Politico reports:

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration is starting to ripple across the U.S. economy.

From small farms in California, to meat packing facilities in Nebraska to corporate giants like Disney, businesses are scrambling to replace workers after recent administration actions have taken immigrants, both legal and illegal, out of the labor force, including several hundred thousand people who had been given temporary work permits under President Joe Biden.

That’s because foreign-born workers, or their relatives, have become critical in some labor sectors.

“Essential isn’t a strong enough word,” said Matt Teagarden, head of the Kansas Livestock Association.

“It is some version of an immigrant, maybe not first generation, but second or third generation, that are just critical to that work.”

The emerging reports are the first signs of what economists and labor market experts had warned would result from Trump’s signature campaign issue, which has so far included revoking temporary legal status for several hundred thousand people who have been allowed to live and work in the U.S. in recent years without gaining citizenship.

Daily operations have been thrown into question for the cattle ranchers in Teagarden’s organization because employers have become reliant on workers who, even if not directly threatened by the administration’s actions, may be related to people who are.

“Am I going to have enough crew around tomorrow to get the cows milked and cows fed and everything done?” he said. “What’s my contingency plan to do the essentials, if not?”

Trump has said he was working on addressing labor shortages in agriculture, telling supporters at a rally in Iowa on Thursday he wants to “work with the farmers” even if he ends up alienating “serious, radical-right people” who want to curb immigration. [Continue reading…]