10/24/2026
Mass deportations, tariffs, and the Iran war were all imposed unilaterally by Donald Trump and supported by the Republican Congress. These were all deliberate policy choices that have exploded costs for farmers around the country, including right here in our district.
STARTING TODAY, we fight back at the polls and have the chance to elect an actual farmer to Congress in the person of Blake Gendebien for the North Country. Polls are open at the Schoharie County Office Building and the Cobleskill Community Library. LET'S GO!
"More than 40 farmers and agricultural industry groups are warning Washington leaders that the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration is affecting the nation’s food supply, hurting farmers and risking higher grocery prices.
“Targeting immigrant workers who have not committed crimes and blocking workforce solutions for agriculture devastates agricultural producers, drives up food costs for all Americans and makes our nation more dependent on other countries,” the groups say in a letter addressed to President Donald Trump and congressional leaders, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.
Signatories include the Milk Producers Council, the Texas International Produce Association, the Kansas Livestock Association and the Indiana Dairy Producers, among other members of the American Business Immigration Coalition, a bipartisan group of employers that lobbies for immigration changes on Capitol Hill.
The letter marks a shift in strategy for an industry that has been reluctant to publicly criticize Trump’s campaign of immigration raids, detention and deportation targeting its workforce, preferring generally to lobby the administration behind the scenes. About 66 percent of the country’s farmworkers are foreign-born.
But the group decided to publicize its warning after recent sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents near major meatpacking plants delayed cattle livestock operations, shipments and harvesting in southwest Kansas; led to arrests of farm workers in California’s Central Valley; and threatened poultry production in Pennsylvania farm country, industry leaders say."
