Despite making up just 1% of the nation’s farmland, California produces 70% of the country’s fruits and vegetables and 41% of all vegetable sales. The Central Valley alone contributes 8% of total U.S. agricultural value—making immigration raids in the region a direct threat to the national food supply.
By Brian Hews
If you think ICE raids in California only affect the Golden State, think again. The next time you wonder why your grocery bill jumped in Ohio, why lettuce is missing in Michigan, or why your kid’s school lunch in Florida swapped out fresh fruit for canned peaches, look west — and look at immigration enforcement.
California is the beating heart of American agriculture. It grows nearly half of the nation’s fruits and vegetables and produces 99% of crops like artichokes, almonds, and walnuts. The Central Valley alone feeds not just California but the entire country. And who picks those crops? Immigrants — many of them undocumented.
So when ICE storms into fields, detains workers, and sends families into hiding, it doesn’t just cause heartbreak in farm towns — it throttles the national food supply.
Take labor out of the system, and crops go unpicked. Spinach wilts in Salinas. Tomatoes rot in Fresno. Garlic goes to seed in Gilroy. What doesn’t get harvested doesn’t get shipped — and what doesn’t get shipped doesn’t show up on your plate in Pennsylvania, or your taco in Texas.
This isn’t a hypothetical. After ICE raids in 2018, thousands of acres of produce in the Central Valley were left in the ground. The result? A price spike that rippled through grocery stores across the country.
And no, you can’t just “grow it somewhere else.” Most states don’t have the climate, the infrastructure, or the seasonal workforce to replace California’s output overnight — or ever.
Meanwhile, ICE apologists in Congress act like this is all cost-free. But the economics are brutal. Less supply means higher prices. School districts from Georgia to Illinois that rely on bulk produce contracts from California see those contracts dry up. Hospital kitchens face budget overruns. SNAP recipients get less for their dollar. Food banks scramble to fill gaps.
And while working families across the country stretch their budgets, the politicians who backed these raids offer nothing but silence — or worse, more culture war talking points about “illegals” taking jobs. Here’s the reality: the people working the fields in California aren’t taking jobs. They’re doing jobs most Americans won’t — and without them, the entire system collapses.
It’s not just fresh produce, either. California’s ag labor feeds into food processing plants in the Midwest, transportation hubs in Arizona and Nevada, and export terminals on the Gulf Coast. When raids rip out the roots, every link in the chain feels the shake.
Let’s stop pretending this is about security. These raids are a political stunt — one that guts California’s economy and sticks the rest of the country with the grocery bill. You don’t deport 60% of the ag labor force and walk away clean. You create a crisis. A food crisis. A price crisis. A supply chain mess of your own making.
So the next time you hear a politician say, “They broke the law,” ask yourself this: what’s breaking faster — the law, or your ability to afford dinner?
Because when ICE raids California, it’s not just undocumented workers who pay. It’s every American who eats.
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