Idaho dairy farms fear wider immigration enforcement

Dairies depend on immigrant labor

Idaho dairy operators are watching federal immigration enforcement closely because their farms depend heavily on immigrant workers. Rick Naerebout, CEO of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, estimates that about 90% of workers at the state’s roughly 350 dairies may lack legal status.

Naerebout said dairy jobs are physically demanding, require outdoor work and have not attracted enough U.S. workers. Farms already struggled to hire enough people before the recent increase in detentions and deportations.

Agriculture has not been a central target of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement push. Naerebout warned that a concentrated enforcement effort at farms could undermine their ability to produce food.

Enforcement activity in southern Idaho

Attorneys and immigrant advocates say Idaho has experienced less immigration enforcement than some neighboring states. Even so, an ICE-contracted plane lands at the Twin Falls airport twice a week to move detainees from Idaho to federal detention facilities elsewhere.

Heather Muth and other immigration-rights activists monitor the Tuesday and Thursday flights. On one occasion, Muth counted more than two dozen shackled detainees being transferred from vans to a plane. Their destinations were not identified.

The enforcement activity has created concern in the Twin Falls and Burley area, where agriculture, milk processing and fertilizer production rely on immigrant labor.

Families weigh the risks

Susan Rios, a 65-year-old farmworker activist in Burley, said her daughter and undocumented son-in-law recently moved with their two young daughters to Mexico. Rios said the couple chose to leave after seeing other people detained and deciding they did not want to face that risk.