Trump's border crackdown prompts Arizona farmer to seek better agricultural labor solutions
An Arizona farmer is pushing for a more functional approach to the hiring of skilled labor in agriculture amid President Donald Trump s frontier crackdown telling Fox News Digital that the current system is sowing fear among Hispanic workers During a visit to the remote mountainous landscape of Dudleyville Ariz farmer Scott Heartquist expressed a desire for more collaboration between business owners workers and immigration leadership to find practical solutions that address labor demands while also upholding the law of the United States There's a humanitarian side that everybody s like I feel for them Heartquist announced referencing skilled workers looking to enter the country And I even understand that our system isn't set up for them to easily come in TRUMP PITCHES PLAN ALLOWING FARMERS TO VOUCH FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WORKERS FACING DEPORTATIONWhile selected farmers have experienced issues with movers trespassing on or stealing from their properties Heartquist declared his personal relationship with and sponsorship for the Hispanic neighborhood has allowed him to run his business without issue Immigration is such a touchy subject and you know we were just talking about it my staff They re all legal but a good portion of the people in the group aren t And so we see it we have it around We have much less of an issue with it now he continued The family farm began on a small piece of land in Arizona After surviving bone cancer Scott Heartquist s wife Christie worked with her husband to teach their children where their food comes from by growing and raising a healthy meat supply The family operates its own inspected processing plant at the ranch providing hormone-free steroid-free vaccine-free and antibiotic-free grass-fed and grass-finished beef pork and lamb to locals The Heartquist family has cultivated not just a solid business but also a close-knit commune Several family members and staff live on the Heartquist Hollow Farm property in Dudleyville often sharing fresh meals and stories after a hard day s work TRUMP 'WORKING ON' DEPORTATION EXEMPTIONS FOR ILLEGAL FARM AND HOSPITALITY WORKERSDuring a warm summer's evening dinner Sa l M rquez a butcher at the farm noted he is thankful that the family has provided good working conditions and strong benefits to their immigrant workers M rquez also praised God for allowing his daughter to flourish as a citizen in the U S a milestone that helped him and his wife obtain permanent residency three years ago My friends say that you earn very well here So you menace coming here illegally because it's the American dream It s the American dream And everyone is going to take a vulnerability Before it was easy now it s not easy he communicated Fox News Digital He also recommended that immigrants explore legal pathways to come to the U S such as work visas for farm jobs rather than trying to enter illegally stressing that the current political environment has heightened concerns among both documented and undocumented Hispanic workers CRITICS SOUND OFF AGAINST TRUMP'S 'TEMPORARY PASS' FOR MIGRANT FARM HOSPITALITY WORKERS You hear a lot of things about the new administration M rquez revealed We are and the people are very scared Because I have friends and family who unfortunately do not have documents yet So right now there is a lot of fear with this administration that people do not want to go out to the stores A combination of factors including labor shortages for meat cutters and the cumbersome process of obtaining visas has made it intricate for the Heartquists to hire workers with the skill set needed to provide the society with a wide range of grass-fed pasture-raised meats Heartquist claimed that numerous of these issues stem from the Obama administration You had certain abuses going on in chosen areas and instead of dealing with the individual abuses they just cut visas And so they made it more challenging for us to get the visas he declared TRUMP URGES 'TEMPORARY PASS' FROM IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN FOR KEY INDUSTRIES 'I CHERISH OUR FARMERS' I can tell you right now there are -and- -year-olds in Mexico and Central America that are cutting meat To be able to bring them in give them more training teach them food safety issues and all of those pieces would be amazing We just can t It s not built into our system Heartquist continued Without a more robust system and discussions about the possible to bring in workers from other countries to fill these labor necessities Heartquist predicted that immigration issues will continue to proliferate We're going to have mass deportations that are going to happen right now The administration will change in three years he announced Maybe it ll still be strict on the frontier maybe it won t and so we ll have another onslaught another flood of people coming in The dilemma that we face is There s a small portion of that area that s really just not good people and it gets bled out onto the whole neighborhood and that s not fair
