Ford, who chairs the Business Roundtable’s immigration committee, told the MPW audience that farmers “absolutely need labor” and said “we need more legal immigration” as an economic driver for businesses and the broader U.S. economy. For some context, America’s agricultural sector is currently grappling with mounting pressures from trade disputes, farm bankruptcies, and an increasingly restrictive immigration environment.​

“These are folks who oftentimes try to get American labor [but] are struggling to do so,” Ford said. “They absolutely need labor, and if they don’t have it, that’s yet another element—and it could be a black swan event for a farmer if they don’t have somebody who can help and be on [the] farm.”

The term “black swan event,” for those unfamiliar, refers to an unpredictable occurrence with severe consequences that appears obvious only in hindsight. In agriculture, such events can include natural disasters, disease outbreaks, or severe labor disruptions that threaten food production systems.​

Ford’s comments underscore the precarious position facing American farmers who depend heavily on immigrant workers. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as of 2022, only 32% of crop farmworkers were actually born in the U.S. The vast majority of farmworkers (~42%) are born outside the U.S. and have no work authorization. Only a small percentage of workers (~7%) are immigrants who obtained U.S. citizenship, while about 19% are authorized immigrants (permanent residents or green-card holders). In the dairy industry, which Ford’s company Land O’Lakes serves, the dependency on foreign-born labor is even more pronounced: The National Milk Producers Federation says immigrant workers account for 51% of all dairy labor.​

Ford previously told Fortune that an immigration crisis can take about eight hours to unfold, because if cows aren’t milked, they start to leak milk and could develop infections, to the point that farmers might be forced to cull their herds and send the cows to be killed at a meat-processing plant. But those, too, could also be short on workers.​

Ford accepted the role of immigration committee chair for the Business Roundtable in January, taking over from Apple CEO Tim Cook. The Business Roundtable, which represents more than 200 major corporate CEOs, supports increased skilled immigration, temporary work visas, and border security measures. Ford said “most CEOs will say we need some kind of change in our immigration policy” while acknowledging that border crossings at the southern border have declined by approximately 95%.​

During the MPW discussion, Ford addressed recent policy proposals including a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas, saying her organization is “trying to get some clarity” on the specifics while working with administration officials on various visa-related initiatives. The agricultural sector has lost about 155,000 workers since March, and the Labor Department has said ICE’s efforts will create “significant labor market effects in the agricultural sector, which has long been pushed to depend on a workforce with a high proportion of illegal aliens,” and could put “the nation’s food supply at risk.”​

You can watch the full panel with Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford, in conversation with Fortune’s Emma Hinchcliffe, below.

The startling acknowledgment was buried in an Oct. 2 filing in the Federal Register to explain a new rule that would lower wages under the H-2A visa program, which allows U.S. companies to bring in foreign nationals for temporary agriculture jobs.

As first reported by the American Prospect, the Labor Department said “the current and imminent labor shortage exacerbated by the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens, increased enforcement of existing immigration law, and global competitiveness pressures described below, presents a sufficient risk of supply shock-induced food shortages to justify immediate implementation” of the rule.

It added that the lack of undocumented and documented workers “results in significant disruptions to production costs and threatening the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S consumers.”

At the same time, the Labor Department’s filing also admitted that Americans are not willing to replace undocumented farmworkers.

That’s despite a sharp slowdown in the overall labor market in recent months with hiring coming to a near standstill as Trump’s aggressive tariff regime raises costs and creates uncertainty for businesses.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has vowed that the U.S. agricultural workforce will become “100% American” as a result of the immigration crackdown.

But the Labor Department sees things much differently.

“In addition, the Department does not believe American workers currently unemployed or marginally employed will make themselves readily available in sufficient numbers to replace large numbers of aliens no longer entering the country, voluntarily leaving, or choosing to exit the labor force due to the self-perceived potential for their removal based on their illegal entry and status,” the filing in the Federal Register said.

According to the Census Bureau, foreign-born workers made up less than 19% of the U.S. labor force in 2023 but accounted for 38% of jobs in farming, fishing and forestry. The Federal Register filing suggested that share is higher, estimating that 42% of the U.S. crop workforce is unable to enter the country, faces potential deportation, or is leaving the U.S.

The Labor Department also recognized that agricultural work is among the most physically demanding and hazardous occupations in the U.S., requiring manual labor, long hours, and exposure to extreme weather.

The department added that its experience with the H-2A visa program demonstrates “a persistent and systemic lack of sufficient numbers of qualified, eligible and interested American workers to perform the kinds of work that agricultural employers demand.” 

The Labor Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. But a senior administration official told the Washington Post that Trump is “strengthening the farm workforce and improving H-2A and H-2B visa programs” while also “enforcing the law and prioritizing fixing programs farmers and ranchers rely on to produce the safest and most productive food supply in the world.”

Amid backlash from the agriculture and hospitality industries, Trump ordered a pause to immigration raids on those workers in June but then quickly flip-flopped.

The lack of immigrant workers represents another headwind hitting the agriculture economy, which has been suffering from lower crop prices and high input costs for the last three years.

And more recently, Trump’s trade war has prompted China to hold off on buying any U.S. soybeans, causing farm groups to plead with the administration to reach a trade deal that unlocks orders as harvest season begins.

The Labor Department cited studies that have found that even a 10% decrease in the agricultural workforce can result in a 4.2% drop in fruit and vegetable production and a 5.5% decline in farm revenue.

“U.S. agricultural employers need a legal and stable workforce to support their farming operations, and persistent labor shortages and increases in production costs will only harm U.S. competitiveness, threaten food production, drive up consumer prices, and create instability in rural communities,” the filing said.

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The age of Donald Trump and the future of American democracy are dominated by a question: What does it mean to be a real American, and who gets to decide?

One answer is embodied by the nearly 1 million people who choose to become naturalized Americans each year. At the end of that journey, they receive an American flag, copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, their citizenship papers — and a welcome letter from the president.

Traditionally, these letters offer a hopeful and inclusive vision of what it means to be an American: A member of a political community defined not by creed or fixed attributes, but by shared values and belief in democracy and the American experiment.

President Ronald Reagan famously articulated this vision in 1988: “You can live in Germany, Turkey or Japan, but you can’t become a German, a Turk or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the earth, can come live in America and become an American.”

Last week, President Trump released his version of the letter given to naturalized Americans — and it must be said that his welcome letter is not that welcoming. He is, symbolically and ideologically, the country’s first White president, and his understanding of what it means to be an American is very different from his predecessors.

The letter is full of unmemorable bromides and has none of the moving language used by Reagan and other presidents. Rather than highlighting how immigrants and their contributions have made America great and exceptional, Trump’s letter stresses obligations and responsibilities, focusing on what the U.S. has given these new citizens.

James Edwards, a political communication expert who studies presidential messaging at naturalization ceremonies, told NPR that Trump’s message “[F]its into his larger narrative, but that’s not usually what you see at an American naturalization ceremony…It’s much more of a celebration, and I’m not saying that Trump doesn’t celebrate those ideas, but it’s less celebratory than his predecessors…There’s no heterogeneity, there’s no celebration of diversity, there’s no celebration of past immigrants.”

Instead of trumpeting on “ideas or ideals” as the core focus of America’s vision, the president’s letter points to “culture and tradition,” David Graham observed in The Atlantic. “For Trump, the nation is less a melting pot where different cultures combine harmoniously than a crucible where foreign notions are burned off and a homogenous mix emerges,” he wrote. “It’s also a move away from a focus on the intellectual underpinnings of the American project, which was an essential message for past presidents, regardless of party.”

Trump’s new letter to naturalized Americans reflects how he is growing in power as the country’s first White President. As Graham pointed out, there is “no emphasis on collective bonding,” which he nodded to in the letter used in his first term. “And where Trump used the word nation only once in his first term, he mentions it four times now, capitalized each time. (Neither letter uses the word immigrant, as Obama’s did, much less calls the United States a ‘nation of immigrants,’ as Biden’s did.)” Graham observed that outside the U.S., “nation” is often irrevocably tied to ethnicity, and “the conceptual shift…is part of a broader rhetorical change on the right.”

The letter must be understood as part of a revolutionary right-wing political and social project: One where a real American is white and patriotism means loyalty to Trump and his MAGA movement. Nonwhite people can aspire to that identity, but their acceptance is conditional on aligning with Whiteness and its norms.

Many other examples illustrate how these boundaries of “real American” identity are defined and policed. Trump has described “illegal aliens,” “migrants,” and other “undesirables” and “vermin,” as poison in “the blood” of the nation. His mass deportation plan amounts to a national “purification” project, and his embrace of the Great Replacement Theory — the racist like that white people are being replaced by Black and brown people — is perhaps the best illustration of just how closely the president and his MAGA ideology are tied to racism, nativism, racial authoritarianism and social dominance behavior. 

The Trump administration is also engaging in an Orwellian program to whitewash American history, erasing the accomplishments of Black and brown Americans, women, the LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups. What remains is a flattened, inaccurate history that centers white heterosexual Christian men as the architects of American greatness, relegating others to mere bystanders or occupying passive, supporting roles. A clear example of this regressive vision is the administration’s push to rewrite the 14th Amendment in their efforts to eliminate birthright citizenship and undermine equal protection under the law.

At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security has been posting images to its social media channels that are rooted in far-right themes and ideology. In June, the department shared an image of Uncle Sam nailing to a wall a poster that read “Help yourself…and your country.” Beneath the placard was another message: “REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS,” which was accompanied by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement hotline. On Monday, DHS shared a print of workmen constructing the Statue of Liberty’s torch above New York Harbor. “PROTECTED YOUR HOMELAND DEFEND YOUR CULTURE,” it read.

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In total, Trumpism models limited, circumscribed versions of citizenship and political belonging known as blood and soil nationalism, where racial stock determines human worth, rights and citizenship. These values and beliefs are inherently incompatible with multiracial democracy and a more cosmopolitan, dynamic and inclusive country.

Trump’s Sept. 23 speech to the United Nations General Assembly  provided him a huge platform to articulate these beliefs about non-white invaders and other existential threats to white Christian civilization. As Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir wrote, Trump’s speech was a stream of “overtly racist and xenophobic paranoia” that cast America as an “isolationist fortress of embattled white pride.”

Trump accused the U.N. of “not even coming close to living up” to its global mission, and mocked it for writing “really strongly worded” letters full of “empty words” that do nothing to resolve international conflict. You could almost hear international observers gritting their teeth and nodding along: No lies detected! But if most of them agreed with that diagnosis, virtually none of them want any part of the Trumpian remedy, which seems to involve closing all international borders, repelling or expelling migrants from all European or “Christian” countries (i.e., the ones with largely white populations)…

Public opinion polls generally show that the American people, albeit with certain qualifiers and conditions, believe that legal immigration is a net positive for the country. A majority also view Trump’s mass deportation program as needlessly cruel and reckless. Yet despite disagreement with its specifics, many support his “get tough” stance on illegal immigration. The issue remains highly polarized: Most Republicans and MAGA supporters back Trump’s approach, most Democrats oppose it and independents are skeptical of the cruelty.

On the question of diversity, a 2023 poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that, “Overall, half of Americans (51%) believe that the increasing diversity of the United States makes it a better place to live — including three-quarters of Democrats (73%), half of Independents (48%), and three in ten Republicans (30%).” Meanwhile, 33% of Republicans said diversity makes the country worse, compared to 17% of Independents and just 6% of Democrats.

For the vast majority of its history, America has literally been white by law due to white on Black chattel slavery, Jim and Jane Crow, genocide and land theft against First Nations peoples, pogroms, ethnic cleansing and other massive violence targeting Black Americans and other non-whites, and many other acts of institutional, systemic and interpersonal racism and racial animus.

This is the very history the Trump administration is erasing. 

Its mass deportation campaign and xenophobic policies appear to be modeled on the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, as well as Supreme Court cases like Ozawa v. the United States (1922) and United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923), which effectively banned immigration from nonwhite countries and restricted citizenship to white people. The quota system established by Johnson-Reed remained until 1965 during the heart of the civil rights era, which saw the tearing down of Jim and Jane Crow, along with the legislative triumphs of the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965).

Seen through a historically accurate lens, America has only been a multiracial democracy — and an aspirational one in progress — for about sixty years. Trump’s letter, his UN address and other policies are daily affirmations that he and his MAGA allies are seeking to return us to the country’s darkest past. In their eyes, being a real American means being the right kind of white American.

In Donald Trump’s America, all Americans are “equal” — but some are certainly more equal than others.

The Trump Administration asked the Supreme Court to revisit their decision on the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship. If the Supreme Court rules against birthright citizenship, the automatic right to U.S. citizenship for children born on American soil would end.

Currently, under the 14th Amendment, anyone born in the United States is a citizen, regardless of their parents’ immigration status, except children of diplomats. A ruling against this principle would fundamentally redefine what it means to be American.

Without birthright citizenship, children born to noncitizen parents could be denied citizenship at birth. They might instead have to go through naturalization processes later in life, potentially leaving them in legal limbo or limiting access to social services, healthcare, and even public education. Experts warn this could create a generation of “stateless” or partially recognized residents with unclear legal status.

The change could also affect immigration policy and enforcement. Parents without legal status might face increased scrutiny, and states could be pressured to verify children’s citizenship before providing government benefits. Political debates would likely intensify over who qualifies as a citizen, and whether new legislation would define eligibility by parentage, residency, or other criteria.

Civil rights advocates stress that ending birthright citizenship would disproportionately impact immigrant communities, particularly Latino and Asian populations, and could spark nationwide legal challenges. Meanwhile, supporters argue it would curb so-called “anchor baby” practices and tighten immigration controls.

As the Supreme Court deliberates, families, policymakers, and legal scholars are closely watching, knowing that the ruling could reshape U.S. citizenship laws and redefine the rights of children born in the country for generations to come.

President Donald Trump on Sunday said foreign workers sent to the United States are “welcome” and he doesn’t want to “frighten off” investors, 10 days after hundreds of South Koreans were arrested at a work site in Georgia.

“DHS in particular is trying to use Twitter [and Instagram] as a form of not just recruitment but also promotion,” says Joan Donovan, assistant professor at Boston University and the coauthor of Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America, “and the kind of promotion that they’re doing is targeted toward, I would say, young men in their teenage years or twenties.”

When asked for comment, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin responded: “What a silly little story. Who are these “experts”?

“What’s “cruel” is the media continuing to ignore victims of murder, rape, human trafficking, and gang violence as you continue to do the bidding of violent criminal illegal aliens,” McLaughlin added.

In response to a request for comment, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “The White House social media account often highlights the deportations of heinous criminal illegal aliens who have terrorized American communities. WIRED and their so-called ‘experts, that they refused to provide additional information on, should cover what’s actually cruel—criminal illegal aliens murdering, raping, and assaulting innocent American citizens as a direct result of Joe Biden’s open border and Democrat sanctuary city policies. And while WIRED runs cover for criminal illegal aliens, we won’t apologize for posting banger memes.”

(Around 70 percent of ICE detainees have no criminal record at all, and many of those with convictions committed only minor crimes, like traffic or immigration infractions).

The mainstreaming of dehumanizing humor is what troubles Kurt Braddock, an assistant professor in the school of communication at American University who studies the persuasive effects of extremist propaganda. “I don’t think that this messaging is bad because it’s mean, or because it’s sloppy, or because it’s unbecoming of the Office of the President, although all these things I do believe are true,” says Braddock. “My biggest problem with it is that it normalizes aggression. With the normalization of aggression and the normalization of the dehumanization of others, immigrants or otherwise, it’s not much of a jump to actual violence.”

Memes have always been core to President Donald Trump’s political strategy, says Donovan: “One of the things that was very distinctive about Trump’s meme campaigns in 2016 is his Twitter account almost appeared to most people as just chaos, because he had about six or seven different audiences that he was talking to all at once.”

That chaotic style of messaging now extends to his administration. Some of these posts rack up tens of thousands of likes and get reshared across other platforms, like on Proud Boy’s Telegram channels or big pro-police Facebook groups. A few of them have even inspired T-shirt designs.

Taken all together, the DHS social feeds reflect the jumbled far-right ecosystem, which combines the banal language of everyday memes with 4chan humor, old-school white-supremacist dog whistles, and overtures to Christian nationalism. And the new, shiny packaging is very much the point. “Short bursts of imagery and music appeal emotionally in ways that facts and data often don’t,” says Brian Levin, the founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. “It functions as an emotionally familiar and comforting gift-wrap that here revolves around protection, preservation, fear and tribalism.”

A dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives filed a lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem on Wednesday, saying their rights to visit  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been violated.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs — all House Democrats — argue that the Trump administration is illegally barring them from carrying out their oversight role. The plaintiffs allege that the Trump administration has instituted a seven-day waiting period and prohibited access to field offices where people are being detained.

Federal law prohibits the Department of Homeland Security from denying members of Congress entry to DHS facilities “for the purpose of conducting oversight” in “any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens.”

“The obstruction of Congressional oversight is not just an affront to the Constitution—it’s a threat to our democracy,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., shared in a statement. “We will not stand by as due process, human dignity, and transparency are trampled. We demand access and accountability, and will pursue every legal and legislative tool available to hold this administration accountable.”

According to the complaint, each of the representatives has attempted to visit DHS facilities for oversight visits, but all have been barred from entry. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who joined the suit, was denied entry into an ICE facility in New York City in June.

“These harms are significant, irreparable, and ongoing as long as Defendants continue to block such visits pursuant to their unlawful policy,” the lawsuit reads.

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“As a Member of Congress, I have a legal and moral obligation to conduct oversight—and I will not stand by while people in our community are locked away in facilities that may be violating their rights. I will continue to press for full access to these facilities and demand accountability from those responsible for their operation. No one is above the law—not even ICE,” said Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif.

Trump’s recently passed spending package allocates $45 billion toward expanding ICE’s detention capabilities over the next four years. According to the Deportation Data Project, about 55,000 people were in ICE detention centers in late June.

Doug Emhoff
Shame on Trump … ICE Raids Are ‘Outrageous!’

Published June 27, 2025 3:56 PM PDT

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TMZ.com

Former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff ain’t happy about the ongoing ICE raids — telling TMZ what’s happening across the nation is simply “outrageous.”

We caught up with Emhoff in L.A. Thursday … though he’s got a cool demeanor, he clearly thinks ICE raids targeting undocumented immigrants amid an aggressive deportations push under the Trump administration are appalling.

He’s got a positive message, though — promising families worried about how the federal actions will impact them that he and his wife, former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, are “always going to stand up for people in need.”

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TikTok/@lalia_noza/@envoy77/@nerikarias

As you know … protests erupted in Los Angeles and across the nation this month as word spread that areas with large Latino populations were being targeted by masked federal agents.

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TMZ.com

Video shows multiple instances of the roundups — including one showing federal agents detaining a man right out of his van in Los Angeles after he allegedly confirmed he is an undocumented immigrant. Folks who saw the ordeal were furious … hurling insults at the agents.

Remember … Trump deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles — and later, active Marines — as protesters refused to back down. He claimed the city would burn down without his interference. ICYDK, the protests were concentrated in an area of downtown … the rest of the city was largely unaffected by the demonstrations.

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TMZ.com

Dust has since settled on the protests … but the ICE raids rage on.

Since the very beginning of the year, President Donald Trump’s administration has worked to build a self-sustaining digital media ecosystem in support of its controversial immigration policies. That system is now working overtime as protests bubble up in Los Angeles and get planned across the country, spawning an onslaught of AI-generated slop and reality television-style content.

Protests broke out on Friday shortly after ICE officers conducted a series of raids targeting Latino communities in Los Angeles. Reality star Phil “Dr. Phil” McGraw and the camera crew for his new Merit TV network embedded with immigration officials during Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Friday’s raids, CNN reported. Merit TV announced in a press release that its footage will be aired throughout a “2-Night Television Event” on Monday and Tuesday. The broadcast includes an exclusive one-on-one interview with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan. (There is already an interview with Homan currently streaming on Merit TV’s site.)

“Dr. Phil and Tom Homan break down the multi-agency raid targeting cartel-linked businesses in LA’s garment district,” states the Merit TV email about Monday night’s program. “With $80 million in undeclared imports uncovered, $17 million in unpaid tariffs identified, and 41 undocumented immigrants detained, the high-impact operation drew fierce public protests. Homan addresses the growing backlash and explains the zero-tolerance policy for interference with federal enforcement.”

It’s unclear where the highly specific numbers mentioned in the press email come from, or what the source of information is for the claim that affected businesses are tied to cartels. Homan and other heads of law enforcement agencies have repeatedly threatened protesters and even California politicians with arrest. Trump also said he would arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom.

MAGA’s independent influencers also spent the weekend parroting the Trump administration’s talking points. On Sunday, Rogan O’Handley, who goes by DC Draino online, posted what appears to be an AI-generated video on Instagram of Trump pummeling a man holding a Mexican flag on a dirt bike. As the man falls over, a triumphant Trump raises the flag which magically transforms into an American one.

“MAGA won the popular vote and this is what we want,” the caption of the post reads. It currently has more than 50,000 likes.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and host of an eponymous podcast, posted to X in an apparent attempt to rally the right’s outrage over LA into support for the Trump administration’s budget plans. “Infuriated about what you are seeing in LA? Pass the BBB [Big Beautiful Bill]. Watch this and support the bill. We must reclaim America,” Kirk posted on Monday.

This didn’t come out of nowhere. The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration has been broadcasted across television and the internet for months, as influencers and content creators have been invited to participate in broadcasts and ride-a-longs with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials.

“That’s been a pretty routine thing. Libs of TikTok was embedded, Tomi Lahren.” CJ Pearson, a conservative influencer tells WIRED of the ridealongs. “I’ve been asked as well, so, I think there definitely will be more to come.”

First, what does it mean to “disappear” a person?

The Washington Post via Getty Images

What has happened to disappeared people in the past?

VICTOR ROJAS via Getty Images

Could what’s happening in the U.S. now with immigrants be considered “enforced disappearances”?

Alex Peña via Getty Images

What can regular citizens do in response to enforced disappearances?