Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently posted on X:
I’m announcing a nationwide and international multimillion-dollar ad campaign warning illegal aliens to leave our country NOW or face deportation with the inability to return to the US.
Notably, in its statement on labor and immigration reform, the National Milk Producers Federation asserts, “Immigrant labor accounts for 51 percent of all dairy labor, and dairies that employ immigrant labor produce 79 percent of the U.S. milk supply.”
Losing undocumented farm workers would greatly disrupt rural economies throughout the United States.
Although it is nearly impossible to fill these jobs with American workers, according to federal statute 8 U.S. Code § 1324a, it is illegal to knowingly hire an “unauthorized alien.” Violations are subject to criminal penalties.
Some mistakenly believe that the H-2A visa program can accommodate any undocumented agricultural worker. However, this program is only for temporary or seasonal employees, and so, undocumented dairy workers are ineligible.
Sadly, rather than insisting on comprehensive immigration reform, as well as humanizing those who seek a better life, many seem to favor placing shackled and downcast human beings on military transports, and flying them back to the countries they fled.