A new statewide survey indicates immigration enforcement activity and the broader climate of enforcement over the past year have had measurable effects on farm labor and production across California. Researchers and farm leaders say fear of raids and heightened anxiety among workers contributed to labor shortages, operational challenges, and reduced crop output for some growers.
The California Farmer Immigration Enforcement Survey, the first of its kind, was conducted in late 2025 and early 2026 by researchers at Michigan State University in partnership with the California Farm Bureau. A total of 512 farmers representing 50 of the state’s 58 counties responded, reflecting a broad cross-section of agriculture, including tree nuts, fruit, grapes, livestock, and dairy, vegetables and other commodities.
The survey was designed to understand whether recent immigration enforcement actions — particularly federal raids and heightened enforcement efforts — have affected farm labor availability and daily operations. California is home to a third of U.S. farmworkers and relies heavily on immigrant labor.
While less than 1% of farmers reported losing workers as a direct result of enforcement actions on their own farms, about 15% said they had lost workers because employees were concerned about broader immigration enforcement trends. Among labor-intensive crop producers, that figure rose to roughly 19%, underscoring the vulnerability of operations that depend heavily on hand labor.
“There were very few reports of direct enforcement activities on farms,” said Zachariah Rutledge, assistant professor and extension specialist at Michigan State University, in a CAFB post. “There was more anxiety and fear among the farming community as a result of general immigration enforcement efforts more broadly.”
The survey found that roughly a quarter of farmers and about a third of labor-intensive producers experienced at least one negative outcome related to enforcement fears. In addition to labor losses, 8% reported operational disruptions, such as shifting work to nighttime hours, extending workdays to avoid potential encounters, difficulty securing labor, and higher operating costs tied to added safety measures. Another 7% of respondents reported elevated stress, reduced morale or anxiety among workers and managers, even when actual shortages did not occur.
About 14% of those surveyed said they reduced production because of enforcement-related concerns. These reductions included choices to plant fewer acres ahead of anticipated labor instability and instances where crops spoiled because there were not enough workers to harvest them. On average, farmers who reported labor losses said they lost roughly 17% of their workforce due to immigration enforcement-related factors.
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“We haven’t seen major food shortages,” said Rutledge, “but the production losses were not trivial.”
Farmers described a range of responses to these challenges. Some increased reliance on contract labor or turned to the federal H-2A guestworker program to fill gaps, particularly for labor-intensive crops like fresh fruit and vegetables. The survey found that farmers experiencing labor losses were significantly more likely to reduce production, rely on farm labor contractors or participate in H-2A, with labor-intensive producers especially likely to turn to the visa program. Nearly half of affected farmers adopted at least one adjustment strategy.
Others worked with farm organizations to conduct training sessions for employers and workers on their rights under state law regarding immigration enforcement on worksites.
Orange County farmer Mark Lopez told researchers that immigration raids in Southern California last year — though not directly on his own property — frightened workers. As a result, about 60% of his workforce stopped reporting to work for two to three months, leaving large quantities of strawberries unharvested and ultimately lost.
“When 60% of our people don’t come to work and we have orders placed, we get behind, and we can’t catch up,” he said, reports the farm bureau.
Bryan Little, CAFB senior director of policy advocacy, described the year as having “a lot of nervousness and concern … in a year when ag employers in California were already facing significant challenges.”
