national civil-rights groups have criticized the replacement strategy as unworkable, warning that migrant labor skills and field conditions cannot be replicated by machines or inexperienced recruits.
• Lawmakers and state governments are drafting legislation and preparing legal challenges to enforce the farmland ban, while agricultural stakeholders press the administration for a clear plan to address the looming labor shortfall.