I actually worked on a farm that employed illegals. I was on the operations side of things but I know the real reason these farmers are out crying about losing their slave labor. (BTW, there are already plenty of exemptions for migrant labor and legal seasonal work but you better believe a large portion are just straight up border jumpers and authorities just turn a blind eye to it.)

The real reason is pic related. In short, illegals/and the legal seasonal migrant workers are basically a subsidy for the servicing of the interest on loans. Most farms floats insane amounts of debt. This is for a few reasons but the main is the policy at the USDA and other agencies which subsidizes the shit out of ag loans.

Building a business on debt is risky but particularly anathema for farms. I'll try to go into more detail if there's any interest ITT.