Trump’s bigoted immigration crackdown is making your food more expensive

Donald Trump’s push to rip apart the families of undocumented immigrants and send hardworking family members back to Mexico is leading to a labor shortage on California farms.

And that bodes ill for the whole country, as the ripple effect will increase food prices for families all across America.

The dearth of migrant workers means that many crops will go to rot, instead of being picked and harvested. That means the cost of food will increase as the supply goes down.

And the Mexican immigrants whom Trump hatefully and wrongfully labeled as criminals and “rapists” are a huge part of the work force that has been doing work most native-born Americans will not.

Two California counties have reported losses of over $13 million due to labor shortfalls, and those figures are from before the Trump administration accelerated the deportation of undocumented immigrants when he took power in January.

The anti-immigrant policies being pursued by Trump (he has now backed legislation which would curb even legal immigration) come even as the recent data has shown that more undocumented Mexican immigrants are leaving the United States than coming in. The uptick in undocumented immigration stopped in 2007, and the trend has gone in the opposite direction since.

And economists are clear that Trump’s immigration opposition is bad news for America’s economy.

Trump’s draconian approach is contradicted by data and economic sense, and is dictated by little more than racism and cruel insensitivity to families that are being torn apart.

And the whole country may soon be paying the price.