South Dakota AG Leaders Question Push To Target Farm Workers for Deportation

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins says mass deportations of undocumented immigrants will be done everywhere, including farm country. She says the plan is to have a 100% American workforce.

Rollins indicated that Medicaid work requirements may be able to fill a gaping hole left if migrant workers are deported.

“When you think about it, there are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program,” Rollins said. “There are plenty of workers in America.”

Doug Sombke is the President of the South Dakota Farmers Union. He said filling jobs in this way isn’t possible in the agriculture industry.

“It’s unrealistic. Just, I mean if anybody thinks that that’s the case, that we’re going to put these recipients of SNAP and Medicaid into the workforce, let’s be real. Especially in South Dakota, that just isn’t the case. We are not going to make that happen,” Sombke said. “It’s going to be devastation if that’s the case. I mean the level of unemployment that we have in the state is lowest it’s ever going to get. The reason is certain people, some people just don’t have the ability, whether it’s physical or mental. They just don’t have the capacity to do the work.”

Scott VanderWal is the President of the South Dakota Farm Bureau. He said though he supports the idea of Medicaid work requirements, he’s not sure if it could replace migrant labor in agriculture.