John Rosenow, a fifth-generation farmer in Waumandee, Wisconsin, owns greater than 900 acres and over 600 dairy cows. He mentioned about 90% of the paintings at the farm is finished through immigrants.
The ones immigrants come with Kevin, who was once born in central Mexico and crossed the U.S. southern border illegally when he was once 18. Now 21, Kevin, who didn’t supply his closing title all the way through an interview with CBS Information, is one of the 11 million undocumented migrants dwelling within the U.S. Greater than 10,000 of them paintings on Wisconsin dairy farms, in line with a report through the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Kevin’s tasks come with feeding cows and cleansing barns. He informed CBS Information he ceaselessly works 12 hours an afternoon, six days per week, from time to time beginning as early as 3 a.m. However the pay is healthier than again house.
He mentioned his mom and siblings again house rely on his wage, together with cash made through his dad, who works at the identical farm.
Greater than part of all employees within the U.S. dairy business are immigrants, in line with a study through Texas A&M College. Many are presumed to be undocumented since dairy farms typically cannot get admission to seasonal visa methods to rent felony migrant employees. Like Kevin, many depart in the back of family members for wages which are beneath what American employees get.
“If I employed American citizens to do the paintings, I must pay most likely about $100,000 a 12 months according to particular person, and they might handiest paintings perhaps 40-50 hours per week at that charge,” Rosenow mentioned. “Obviously, I could not be capable of have the funds for to pay American citizens up to they would like.”
However as the brand new Trump management starts to observe thru at the president’s promise to deport undocumented immigrants, Rosenow is petrified of the long run.
When requested what would occur if his employees had been deported, Rosenow informed CBS Information, “I am into bankruptcy. And it would not take lengthy.”
However Kevin does not seem to percentage his boss’ worry.
“4 years in the past, when he was once the president, he mentioned ‘I’m going to deport everybody’ but it surely by no means came about,” Kevin mentioned in Spanish. “Occasionally we’d watch the scoop and we’d see {that a} circle of relatives was once deported, and we had been scared to head out and go on a spree. However I’ve no longer felt worry since then.”
