California farmers, including many in Fresno County, face uncertainty over President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policies, particularly his pledge to deport undocumented immigrants, the Los Angeles Times reported.

With over half of the state’s 162,000 farmworkers estimated to be undocumented, mass deportations could devastate the agricultural workforce, leading to crops rotting in the fields and rising grocery prices.

Despite these concerns, many farmers remain hopeful that Trump will either support a worker legalization program or focus enforcement elsewhere. Some advocate for expanding the H-2A visa program, which allows farms to hire temporary foreign workers when domestic labor falls short.

Farmworker advocates, however, worry that an expanded guest worker program could lead to exploitation.

Meanwhile, Sara, a Riverside County farmworker, questioned why the government wouldn’t issue work permits to those already in the U.S. instead of bringing in more foreign workers.

Related Story: Wired Wednesday: How Fresno is Preparing For Trump’s Mass Deportation

Valley Views on Labor, Immigration, Deportation

Dr. Edward Orozco Flores, a sociologist at UC Merced, warns that whatever happens, disruptions are likely.

“Up to this point, it was just campaign rhetoric,” he told the Times. “Now comes the messy part.”

Fresno County farmer Joe Del Bosque recalled labor shortages during the Obama administration and is concerned about the impact of deportation policies.

Del Bosque, who has advocated for immigration reform, emphasized that a reliable food supply depends on a reliable workforce.

“A country can’t be strong if it doesn’t have a reliable food supply,” he said.

Manuel Cunha Jr., president of the Fresno-based Nisei Farmers League, is working on legislation to grant work authorization to current farmworkers and ensure they can benefit from the Social Security system they have contributed to.

Cunha also plans to push for changes to the H-2A program’s wage structure. In California, employers are required to pay H-2A workers $19.75 per hour — the second-highest rate in the nation after Washington, D.C. — unless the prevailing wage or local minimum wage is higher.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times.