Suggesting that 75% of agricultural workers are absent due to stricter immigration policies under the Trump administration is deceptive.

President Donald Trump has promised mass deportations of people who are living in the U.S. illegally as part of his crackdown on immigration. 

Recent online posts and headlines suggest that actions taken by the Trump administration are causing a decline in California farmworkers showing up for work.

One particular post on Jan. 21 garnered 7 million views, stating, “75% of immigrant farm workers didn’t show up yesterday in Bakersfield because of ICE raids under the new presidency.” Bakersfield, California, hosts numerous farms cultivating crops such as potatoes, lettuce, and tomatoes.

Other social media posts make similar claims about 75% of farmworkers staying home from work following the inauguration, which took place on Jan. 20.

Several readers reached out to ask us if those claims are true.

Did 75% of farmworkers miss work in Bakersfield, California, due to immigration raids after President Trump’s inauguration?

These claims are misleading. 

The 75% figure comes from a news report on the effects of Border Patrol raids that took place during the Biden administration – not under President Trump. The statistic also was not confirmed by multiple sources and likely does not apply to all farms in the area.

Claims that 75% of farmworkers didn’t show up for work due to immigration raids after President Trump’s inauguration are misleading. 

The 75% figure comes from a report published by nonprofit news source CalMatters about the effects of Border Patrol raids that occurred about two weeks before Trump took office for the second time.

That number also hasn’t been confirmed by multiple sources and it likely doesn’t apply to all farms in the Bakersfield area.

Though Trump has promised mass deportations in his second presidential term, VERIFY doesn’t have data yet on whether there have been raids at any farms or how many farmworkers have stayed home as a result. 

In its article published on Friday, Jan. 10, CalMatters reported that Border Patrol “conducted unannounced raids throughout Bakersfield” on Tuesday, Jan. 7, while former President Joe Biden was still in office. Casey Creamer, president of the industry group California Citrus Mutual, told CalMatters that the raids “sent shockwaves through the entire community.” 

“People aren’t going to work and kids aren’t going to school. Yesterday about 25% of the workforce, today 75% didn’t show up,” Creamer said on Thursday, Jan. 9.

When VERIFY reached out to California Citrus Mutual about how it obtained the 75% figure, a spokesperson declined to provide further information. 

“At this time, we do not have any additional comments beyond our previously provided statements,” a spokesperson said. 

United Farm Workers (UFW) has disputed that the statistic applied to all farms in the area, with a spokesperson telling VERIFY the labor union believes it is “false” or “at the very least is something that was just specific to some farms in the immediate Kern County area,” where Bakersfield is located.

VERIFY didn’t find any other farmworker unions or industry groups sharing the statistic. 

Border Patrol activity did lead many farmworkers to stay home

It is true that many farmworkers in California’s Central Valley did stay home while Border Patrol was in the area, the UFW spokesperson told VERIFY. 

On Jan. 16, less than one week before Trump’s second presidential term began, UFW’s political and legislative director Areli Arteaga said the union received calls beginning on Jan. 7 from Kern County farmworkers seeking help and guidance after Border Patrol raids in the community. 

Border Patrol was in the region for several days and said it arrested 78 undocumented people as part of what it called “Operation Return to Sender.”

According to Arteaga, two UFW members who lived and worked in the United States for over a decade were detained and are now in Mexico. 

An article from the California Farm Bureau backs up the UFW spokesperson’s statement about many farmworkers staying home for several days. In that article, a citrus grower and packer who works east of Bakersfield said that for a few days during the immigration enforcement efforts, only around five people who are part of a 30-member contracted harvest crew showed up for work. He was able to fill his orders with fruit that he had in cold storage. 

However, the UFW spokesperson said farmworkers ultimately had to return to work because they “live paycheck to paycheck” and “can’t afford to take three weeks off.” 

“Our sense is that the vast majority of workers in the Central Valley are going to work as they can’t afford not to, but with a heightened sense of fear and anxiety,” the UFW spokesperson said. 

Many farms in the U.S. rely on an immigrant workforce. The Department of Labor’s 2019-2020 National Agricultural Workers Survey found that approximately 44% of farmworkers are undocumented immigrants who lack work authorization, according to the nonprofit Farmworker Justice.

“I think we will see regional upticks in absentee rates after immigration enforcement activity, especially large sweeps, but then a return to a (more anxious) normal as the operation ends and the underlying economic pressures of high cost of living, exclusion from the social safety net, and poverty wage work make themselves felt,” the UFW spokesperson said.