What do mass ICE raids mean for migrant farmworkers?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As President Trump cracks down in the fields on immigration, and an ICE raid in California left one farmworker dead, US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says there will be no amnesty for the undocumented. But who will replace those agriculture workers? “Able bodied” Medicaid recipients, according to Rollins. The experiment was tried before. It didn't work.
In this episode:
- Manuel Cunha, Jr., President of the Nisei Farmers League
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Tracie Hunte, Noor Wazwaz, Diana Ferrero and Chloe K. Li, with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Melanie Marich, Marya Khan, and our guest host, Manuel Rapalo. It was edited by Sarí el-Khalili and Kylene Kiang.
The Take production team is Marcos Bartolomé, Sonia Bhagat, Spencer Cline, Sarí el-Khalili, Diana Ferrero, Tracie Hunte, Tamara Khandaker, Kylene Kiang, Phillip Lanos, Chloe K. Li, Manuel Rápalo, Melanie Marich, Catherine Nouhan, Amy Walters, and Noor Wazwaz. Our editorial interns are Marya Khan and Kisaa Zehra. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Aya Elmileik is lead of audience engagement.
Alex Roldan is our sound designer. Joe Plourde mixed this episode. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad Al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio. We’ll be back tomorrow.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:10.7 | Today, how the Trump administration plans to replace deported migrant farm workers. |
| 0:17.1 | It's not right. |
| 0:18.5 | They are our people. |
| 0:20.5 | They are our hard workers. |
| 0:22.5 | Who's going to do the job for them? |
| 0:24.2 | Nobody is. |
| 0:25.8 | As mass deportations hit American farms, |
| 0:28.7 | administration officials say those on government assistance |
| 0:31.5 | can take the place of deported migrant farm workers. |
| 0:36.6 | I'm Manuel Rapalo, and this is The Take. |
| 0:44.3 | I'm Manuel Cunia, president of the Nise Farmers League, |
| 0:52.3 | which is an agricultural organization based in Fresno, California. |
| 0:58.4 | We represent growers, packers, ranchers, all type of farmers in California, as well as farm workers. |
| 1:09.2 | Manuel, welcome to the take. |
| 1:14.4 | Let's start with the ice raids on Californian farms this weekend. |
| 1:19.0 | What are members of your group saying about all of this? |
| 1:20.5 | How are they taking this all in? And what are farmers doing to protect their workers? |
| 1:24.3 | Well, as your first question in regards to the raids down south or in Camarillo, California, |
| 1:31.1 | and Acadia, California was a large greenhouse facility. And that facility grew vegetables as well as |
| 1:40.6 | marijuana. And so it had a whole bunch of things going with problems that apparently the Border Patrol |
| 1:48.7 | and ICE have been working on. |
... |
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