They said they were fighting for the forgotten man. Turns out they meant the people who grow your food.
Ninety-two percent of farm workers say immigration raids have disrupted their work. Ninety percent worry about family separation. Sixty-one percent are shopping less — not because they’re broke, but because they’re afraid to leave the goddamn house. One in three are skipping medical care for fear of running into immigration authorities. A mother said her family couldn’t celebrate their daughter’s 11th birthday outside because they’re too scared to leave home.
Eighty percent of these workers have been here more than ten years. Forty-one percent for more than twenty. They grow the food. They pick the produce that ends up at your grocery store, your county fair, your Thanksgiving table — and they do it terrified.
DHS calls worksite enforcement a ‘cornerstone’ of protecting ‘public safety and economic stability.’ Spare me the bullshit. You know what destabilizes a food supply? Terrorizing the people who harvest it and calling it a security mission.
Family values, my ass. The same party that campaigns on the forgotten man and standing up for rural America is the one making sure a mother can’t walk her kid out for a birthday. They wave the flag at the fairgrounds and arrest the hand that planted the sweet corn. They praise the farmer and terrorize the workforce.
The forgotten man was never forgotten. He was known exactly — his address, his shift, his family. They just needed him too scared to do anything but work and hide.
Take the flag pin off before you terrorize the people who feed you. Holy shit, the hypocrisy is breathtaking.
Source story: Farm workers report widespread fear, reduced daily activity after immigration raids, survey finds.