Mass Deportations Are Wrong For New York Farms & Communities

There are over 30,000 farms in New York, across almost every county of the state. Farms are an important part of the landscape and way of life for large parts of New York State.

Nearly a quarter of the state’s total land, 22 percent, is farmland, and the market value of the resulting annual agricultural produce was $8 billion in 2022.

Immigrants are a critical part of the labor force that keeps farms running. Many come on temporary visas, while many others are here without legal status. With more than 40 percent of hired crop workers being undocumented,1National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS). 2022. “Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) 2019-202: A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farmworkers.” Research Report No. 16. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.  they are stuck in a broken immigration system that makes it impossible for them to get work permits or green cards.

The right answer would be to create a pathway to citizenship for all immigrants, stability of the labor force for farm owners, and opportunities for better wages and working conditions for farm workers.

ICE raids by masked agents and mass deportation are a threat to our sense of who we are as Americans, and as New Yorkers. Immigrants are working to put food on our table. Sweeping them indiscriminately into detention centers and foreign prisons is an affront to our values, and a threat to the farms that matter to our communities.

To see how important farming is where you live, take a look at the lists below that show the ranking of all counties in New York State (except New York City) for the value and type of agricultural produce, the number of farms, the acreage of farms, and the percent of the county that is farmland.

Data source: Immigration Research Initiative analysis of 2022 Census of Agriculture, National Agriculture Statistics Service.

Contact:

David Dyssegaard Kallick
Director, Immigration Research Initiative
646-284-1240, [email protected]

Margaret Gray
Associate Professor of Political Science, Adelphi University
[email protected]

For data on New York State Counties, click here.

  • 1
    National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS). 2022. “Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) 2019-202: A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farmworkers.” Research Report No. 16. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.