U.S. Ag Secretary doubles down on ‘no amnesty’ for farm workers, Fresno County leaders respond

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The farming community has been left scratching their heads after a controversial statement from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on Tuesday.

In the statement, made at a news conference with Republican governors, she said there would be “no amnesty” for farm workers around the country.

She also floated the idea of replacing the workers with automation and what she called “34 million able-bodied adults” with Medicaid.

Wednesday, she seemed to double down.

“At the end of the day, we have plenty of Americans here, working to ensure that we’re transitioning to that fully American workforce, either through automation, the dignity of work, moving a lot of able-bodied Americans off of the government programs into those work opportunities is really what’s next,” she said.

Now, many across the ag-rich region are confused about what that “next” step looks like.

That includes Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias, who had some strong words in response to Rollins.

“The ag secretary is an idiot,” Arias said. “As a former farm worker myself, I can tell you firsthand that she’s never spent a day picking cantaloupes and watermelons.”

Meanwhile, Manuel Cunha, president of the Nisei Farmers’ League, says the secretary’s statements have given him flashbacks.

“It’s a repeat of what happened in 1998 in California under President Clinton, called Welfare to Work,” Cunha said.

He says that it came at a time of a massive workers’ shortage, with tens of thousands of open jobs in 10 counties around the region.

Cunha was one of those behind a regional pilot program.

However, he says in total the program got just 560 applicants, and from those, he says only three said they would do that job.

“One person got lost. The second person went to the job, to the grower, and worked a half a day,” said Cunha, who told YourCentralValley.com that the worker left because of the difficult work.

He says the third person never showed up, and instead, “Went back to the employment development and said, ‘I need to claim worker’s comp because I hurt myself at the job site,'” he said.

Ultimately, he testified to the U.S. Senate on how the program was ineffective.

He says now, it’s not fair to farmers to put them through a similar situation, and not fair to workers that have been here for decades, many of whom are experts at their craft.

“These workers know the industry. It’s hard work,” said Cunha. “Just as the president said, you’re not going to get U.S. people bending over and picking fruit.”

As for automation, Ryan Jacobsen, CEO of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, says we just aren’t there yet.

“Table grapes, peaches plums, nectarines, cherries, blueberries, some of these things there, when it comes to trying to get that fresh produce to a consumer in a non-bruised state, we just don’t quite have that automation there yet,” said Jacobsen.

Jacobsen says we’re at least five to 15 years away from automation like that.