Farm groups warn immigration crackdown is disrupting US food supply

More than 40 farmers and agricultural groups have warned President Donald Trump and congressional leaders that immigration raids are disrupting the U.S. food supply, from cattle operations in Kansas to poultry in Pennsylvania and harvests in California.

More than 40 farmers and agricultural groups have sent a letter to President Donald Trump and congressional leaders warning that the administration's immigration crackdown is hurting the food supply, farmers and grocery prices, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

The signatories, members of the bipartisan employer group American Immigration Business Coalition, include the Milk Producers Council, the Texas International Produce Association, the Kansas Livestock Association and the Indiana Dairy Producers. The letter marks a shift for an industry that had largely avoided publicly criticizing the president's campaign of raids, detentions and deportations targeting its workforce.

Beef cattle in a feedlot

Industry leaders pointed to recent enforcement operations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps near major meatpacking plants in southwest Kansas delayed cattle operations, shipments and harvesting, while farmworkers were arrested in California's Central Valley and poultry production in Pennsylvania came under threat. In a letter dated Oct. 15, Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas said sweeps in Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal led to 104 arrests, citing USDA data showing an 8.5% week-to-week drop in cattle slaughter.

Roughly two-thirds of U.S. farmworkers are foreign-born. A Labor Department filing in October 2025 acknowledged that the near halt of unauthorized immigration, combined with the lack of an available legal workforce, threatened domestic food production and prices. The administration says it aims to strengthen the farm workforce and streamline the H-2A and H-2B visa programs.