Dairy producers are bracing for labor losses from mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, making reforms to legal foreign worker pathways a major priority for the industry in the year ahead, International Dairy Foods Association CEO Michael Dykes said in a speech Monday.

Speaking at IDFA’s Dairy Forum in San Antonio, Dykes said the group is advocating for reforms to visa programs, including making the H-2A program year-round so the dairy industry can take advantage of it. Other programs also will need updates, such as those that bring in engineers and scientists, he said.

"As we do more on mass deportations, we’re going to have to find some way to make the legal process work,” Dykes said. "We need a workforce.”

When it comes to dealing with mass deportations, Dykes said the dairy industry is working closely with the meat industry, “which I think will be there for us.”

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been focusing first on immigrants with records of violent crime, but Trump administration border czar Tom Homan told ABC News Sunday that the number of arrests would rise nationwide "as we open up the aperture." 

IDFA is also planning to ramp up its advocacy on nutrition policy amid increasing "Make America Healthy Again" rhetoric in the Trump Administration and Congress. Dykes said the dairy industry has been preparing for renewed attention on nutrition since the 2018 farm bill and anticipates a debate over “good and bad food.” 

“We want dairy to be in the ‘good food’ category,” he said, touting dairy products’ high protein content. 

Increasing monthly milk allotments in USDA’s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, incentivizing purchases of dairy products in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and allowing whole milk in schools are among IPFA’s nutrition priorities, he said. 

Dykes also called for preservation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which is up for review next year.

“We need to get the market access that was negotiated and we need to expand it,” Dykes said.

Dykes said he’s “very concerned” about 25% tariffs Trump has said he plans to place on Canada and Mexico by Feb. 1, but added, “Let’s don’t get ready to jump off the cliff on tariffs just yet. Trump is a negotiator, so let's see where this goes."

He also said the U.S. needs to “make sure China lives up to Phase One agreement purchases.”

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