When of President Trump鈥檚 conversations with foreign leaders about refugee policy leaked to the press last week, one line got a lot of attention. It was a reference to 鈥渓ocal milk people,鈥� presumably dairy farmers, whom the president thought refugees wouldn鈥檛 work for.
As it turns out, though, some 鈥渕ilk people鈥� worry it's Trump's immigration policies that may be bad for business.
Tiffany Lashmet, an agricultural law specialist for Texas A&M鈥檚 AgriLife Extension Service, for people who work in agriculture. One recent episode was about immigration law, which she says is a hot topic.
A lot of Texas farms and ranches rely on immigrant labor, and lately they鈥檝e found themselves facing two challenges. First, they need to figure out what proposed changes to immigration policy mean for their businesses.
鈥淭here's a concern 鈥� from sort of a labor shortage standpoint,鈥� she says. "You know, are we going to be able to have enough folks that are willing and able to work in some of the agriculture industry?"
They鈥檙e also confronting increased immigration 鈥渁udits.鈥� That鈥檚 where ICE shows up at a farm to check employment records.
鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely happening,鈥� Lashmet says, particularly in the dairy industry.
鈥淲e have had some increased activity with some ICE audits,鈥� Darren Turley, executive director of the Texas Association of Dairymen, says.
ICE has been "looking at some dairies and looking at their employees," he says, "and truthfully we're kind of in the middle of that right now.鈥�
Turley says a lot of dairy farms have trouble hiring locally, so . But keeping tabs on employees鈥� immigration status can be tough.
鈥淚f I鈥檓 getting the right Social Security number and things like that, there鈥檚 no way for me to check that," Turley says. 鈥淎nd then, of course, we don鈥檛 want to. That's not what we're here for. We're trying to do our job of [milking] the cows.鈥�
In the long-term, he says he鈥檇 like the rhetoric about immigration policy to resolve into something concrete.
鈥淗aving some guidance here on where we鈥檙e headed in the next two years, [so we can] set ourselves in the right direction 鈥� and know where we need to go and what we need to do would be as much as anything we could ask for," Turley says.
In the short term, Lashmet say it's a good idea for people working in agriculture to bone up on their rights and responsibilities under federal law.
鈥淚f somebody was to show up and say, 鈥榃e鈥檙e here to conduct an audit of your paperwork,鈥欌�� she says, 鈥渒nowing your rights are really important.鈥�
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