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The UFW Foundation prepares to 'face the unknown' of Trump's deportation plans

A woman in a dark green hoodie, black sweat pants, a light brown cap and black boots holds a large bucket. She's surrounded by fruits and branches as she is seen dropping one into her bucket.
Daniel Oropeza
/
The UFW Foundation
A farmworker picks fruit on a farm in Hartford, MI in September 2024.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to carry out the largest deportation effort in American history. This plan has drawn criticism from organizations such as the UFW Foundation, a nonprofit farm workers’ rights group.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he will deport millions of undocumented immigrants in his upcoming term. The UFW Foundation says this will affect all Michiganders, whether they're here legally or not.

WMUK's Michael Symonds interviewed three UFW Foundation staff members about their plans.

Transcript

Michael Symonds: I start by asking how the UFW Foundation is preparing for potential mass deportations. Here's State Organizer Sofia Acevedo.

Sofia Acevedo: One of the things that we're doing is we're taking initiative here in Michigan by providing spaces that allow our community to come in. And, we're doing information sessions, Know Your Rights.

Symonds: Michigan director Amanda Villa explains further.

Amanda Villa: Know Your Rights is basically just preparing families for the unexpected. Even if you're documented or undocumented, it's always good to have an emergency plan. What is going to happen with your children if you can't pick them up from school, because, unfortunately, a law enforcement officer pulled you over and now you're detained, or what are you going to do if ICE knocks on your door.

Sometimes we freak out, we don't know what to do. But if you know a little bit of information about what are your basic rights, it's a lot easier to overcome these obstacles and just feel a little bit more empowered when you're face to face with a law enforcement officer, because it's a scary place to be at.

Symonds: Yeah, I mean, you talk about knowing your rights, but there's been a lot of fear that the Trump Administration might not, might ignore those rights, might try to seek to supersede those rights, take a different avenue, that sort of thing. I don't know if that's factoring into this Know Your Rights campaign.

Villa: With this new Trump Administration, they don't respect the rights of individuals, especially if they know they're undocumented. But basic information is empowerment and we want to empower our community to know a little bit about what their rights are and how to act and react whenever they do face these circumstances or unfortunate situations that you get nervous about, and then you don't know how to answer.

Symonds: We know he's been talking about mass deportation, we know Trump's been talking about — but the actual on the ground facts of what that would look like, seem to be uncertain when you talk to different people he's appointed to his administration. So how does that uncertainty play into how you're preparing?

Villa: Overall, a lot of agencies, we're just preparing to face the unknown. We're preparing to kind of be on a defensive mode, preparing our immigrants, our farmworkers, our community, people of color, just to understand their basic rights and to be prepared for the unexpected because, in reality, no one knows how this is gonna look. No one knows if we're gonna actually be having raids at local jobs. No one knows if we're going to be stopped at the stop sign, because we look a different color. We just don't know.

Symonds: Is there any other way that you guys are seeking to prepare for this mass deportation plan? Whether that be legal challenges or other such things.

Villa: Another way that we're preparing, we're trying to educate our people to pay attention to the different signs. Making sure that if they know that their car headlight or tail light is off, please go fix it. Please use your signals whenever you're in transit, on the road. Please follow all safety laws while driving. The number one, or maybe a top reason, why people get pulled over, are simple things that we could have fixed before we actually get into the car.

Symonds: That's an interesting point you bring up, because if I leave the house and my light is out or something I— you know, I might get pulled over but it's going to be fine. Hey, you know, go get that checked out, you know, maybe if I get pulled over. But that's interesting, you talk about that you're trying to get people to more or less be perfect. Because one little mistake can be the difference between them being in the country or not.

Villa: Yes, and it's a very, it's a very saddening situation, because why do some people have to worry more about leaving the house in perfect conditions versus others? I think we're all here in the states and we're all here to make a living and we're all here for a better future, but why do some people have to pay more attention to the tail light? Why do people have to pay more attention to, like, making sure I put that clicker on so that when I turn it doesn't— I don't trigger any law enforcement officer?

It's just an unfortunate situation to some individuals that live here that contribute to the government, that contribute to the economic well-being of the state, and we still don't have access to these basic needs that everyone should have access to.

Symonds: We've obviously talked about a lot of the impact this will have so far, especially the emotional impact. But what kind of economic impacts, I mean, will this mass deportation have for Southwest Michigan?

Villa: With mass deportations, we're going to see a lower undocumented farm working population, which would lead to more H-2A workers, which in turn is going to increase the production cost to harvest the foods. And then, everything is a domino effect. That will lead to more pricier food in the grocery store. So, essentially, mass deportations, that's not going to be a good outcome for Michigan because we rely a lot on agriculture, and our food prices are going to go up because of production and because harvesting prices are going to go up as well.

Symonds: The H-2A program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers for temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs. I asked state organizer Sophia Acevedo if this will force the U.S. to confront how our agricultural and food system is propped up by undocumented immigrant labor.

Acevedo: I think all three of us sitting here have at one point been farm workers and we've worked in the fields. So, we do know what that work is like. And I do think that is going to push the United States, and Michigan, into looking at, you know, who are the people that we have here? And who is willing to do that work? And what does that look like?

Symonds: Will American citizens fill these positions? State organizer Daniel Oropeza doesn't think so.

Oropeza: Throughout the years, a lot of farmers out there across Michigan have tried that, throughout decades. And it does not work. It does not work, because it is a lot of labor, and sometimes it's over time: 10 hour, 12 hour shifts. And a lot of people born here in this country, especially here locally here in Michigan, they do not do it.

Symonds: I did want to kind of end off on this question. Obviously, you guys have worked hard to kind of advance the rights of farmworkers, and undocumented farmworkers at that. But Trump won. He won on a message of — a very anti-immigrant message, a very anti-undocumented-immigrant message. I mean, how does that make you feel about the future of your movement?

Acevedo: The outcome of it just really pushes me to continue the initiative that Cesar Chavez, you know, wanted, and he worked for, and that's a non-violent movement. So, I would encourage people to have open communication and get a better understanding of what it is that their their thinking, as far as, you know, their opinions or what they thought the outcome of this could be with this presidential election. And I'm personally open to that.

You know, I want to be able to have those open conversations, be in those spaces where we typically we're not allowed, as Latinos, as minorities, as farmworkers and have a discussion and be open about what we feel, what we think is going to happen, and how that is going to affect Michigan.

Symonds: Okay, well, with that, I want to thank you guys very much for taking part in this interview and talking about this subject.

Villa, Acevedo and Oropeza: Thank you.

Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.

Disclosure: Daniel Oropeza volunteers at WMUK.

Report for America national service program corps member Michael Symonds joined WMUK’s staff in 2023. He covers the “rural meets metro” beat, reporting stories that link seemingly disparate parts of Southwest Michigan.