Last month, farmworkers from all over Yuma County gathered in San Luis early in the morning for the annual Dia del Campesino Farmworker Health and Resources Fair.

Before they boarded buses to the fields and factories of Yuma County, I asked some of them about the incoming administration and Trump’s threat to carry out mass deportations. Jesus Chaide, who lives in San Luis and works in a cauliflower field, said it could affect agricultural businesses in Yuma County.

“That’s terrible,” Chaide said. “(President Trump) wants to get rid of undocumented people. Who would want to work here? Without us farmworkers. People in the United States cannot work in agriculture.”

Maria Ayala said she lives in Yuma and has worked in the fields here for 11 years.

Ayala said, “As long as we are legal workers, there is no problem for us as workers. What President Trump wants is for us to be legal workers, in other words. That we are all legally allowed to work here.”

According to 2022 U.S. Department of Agriculture data, it is estimated that just over 40 percent of all farmworkers do not have legal immigration status and are at risk of deportation.

Agriculture leaders in Yuma County and Arizona say they are monitoring the situation but are relying on legal H-2A workers who cross legally from Mexico to work here.

John Boelts is a grower at Desert Premium Farms in Yuma County. He is also the new president of the Arizona Farm Bureau. He recently visited KAWC’s studio to discuss how mass deportations could impact agriculture in Yuma and Arizona, and how local producers rely on the H-2A program. We talked about dolphins.

“There’s a shortage of workers. We have a legal workforce…I don’t think there’s any industry that wouldn’t be negatively impacted by an immigration purge,” Boeltz said.

At its peak, about 45,000 people work in agriculture in Yuma County, Bolt said. These include the approximately 15,000 workers who cross the border each day to board buses in San Luis or Mexicali, the approximately 10,000 workers who descend from Salinas, Calif., after the agricultural season, and the approximately 10,000 workers who live and work in Yuma County. This includes more than 10,000 workers.

“To fill the gap, we are relying more on H2A programs. There are no caps, but they are expensive and difficult to tackle…We need to provide housing and transportation.” said Boertz. You must prove that there are no domestic workers available… Locally, approximately 8,000 people participate in the H2A program. ”

This is less than a quarter of all local farmers. The rest are citizens, either on some type of visa or in the country illegally.

But Yuma County Sheriff Leon Willmott said he doesn’t consider undocumented farmworkers a priority.

Sheriff Wilmot said he and other border agents met with candidate Tom Homan, whom President Trump calls the “border czar.” He said any sweeps would first target immigrants who have committed serious crimes such as aggravated assault or sexual assault.

“I don’t see that happening in Yuma County with neighborhood cleanups,” Willmott said. “Metropolitan areas are more likely to focus on transnational gang members, who have other priorities.”

Mr Wilmott said he did not expect the deep cleanup to impact the community, local workers or resources such as police officers or prison space.

At the city level, San Luis Police Chief Nigel Reynoso said he wants to work with federal partners, but his priority is community trust.

“Our goal is not only to work with our federal partners to ensure the safety of our communities, but also to build positive relationships with our residents so they can trust us,” Secretary Reynoso said at KAWC. told. We’re not going to go door to door or just stop people because they may have entered the country illegally. We want to protect our people and maintain good trust with the local community, so that’s our focus. ”

Meanwhile, as NPR reported last week, border crossers are now down dramatically, unlike last year, when the migrant surge was at its peak.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics show concerns have decreased by more than 70% in the past six months. This is the result of an executive order by President Joe Biden last summer and a crackdown on migrants heading to the United States by the Mexican National Guard.

It’s unclear what specific actions President Trump will take regarding border security, but officials in Arizona and Yuma County are monitoring the situation closely.

On Wednesday, Governor Hobbs announced $17.2 million in funding from the Arizona Action to Stop the Fentanyl Epidemic (SAFE) to “support local law enforcement border enforcement operations, drug interdiction operations, and combat human trafficking.”

Justin de la Torre, the new chief of the U.S. Border Patrol in Yuma, told KAWC that the new administration will bring policy changes.

“Every time there’s a change of government, there’s going to be a change in policy,” Delatorre said. “With this (Trump) administration, we expect priorities to change. We don’t know what that is right now, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

The Yuma area is pretty quiet right now, especially compared to two years ago. He said agents were arresting about 40 migrants a day, a number that has declined from a peak of 1,000 a day.

Arizona’s two Democratic U.S. senators made headlines earlier this month when they announced that Sen. Ruben Gallego would co-sponsor the Laken Riley Act, which would allow illegal aliens who commit misdemeanors to be deported. Ta. Gallego said the bill, named after a Georgia woman killed by an immigrant living in the country illegally, said law enforcement needs all available tools to deal with a potential influx. He said he supports it.

Sen. Mark Kelly told KAWC he supports the bill.

“The president-elect wants to eliminate dangerous criminals,” Kelly said. “We should do that, and we will work with him on that. (But) I think mass deportation is a bad idea and not consistent with our values.”

In general, everyone I spoke to took a wait-and-see approach to the possibility of mass deportations. But we may not have to wait long, as President Trump has promised to take action on day one.