It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC.

Welcome back, everybody.

I'm Kusha Navidar, filling in for Brian today.

We'll talk now about what happens when immigrant labor disappears and why the

replacement often isn't American workers but machines. Most American dairy cows are milked by

immigrants, but on one farm in upstate New York, the cows are milked by robots. Yes, these

cows walk up to a machine that cleans the udder,

attaches the cups, draws the milk, and then dispenses a treat. It's a glimpse of what's

already happening in parts of American agriculture, and it raises a bigger question about the

political promise that if you cut immigration, Americans will fill those jobs.

Because what if the replacement isn't an American worker at all, but a robot?

My guest now is Biniamen Applebaum, lead writer on economics and business for the New York Times

editorial board and the author of The Economist's Hour.

His latest opinion piece is what replaces

deported immigrant workers, not Americans. And we'll talk about it now. Ben Yamin, welcome

back to WNYC. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to have you here. And listeners, we're

talking about immigration, automation, and the future of work, especially

in farming and other industries that have long relied on immigrant labor.

If your industry has tried to replace workers with machines or if you've worked alongside

automation, what did it actually change?

And especially if you've worked in agriculture, food production, or food service,

do you think Americans would take these jobs if wages were higher?

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