Opinion: Rural America needs Congress to require data center developers and the federal government to disclose plans

Nondisclosure agreements leave community members in the dark.
(Photo by Daniel Bernard, Unsplash)

When urban and suburban Americans don't want to live near an institution or business designed to address a larger societal problem, they send it to rural America. Prisons, power plants and landfills are a few examples, writes Rotimi Adeoye in his opinion for The New York Times. "These days, two more intrusions have been added to the list: immigrant detention centers and data centers. … Congress should address this problem."

While it may seem logical to assume the federal government would be required to share information with smaller townships before purchasing large buildings or tracts of land in town, that isn't the case.

In Tremont, Pa., a tiny town with roughly 300 people, the federal government purchased "a 1.3-million-square-foot warehouse that had been a Big Lots distribution center" to repurpose into an immigration center designed to hold 7,500 detainees, Adeoye writes. By the time the township's supervisor learned of the sale, the deed had already been signed.

In other instances, small-town residents learn that a hyperscale data center is being planned in their community only when rezoning paperwork is filed. Nondisclosure agreements between data center developers, landowners and town officials enable companies to keep area residents in the dark.

In both cases, transactions are "intended to be finished long before the people who would have to live with the consequences could ask questions about what was being planned," Adeyoe adds.

To help rural Americans know and have some agency in deciding what gets built in their communities, Adeyoe suggests that Congress "require companies planning large-scale facilities to publicly disclose who they are and what they intend to build before they seek to change how the land is used, and to notify local governments before acquiring property in their communities. … The same principle applies to federal agencies."

Requiring public disclosure does not mean that a detention or data center facility won't eventually be constructed in a rural community, but it "would stop it from being built in secret," Adeyoe adds. "Rural communities are often fighting both kinds of facilities simultaneously, often without knowing who they are fighting or why, because neither the federal government nor private developers are currently required to tell them anything before the decisions are made."

Big Bend residents push against the ongoing border build-up the Trump administration is rushing to install

Reeds and mesquite trees line the banks of the Rio Grande River as it flows through the western Texas region known as Big Bend. Residents of this rural area are deeply worried about the Trump administration's use of eminent domain to proceed with a controversial "border barrier" that will include 30-foot tall steel border walls, Carlos Morales reports for NPR. 

Big Bend's rough terrain makes it a less popular place
to illegally cross into the U.S. (Texas Almanac map)

For Joe Pineda, who ranches along the river in Redford, Texas, that may mean selling or losing land that has been in his family since the late 1800s. Morales writes, "Pineda received a letter from the federal government warning of eminent domain proceedings if they don't agree to sell the land or voluntarily give access for border wall construction."

Pineda is not alone; many Big Bend community members are alarmed by the private property the federal government wants to use and the disruptive elements such as patrol roads, flood lighting and surveillance systems that the government will include in its border barrier project.

Unlike many partisan issues today, the push against a border build-up in Big Bend has "united an unusual coalition of people across the political spectrum who say a wall is not needed here," Morales reports. "They worry about threats to the environment and Indigenous sites, to impact on the region's famously dark skies and on wild animals, like Black bears, bobcats and bighorn sheep."

Big Bend businesses are also worried about what the border barrier will do to the region's growing tourism economy, which brings in roughly $56 million a year, according to Morales.

Sunset at Big Bend National Park in Texas.
(Photo by Caleb Fisher, Unsplash)

Many residents point to the area's rugged terrain as a reason fewer illegal crossings are attempted in the region. In short, a wall isn't needed in Big Bend. Morales adds, "In the first three months of this year, Customs and Border Protection's Big Bend Sector saw 498 apprehensions, which is just over a tenth of the apprehensions made in Texas' busiest sector."

Big Bend residents also say there's a better way to spend taxpayer money. Morales explains, "The price tag for a single mile of border barrier is over $17 million." Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson, who grew up in the region, told Morales, "We agree with border security. We agree there needs to be walls ... but not here. We just need to be monitored, we need the manpower, and I think we'd be very fine."

Meanwhile, some property owners are adamant that the region be left alone. Morales adds, "They say they're willing to do whatever it takes, including filing their own lawsuits against the government, to stop the build-up at the border."

Q&A: Rural places have always played a part in U.S. immigration and deportation

Brianna Nofil

When the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency began conducting large immigration raids outside metropolitan areas in 2025, there was not enough housing space for detainees, so U.S. Immigration Services worked to address the issue by partnering with rural law enforcement. The partnership isn't new -- USIS has long relied on rural towns to help it jail and deport illegal immigrants.

In her Q&A with Betsy Froiland of The Daily Yonder, historian and author of the 2024 book The Migrant’s Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration, Brianna Nofil "shares her research on how immigrant detention infrastructure has impacted small towns across America." An edited version of their interview is shared below.

Q: Can you begin by sharing how rural places initially became involved in the conversation of immigrant detention?
A: Almost from its inception, the U.S. Immigration Service relied on rural communities to help it arrest and deport illegal migrants. When USIS stepped up its deportation efforts in the early 1900s, its leadership discovered that USIS lacked enough housing for all its detainees. Nofil explains, "So they began talking to sheriffs. They say to these local sheriffs, ‘listen,' immigration law enforcement isn’t your job, but if you are willing to rent us some beds in your local jail, we will pay you for that.'"

At that time, many rural sheriffs didn't have strong feelings about immigration; however, they did "see an opportunity to make some money," Nofil adds. "So some rural communities start renting jail beds to the Immigration Service. This gives the Immigration Service flexibility. Migrant routes are constantly changing. . . .Control of local rural jails allows them to pivot infrastructure as the movement of people changes."

Q: Does immigrant detention change in rural places by the end of the 20th century?
Yes. In the 1980s, USIS "decided to build the first immigration prisons, co-run by the Immigration Service and the Bureau of Prisons, from the ground up. So they’re no longer just borrowing infrastructure: they’re actually building permanent deportation infrastructure," Nofil told the Yonder. "There are massive internal battles about where they should put the first site because it’s going to set the tone for what this new detention system is going to look like."

In the end, USIS decides on rural Oakdale, Louisiana. Nofil explains, "They figure their work would be more distant from legal aid, even more out of the limelight. They’re quite explicit about the value they see rural space having in terms of limiting both public attention and migrants’ access to assistance."

Q: How have different rural communities been impacted by these detention sites economically?
At least in the beginning, when ICE really needs a location, some towns do reap some economic benefits, but the benefits don't always last. Nofil adds, "This is not something that any community can reliably bank on because they’re basically being asked to predict future federal behavior and future global migration flows, which is impossible. That makes it a particularly treacherous industry to link a community’s financial future to."

Read the entire interview here.

Sprawling visa scandal continues to embarrass small towns in Louisiana. Three law officers are among the defendants.

Authorities uncovered the alleged scheme while investigating 
a 'pattern of inconsistencies in U-visa applications.' (HS photo)

Three lawmen, an elected marshal, a Subway shop owner and foreign nationals with cash and a bent for staying in the U.S. allegedly spent nearly a decade manufacturing false police reports of burglaries to help foreign nationals stay in the U.S. 

Most recently, a federal judge "delayed a March trial date and hasn’t set a new one," reports Joe Barrett of The Wall Street Journal. "Locals wish the whole thing would blow over."

Residents from a smattering of small towns in southwestern Louisiana had "endured an 'unusual concentration of armed robberies of people who were not from Louisiana,' then-acting U.S. Attorney Alexander Van Hook said at a news conference last summer."  

"He then delivered the punchline: 'In fact, the armed robberies never took place.'"

How does that happen? It went something like this: The Subway shop owner, Chandrakant 'Lala' Patel, would "allegedly connect with crime 'victims' looking to stay in the U.S.," Barrett writes. "He would then turn to one of the law-enforcement officials to draw up paperwork for crimes that never happened." The foreign nationals, who posed as crime victims, would then apply for U visas, which "allow certain crime victims to remain in the U.S."

Authorities allege the scheme worked for almost a decade and netted the five men $5,000 per foreign national "helped" by the crime reports, which in turn allowed hundreds of foreign nationals to stay in the U.S. based on false claims. Barrett reports, "Investigators with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spurred the multi-agency probe in July 2024 after uncovering a pattern of inconsistencies in U-visa applications."

Meanwhile, residents in the rural towns of Oakdale, Glenmora and Forest Hill, where the indicted men live or worked, have been shocked by the allegations. Barrett adds, "Months later, locals still talk about the scandal in hushed voices, wary of drawing more attention to their towns."  

Once a stalwart Republican, this Wisconsin dairy farmer is reconsidering his position because of ICE and immigration

Dairy cows wander and graze on O'Harrow Family Farm acreage.  

For decades, being a Wisconsin dairy farmer and voting Republican went hand in hand for Tim O'Harrow and his family. But GOP immigration politics and Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions are no longer in sync with the O'Harrows' experience and what they feel is moral, reports Sabrina Tavernise for The New York Times. Some family members are considering shifting their political alliances.

"Immigrant workers are the lifeblood of the O’Harrow farm, a four-generation family enterprise with 1,600 cows in northeastern Wisconsin," Tavernise writes. "But many of them will not travel to Mexico to see dying parents, or drive to nearby towns to visit siblings... because they are afraid of being swept up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown."

The second Trump administration's approach to immigration doesn't make good business sense to Tim O'Harrow or his son, Joel, who runs the farm. Tavernise explains, "These workers oversee America’s milk. By one estimate, dairies that employ immigrant workers produce 79% of the nation’s milk supply, and the price of milk would double without them."

Tim O'Harrow knows conflicts over undocumented immigrant farm workers aren't a new problem. He's been talking to politicians in Washington and in Madison, Wisconsin, the state's capital city, for 20 years, asking them to create a visa system or path to citizenship for these vital workers. But politics have gone the opposite way.

"Washington has failed to make any meaningful changes, and Republican voters continue to be anti-immigration, particularly those in Wisconsin," Tavernise reports. "That has left the O’Harrows in an uncomfortable place — stuck between what they see as an obvious truth, that immigrants are essential to America’s food supply, and a national political mood hurtling in the other direction."

Tim O'Harrow told the Times, "I don’t know that I’m a Republican anymore. I don’t know what we are anymore.”

Both Tim and his son told the Times they would be open to voting for a Democrat in future elections. Tavernise writes, "And for the first time in 20 years, a Democratic primary will be held in their district, a sign that the party believes it has a chance to flip what has been a solidly Republican seat."

For more explanation on why a stalwart GOP family would consider voting for a Democrat, read the full story here.

After a jarring ICE raid at a horse racing track, residents of a tiny Idaho town measure the aftermath

Agents outside La Catedral Arena, a horse track in Wilder, Idaho, 
Oct. 19, 2025. (Idaho Statesman photo via Mother Jones)

Some residents of Wilder, Idaho, say the town hasn't been the same since federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descended on an off-the-beaten-path horse racing track and detained roughly 100 Latinos who were working or attending the races. 

The horse track, known as La Catedral Arena, had been a place where immigrant families gathered to enjoy food and racing together, reports Anna Griffin of The New York Times. Few whites ever attended the races or questioned track activities.

Wilder is located in Canyon
County, Idaho. (Wikipedia)

Sixty percent of Wilder's 1,725 residents are Latino, and most residents take pride in living in harmony. But on Oct. 19, things changed. ICE agents, including a swarm of gun-toting agents on the ground, a helicopter, and the agency's signature SUVs, descended on the track during the busiest time of day. Agents rounded up nearly 100 Latinos and later deported 75.

The raid did more than "crack an alleged gambling ring and increase deportation numbers," the Times reports. "It shattered Wilder’s innocent belief that its out-of-the-way location and deep-red politics could isolate the town from raids." 

Wilder resident Chris Gross, who farms sweet corn seed and mint, expressed concern about how the raid might limit immigrant farm workers. She told Griffin, "We rely on Hispanic labor." 

"The raid 'nearly destroyed' the community, said David Lincoln, a longtime Wilder resident and executive director of a nonprofit economic development agency serving rural towns in western Idaho," Griffen writes. Griffin adds, "Wilder won’t really know the impact until planting season begins this spring."

The day after the raid, at least half of Wilder's students didn't show up for class. Griffin reports, "Gross, who is white, said anyone who sees a black SUV roll through town, regardless of their race, 'freezes up.'" 

Still, the town's mayor, Steve Rhodes, claims the raid "has had 'zero effect' on the town," He told the Times, "These were not our people. What happened out at that track had nothing to do with Wilder.”

Somalis found refuge in a small Minnesota town, but now they're afraid to leave their homes

A Somali grocery store sign in Willmar, Minn.
(Photo via Federal Reserve Bank of Minnesota)

Over the past 30 years, the small farming town of Willmar, Minnesota, has become home to Somali families fleeing civil war and famine. The community of roughly 20,000 residents has welcomed so many Somalis that "a lively stretch downtown is called 'Little Mogadishu' because Somalis run more than a dozen storefront businesses," reports Joe Barrrett of The Wall Street Journal.

Despite their dedication to family and entrepreneurial contribution, many Willmar Somalis are afraid to leave their homes after "President Donald Trump lashed out against immigrants from Somalia, calling them 'garbage' and saying he doesn’t want them in the U.S.," Barrett writes. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have reportedly intensified raids in Minnesota after Trump's comments. 

Somalis across Minnesota have already been "shaken by a sprawling fraud scandal that has put the state’s Somali community in the national spotlight and drawn Trump’s ire," Barrett explains. Federal prosecutors say dozens of people -- almost all of whom are from the Somali community -- used fake businesses to steal millions from the Federal Child Nutrition Program, beginning in April 2020.

Location of Willmar within Kandiyohi 
County (Wikipedia maps) 

Willmar leaders don't see the scandal as a fair representation of the Somali population living in the U.S. Willmar's mayor, Doug Reese, told Barrett, “I can honestly say I haven’t encountered any bad Somalis. I mean, there’s probably some, but by and large, they’re good people.”

If Willmar's Somalis were forced to leave, it would deeply wound the town's economy. Rollie Nissen, a 79-year-old Willmar Republican leader, told Barrett, "I don’t think [Trump] should be painting with a broad brush. We should get rid of the people who are here illegally, not ship everybody back to Somalia or Mexico or Venezuela.”

Federal funding cuts, decreased use and a sluggish U.S. economy will cost some rural towns their libraries

The Tieton Library will close later this month, leaving the town's 
1,610 residents without a library for the first time since 1946.

Libraries in rural towns provide residents with a safe community hub that offers educational materials, meeting space, and sometimes even a place to escape inclement weather. But federal budget cuts, a slowing economy and demographic changes are forcing some small-town libraries to close.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order "dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which has provided around $270 million a year to public and academic libraries," reports Anna Griffin of The New York Times. Without those federal dollars, some libraries in smaller communities won't have enough funding to remain open.

While Trump's executive order faces a court challenge, some smaller libraries are already scaling back. "Some rural libraries in Florida and Mississippi, for example, have frozen inter-library loan programs, sharply reducing the range of materials available to residents in more remote areas," Griffin writes. "State libraries in Maine, Indiana, Connecticut and Washington have laid off staff members or warned that layoffs were coming."

While most U.S. library systems rely on federal and state funding and already operate within tight budgets, smaller libraries with a more limited tax base have a harder time raising funds to cover shortfalls. 

The Yakima library district in Washington state, which serves rural farming towns, is an example of a system that had to make changes to remain solvent. District leaders have already announced an increase in fees to maintain services. The fee changes, along with looming state and federal funding cuts, have already pushed a Yakima library in Tieton to schedule its closure for later this month.

Kate Laughlin, executive director of the Association for Rural & Small Libraries, told Griffin, "We had a financial model that wasn’t all that sustainable even before this administration. What you are seeing in a place like Yakima County is the start, not the end."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement restaurant raid splits a small town in Trump country

Mt. Vernon townspeople remain divided over
the ICE raid at Pancho's Tacos.

After ICE raided a favorite Mexican food spot in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and hauled off several of its employees, a heated town debate erupted over the incident. The small community of 17,400 people in "deep-red Trump country" is still grappling with the fallout, report Cameron McWhirter and Ruth Simon of The Wall Street Journal.

While the raid at Pancho's Tacos was over in roughly 30 minutes, arguments over the justification or lack thereof for raiding a small-town restaurant and arresting five of its allegedly illegal workers have raged on.

Some Mt. Vernon residents "fully support how the operation took place," McWhirter writes. But other residents voiced concern that ICE tactics aren't the way immigration enforcement ought to work -- especially not in small-town America.

Once word of the raid spread through rumor and social media, online comments on all sides of the incident began pouring in. One commentator wrote, "'I used to remember how people loved one another and accepted one another despite their differences,'" the Journal reports. "But another wrote: 'This is EXACLTY (sic) what we voted for. Send all illegals home.'"

Beyond the spiraling debate, the raid was especially worrisome for area dairy farmers, who rely on an immigrant workforce to do the hard labor required in dairy farming. Noel Alden, a Mount Vernon lawyer, told the Journal, "Neighbors, friends, people who serve them are being whisked away. . . .They haven’t even started on farms yet.”

Opinion: Federal policies targeting farming workforce and income need to be addressed before a bailout is needed

New federal policies seem to take aim at farming
incomes. (Photo by Richard Bell, Unsplash)

U.S. farmers face a rocky future as federal policies cut into sector labor and profitability. "Agriculture stands out as acutely vulnerable to President Donald Trump’s avalanche of tariffs, mass deportations and potential new regulations," writes The Washington Post editorial board. "Farmers don’t need a bailout. They need relief from overregulation and excessive immigration enforcement."

Soybean and corn farmers are "panicking about Trump’s trade wars, which expose them to retaliation from China, Canada and Mexico, their most important export markets," the board writes. Ranchers and produce growers have stood by and watched as "agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement descended en masse across fields to detain and deport agricultural workers."

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested that Medicaid recipients, who will soon need to meet program work requirements, could replace the migrant workers ICE deported. Her comments "landed like an insult in farming communities," the board adds. 

Dave Puglia, president of Western Growers, a lobby group for produce growers in the West, told the Post, “The men and women who harvest our crops are highly skilled. To anybody who believes they can pick and pack in the field, go try it.”

The current administration’s solution for farmer woes is to send subsidy payments, but those will only help certain types of farms. "Trump’s tax bill included $66 billion in new spending for farm programs," the board writes. "While the generous income support programs may keep many farmers from switching political allegiances, the hit from the Trump administration’s policies won’t be easy to fix."

Using agriculture as political fodder is "unusual in American politics," the board adds. "Yet to be seen are the full economic consequences of going after America’s food producers. . . .On priorities that come at the expense of farmers, it is likely to do some real damage to the food supply. The better approach is to avert the damage, rather than wait to bail out farmers once they grow desperate."

After an immigration raid takes more than half of its labor force, a meatpacking company looks at ways to begin again

Immigration agents raided Glenn Valley Foods on June 10.
(ICE photo via Nebraska Examiner)

After Immigration and Customs agents arrested roughly half its labor force, meatpacking company Glenn Valley Foods in Nebraska is looking for ways to start over. 

The company had religiously used the federal system, E-Verify, to cross-check employees' eligibility to work in the U.S., but federal agents still arrested 76 workers "who they said were undocumented immigrants using false identification," reports Eli Saslow of The New York Times.

Before the raid, Glenn Valley Foods was expanding with "new hires, new manufacturing lines, and new sales records [as] one of the fastest-growing meatpacking companies in the Midwest," Saslow writes. "But, in a matter of weeks, production had plummeted by almost 70%. Most of the workforce was gone." 

Now, the company is piecing together a new workforce with a new human resource manager, Alfredo Moreno, who believes "the only way to truly prevent fraud is to scrutinize IDs with black lights and magnifying glasses to make sure they aren't fake, and then interview each potential employee in person," Saslow reports. "The government maintained that Glenn Valley employees had been using IDs that were stolen." 

The raid cost Glenn Valley days of business, but slowly, a barebones crew formed, and some lines restarted. Meanwhile, Moreno and his tiny HR staff are still using E-Verify along with their additional verification measures to try to hire as quickly as possible. Still, almost none of their applicants are U.S. citizens.

Since the raid, the company's owner, Gary Rohwer, has "received phone calls from strangers who accused him of 'stealing American jobs,'" Saslow writes. "But Nebraska [has] a work shortage, with only 66 qualified workers for every 100 positions. . . . 'There are some jobs Americans don’t want to do,' Rohwer tried explaining to one caller. 'We’re caught up in a broken system.'"

As farm raids continue, farmers may not have enough workers to harvest crops; some in GOP want reforms

Deportation raids and fear have led to fewer farm workers.
 (Photo by Tim Mossholder, Unsplash)

Despite President Donald Trump's aggressive push to oust unauthorized immigrants from the United States, a growing number of Republicans see the current lack of illegal border crossings as an opportunity to push for a shift in priorities that includes legislation that protects farm workers from deportation.

GOP backers for immigration change warn that "if farms can’t hire all of the workers they need, they risk being forced to leave crops to spoil or paying more for labor, which could lead to higher food costs," report Olivia Beavers and Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street Journal. Some GOP members "argue the party should focus on changing immigration law to allow some workers to gain temporary legal status and make sure people can remain on the job."

Still, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.), "who controls what bills come to the floor, signaled any immigration overhaul would face an uphill battle," Beavers and Hackman write. 

The Labor Department recently "established the Office of Immigration Policy, which aims to streamline and modernize the process for employers — including agricultural employers — as they navigate the various programs that include supporting legal pathways to work," Beavers and Hackman add. 

While the U.S. has several visa programs for agricultural workers, many farmers say that the programs are cumbersome and fail to meet the needs of certain types of farms. According to the Wall Street Journal article, "People using the visas also need to return to their home countries for a chunk of each year, meaning farms with year-round work, like dairy farms, can’t use them."

Republicans backing immigration reform face push-back from the Trump administration and potential fallout from another failed immigration reform bill. "Administration officials have repeatedly pledged to hit a goal of arresting a million unauthorized immigrants in Trump’s first year in office, though they have hit less than a fifth of that number so far," the Journal reports. "Farm areas skew heavily toward Republicans, raising the political stakes for the party."

U.S. dairy farmers see an increase in I-9 audits for immigrant workers as their newest labor challenge

Dairy farms need year-round workers to fill labor gaps. (Farm Journal photo)

Beyond international tariffs, bird flu and possible Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, U.S. dairy farmers have a new worry to add to their unpredictable livelihoods: I-9 audits. "Nervousness and frustrations are spreading across the dairy industry," reports Tyne Morgan of Dairy Herd Management. "With reported flaws in the E-Verify system, the audits are resulting in dairies being forced to fire employees who are found to have illegal documents and only given 10 days to do so."

When I-9 audits occur, worker documents are examined, and it's often discovered that "employees submitted either illegal paperwork or forms that weren’t theirs," Morgan explains. "There’s no way for a dairy to know. That’s what the E-Verify system is meant to do." 

Although only dairies in South Dakota and Texas have been audited so far, increased inspections aren't welcome news for dairy farmers, who often rely on immigrant labor to perform much of the constant and strenuous work required. Tyne explains, "The dairy industry seems to be on an island when it comes to finding a legal workforce. Dairies aren’t seasonal; therefore, they can’t utilize H-2A, and that’s something the dairy industry is pushing to change."

Donald Grady, the senior director of legislative affairs at the International Dairy Foods Association, views the H-2A program as something that can be modified to help dairies and off-site milk processing plants. He told Morgan, "We are looking to be able to expand the H-2A program so that dairy operations on-farm and in the plant can have another tool in their toolbox to meet their labor needs."

Despite the recent I-9 audit spike, "leaders within the dairy industry say for the first time in nearly two decades, there does seem to be momentum for changes to the H-2A program and address the pain points with the current immigration system," Morgan adds. The CEO of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, Rick Naerebout, told Morgan, "We’ve not had this kind of traction with an administration ever on this issue. . . but we’re cautiously optimistic here in Idaho." 

Morgan adds, "Naerebout says after 20-plus years, he thinks agriculture finally has a legitimate chance at solving a problem that’s been plaguing the industry. And that solution needs to not only come from the White House, but the long-term fix needs to be addressed by Congress."

Immigrant farm workers from Mexico once had a clear path to work in the U.S. from the 1940s to the 1960s

Braceros congregating at Rio Vista 
(Library of Congress photo via Offrange)

A look back at American history reveals a significantly different perspective on Mexican immigrants coming to the United States to fill labor shortages. Beginning in the 1940s and stretching into the mid-1960s, the U.S. recruited thousands of Mexican immigrants to work on U.S. farms.

In Texas, the National Historic Landmark "Socorro’s Rio Vista Farm" operated as the "Rio Vista Bracero Reception Center," which was a designated point of entry for thousands of Mexican workers who entered the U.S. as "part of a temporary labor program," reports Marianne Dhenin for Offrange. "The arriving Mexican workers were known as braceros from the Spanish word for arm, brazo, roughly translating to 'one who swings his arms.'"

Mexican farm worker recruits were able to enter the U.S. by signing up for the Bracero Program. "The program was designed to recruit skilled agricultural laborers from Mexico to mitigate labor shortages in the United States resulting from American farm workers enlisting during World War II and, later, the Korean War," Dhenin explains. During World War II, the U.S. government incarcerated thousands of American Japanese farm workers, which increased the need for Mexican labor.

Workers who wanted to join the Bracero Program "applied at intake stations across Mexico," Dhenin writes. These men "made significant sacrifices in pursuit of economic opportunities in the U.S. Many hoped that higher wages across the border would allow them to provide for those they left behind."

Becoming a Bracero wasn't as easy as just signing up. Applicants were required to undergo extensive medical and psychological testing in Mexico before "being invited to make the trip northward through Mexico and across the border," Dhenin reports. Braceros were often transported into the U.S. in cargo trains "without seats, windows, or water stops along the way."

During the 1950s and early 1960s, the "barracks on Socorro’s Rio Vista Farm served as dormitories, offices, and a mess hall to house and process the more than 80,000 braceros who passed through each year," Dhenin explains. "It was one of five long-term bracero reception centers in California, Arizona, and Texas. . . . Over the lifespan of the Bracero Program, more than 4.6 million contracts were issued." A total of 30 states participated in the Bracero program.

Long-term care facilities face immigration crackdown and looming Medicaid cuts

Jackline Conteh is a nursing assistant in Va. She emigrated 
to the U.S. from war-torn Liberia. (KFF News photo)

Long-term care facilities call for immigration reform and push against Medicaid cuts as the sector faces "a double whammy from President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants and the GOP’s proposals to reduce Medicaid spending," reports Jordan Rau of KFF Health News. "More than 800,000 immigrants and naturalized citizens comprise 28% of direct care employees at home care agencies, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other long-term care companies."

While labor shortages are not new to the eldercare sector, once the Trump administration canceled the industry's "protected" status in January and allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to raid health care facilities, the dynamics changed. Katie Smith Sloan, president of LeadingAge, an association of nonprofits that care for older adults, told Rau, “People may be here on a green card, and they are afraid ICE is going to show up."

The long-term and senior care industries are "urging the federal government to expand legal immigration channels for essential workers in healthcare and other sectors," reports Kimberly Bonvissuto of McKnights. "The Essential Worker Immigration Coalition sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that [said] the shortage of legal immigration channels for essential workers 'threatens the stability of our supply chains, the viability of small businesses and the strength of the American economy.'"

Besides additional staffing shortages brought on by immigration issues, long-term care facilities continue to lobby against the Republican party's Medicaid spending cuts, which passed the House and are under Senate review. Rau writes, "Federal spending cuts under negotiation may strip nursing homes of some of their largest revenue sources by limiting ways states leverage Medicaid money and making it harder for new nursing home residents to retroactively qualify for Medicaid."

Given the current issues, providers, patients and employees all have reasons to be concerned. "The long-term care industry expects demand for direct care workers to burgeon with an influx of aging baby boomers needing professional care," Rau writes. Jackline Conteh, a U.S. nursing assistant originally from Liberia, told him, "If all these people leave the United States, they go back to Africa or to their various countries, what will become of our residents? What will become of our old people that we’re taking care of?"

Trump officials reverse pause in ICE raids targeting farm, service workers

A seasonal migrant worker carries fruit in Michigan.
(Photo via The Conversation, CC)

In an abrupt about-face from last week's guidance that paused Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on farms, restaurants and meatpacking facilities, Trump officials reissued their call for ICE to enter any business where undocumented migrant workers might be found.

"Officials from ICE, including its Homeland Security Investigations division, told agency leaders in a call Monday that agents must continue conducting immigration raids at agricultural businesses, hotels and restaurants," report Carol D. Leonnig, Natalie Allison, Marianne LeVine, and Lauren Kaori Gurley of The Washington Post.

The see-sawing instructions reflect the tough reality of supporting American farmers and service workers all the while pushing ICE to arrest thousands of undocumented workers a day. Leonnig writes, "Some immigration experts say ICE would need to ramp up worksite enforcement to meet the administration’s ambitious arrest quotas. Past raids at meatpacking plants, for instance, have led to hundreds of arrests at once."

Even among President Trump's officials, the two sides pull against each other. "White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said last month that the administration wants ICE to make a minimum of 3,000 arrests a day," the Post reports. "Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, meanwhile was on the opposite side of the issue, stressing to Trump the concerns that those in the farming industry had raised about losing workers."

On Sunday evening, Trump pulled away from his farming and service worker exemption stance and "made a post on his Truth Social account that he said amounted to an order for ICE officials 'to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,'" Leonnig adds, "which he said would require them to 'expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities.'"

On Monday, Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for DHS, told reporters, “There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s effort. Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability.”

Trump pauses raids on farms, service businesses, but many sweeps continue

Strawberry pickers in Plant City, FL. (Adobe Stock photo)

Some immigrants who have continued work at farms, restaurants, hotels and meatpacking plants have been swept up during Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, report Ted Hesson and Marisa Taylor of Reuters. A senior Trump official familiar with the situation said President Donald Trump "was not aware of the extent of the enforcement push and 'once it hit him, he pulled it back.'"

"Trump's administration has directed immigration officials to largely pause raids," Hesson and Taylor write. "The order to scale back came from Trump himself … and appears to rein in a late-May demand by top White House aide Stephen Miller for more aggressive sweeps."

Last week's instructions limiting raids "still allows for investigations into serious crimes such as human trafficking," Reuters reports. Democrats called on the White House to pull back on ICE's "aggressive tactics. … Some Republican lawmakers have called on the administration to focus on criminal offenders."

Most American agriculture, including dairy and farm animal care, is supported by migrant workers. Hesson and Taylor add, "U.S. farm industry groups have long wanted Trump to spare their sector from mass deportations, which could upend a food supply chain dependent on immigrants."

The United Farm Workers union remains "skeptical the new directive will help workers without legal status," Reuters reports. "The group said it had calls from members about immigration arrests even after the new directive was issued."

On Friday, UFW issued a stern response to Trump's Thursday order to pause farm raids: "Many companies stayed closed today due to the presence of roving federal agents, especially Border Patrol. … As long as Border Patrol and ICE are allowed to sweep through farm worker communities making chaotic arrests … they are still hunting down farm workers."

Farmers worry about labor shortages as migrants hide from threats, deportation confusion

A large, dedicated work force is needed to pick the more than 1.2 billion pounds of apples New York farms can produce. (Adobe Stock photo)

Migrant farm workers across rural northern New York are reportedly hiding to avoid being picked up, harassed and possibly shipped out of the U.S. by immigration police. American farmers, who often rely on migrant workers to keep their farms profitable, are in an uncomfortable spot. Many voted for Trump but now "feel anxious about the prospect of losing a crucial labor force," reports Anan Ley of The New York Times. 

For migrant workers, hiding is one of the few ways to avoid "what they describe as cruel and chaotic deportation efforts," Ley explains. "In rural New York, some immigrants have been briefly detained and then released, while others with legal papers languish in custody, leaving many confused about who is being forced out of the country and who gets to remain."

If immigration police continue to round up and deport undocumented farm workers, farmers say they will be in a bind. David Fisher, the president of the New York Farm Bureau, a nonprofit industry group, told Ley, "Local sources of labor are simply not available in most cases."

Regardless of the national tension surrounding immigration, undocumented workers fill many U.S. agriculture jobs. "About 42% of farm workers are not legally authorized to work in the country," Ley reports. "In New York State, experts at Cornell University estimated in 2019 that about half of all farm workers were undocumented."

The loss of migrant workers could alter how much of a product a state can produce and ship nationwide. For New York, that means apples. Ley writes, "It is famous for producing more apples than any other state except for Washington — supplying the nation with one of its most-consumed fruits."

Farmers like Robert J. Colby, who runs Colby Homestead Farms just outside the small town of Spencerport, N.Y., advocate for a quick, no-nonsense approach to immigration. He told Ley, "The Congress and Senate [need] to get to work and get an immigration program together . . . . We should be able to vet people’s backgrounds and process them within six months in order for them to be able to come and become citizens."

ICE contracts help some rural jails shore up their budgets, but the money comes with strings attached

Ozark County Jail, Mo., transports and temporarily holds
detainees for ICE. (Photo by Jesse Bogan, Marshall Project)

Small, rural law enforcement offices hurting for money are signing up for Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts, but the money to assist with national mass deportation efforts comes with added oversight and risks.

Sheriff Cass Martin from Ozark County, Missouri, "sees his prayers answered in a new contract with ICE that could boost his $1.1 million annual budget," reports Jesse Bogan of the Missouri Independent. "An enormous ramp-up in detention capacity is underway. New contracts are being negotiated. . . . Ozark County is already reaping the benefits by raising wages and hiring for new positions in law enforcement."

Martin saw the ICE contract as a possible answer to his budgeting shortfall. He told Bogan, “We were really hurting. The day after the inauguration, a federal inspector showed up here at the jail wanting to look at everything throughout the facility."

Ozark County is one example of how a small, rural law enforcement office can become an effective "arm" for ICE. "They’ve made 525-mile runs from Ozark County to the federal building in St. Louis, down to the Greene County Jail in southwest Missouri, then back home," Bogan adds. "They’ve picked up detainees 325 miles away in Oklahoma and taken them to the tarmac at Kansas City International Airport."

But the added work and money have strings attached. ICE "detention and transportation contracts come with much more scrutiny and oversight than typical jail work, especially in Missouri, which doesn’t have statewide jail standards," Bogan reports. "Still, ICE reported that eight detainees had died nationally while in custody this year, as of May 5, including one death in a rural Missouri jail."

At least in Ozark County, local input on ICE contracts has been minimal; however, local officials working on ICE details haven't broadcast their federal negotiations. "Just one [local resident] attended a recent county commissioner meeting," Bogan writes. "Two years’ worth of meeting minutes didn’t mention the ICE contract in detail. The county commissioner said he wanted to wait until federal money started coming in before listing projected revenue in the county’s $7 million annual budget."  

Quick hits: Hop on a historic train; new farming trilogy; free immigration resources for journalists; Big Foot sightings

Cumbres & Toltec Railroad riders enjoy being 'lifted'
137 feet high on the High Cascade Creek Trestle.

As summertime vacation beckons, consider boarding a historical train and chugging through parts of North America you've never explored. "Railroads revolutionized transportation in North America, permanently accelerating the pace of travel across the continent," reports Michael Harmon of The New York Times. "Today, many of those railroad tracks host an assortment of historic excursion trains, inviting riders to slow down and enjoy a grand day out." The Skunk Train, the Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad, and The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad are all spectacular picks.

When young people leave home, they often see life through the lens of their upbringing. For author Jane Brox, that lens is generations of family farming in Dracut, Mass. Brox added a third book to complete her trilogy, In the Merrimack Valley, which celebrates early immigrant dreams, farm routines that enrich daily life, and all that is gained and lost when young adults set out into the world. Danny Heitman for The Wall Street Journal writes, “Brox created a multipart work that is more broadly about the nature of origins — what we might owe to the places where we started. Even and, perhaps, especially when we leave them."

Reversing a previous decision, the Trump administration "temporarily reinstated dozens of fired federal workers who help screen coal miners for black lung, a deadly and incurable disease caused by inhaling toxic coal dust," reports Maxine Joselow of The Washington Post. "The screening program offers contracts to radiologists across the country who are certified to evaluate X-rays for black lung. It also employs epidemiologists who recently concluded that 1 in 5 longtime coal miners in Central Appalachia has black lung — the highest level recorded in 25 years."

The Immigration Reporting Legal Guide is a free resource developed by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to help journalists navigate coverage of the complex web of federal and state entities that make up the American immigration system. The guide divides the topic into three parts: Immigration-related public records, how to access immigration proceedings and and details about journalists' rights to observe and record immigration enforcement officers on the ground. The guide is available in English and Spanish. There's also an extensive collection of free legal resources.

Spring and summer can be glorious times for hiking, fishing and taking nature walks. But sometimes, uninvited buzzing guests such as wasps and yellow jackets come along on warmer-weather adventures and sting humans -- often for unexplained reasons. And while no anti-sting plan is foolproof, Ashley Leath of Country Living has a few suggestions.

• Don't swat at wasps. Swatting tells a wasp to release pheromones that will trigger other nearby wasps to see you as a threat, exactly what you don’t want to happen.
• To prevent wasp nest building, try putting up a fake wasp nest. Wasps are territorial and don't like waspy neighbors.
• Don't remove a large yellow jacket nest on your own. They can sting more than once. Call a professional.
• To remove a smaller yellow jacket nest, read here.

Mysterious, massive and yet strangely elusive, Big Foot remains a North American legend with hundreds of sightings by locals, tourists and scouts paired with an equal number of people who are outspokenly skeptical Sasquatch exists. Beyond the argument, a separate exploration has formed which asks why some people want to believe that strange and unlikely creatures lurk just out of plain site. Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder writes, "I’m more interested in exploring why mysterious wildlife inspires obsession and fanaticism, and what it says about the American environmental psyche."

     
         Map by Sarah Melotte, The Daily Yonder, from Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization data