That could add steps to the process and make it harder in general for people to apply for benefits, which in turn could end up hurting farm laborers, foresters, and fishers, many of whom rely on such benefits. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that nearly 20 percent of farming, fishing, and forestry workers received SNAP benefits between 2015 and 2017. “Food workers are roughly twice as likely to need SNAP as the average U.S. worker,” the group said.

Immigrant labor remains a key pillar of U.S. agriculture. This has included a major increase in farmworkers under the H2-A seasonal worker program over the past 20 years, but it also includes the widespread employment of undocumented workers on farms. The farm industry continues to worry about farm labor, despite some assurances from Trump that farms will be able to continue to hire non-U.S. workers. USDA data from the end of the Biden administration suggest that about half of hired crop workers in the U.S. lack legal immigration status.

Under President Trump, immigration enforcement has pushed into farm country. In Washington state in March, plainclothes ICE agents detained a farm labor organizer named Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino, and in January Border Patrol agents raided a farm in Kern County, California, arresting 78 people.

Civic organizers are holding a rally in Olympia, Washington today, calling for the release of Zeferino and others held in ICE detention. Meanwhile, a federal court in California has issued an injunction that prohibits Border Patrol agents across large swathes of the state from stopping people without reasonable suspicion they are breaking the law, or arresting people without a warrant and probable cause.

“This order rightfully upholds the law,”  Teresa Romero, President of United Farm Workers, said on Tuesday, following the injunction. “Border Patrol can’t just wade into communities snatching up hardworking people without due process, just for being brown and working class.”  (Link to this post.)