Farmers overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump and it appears they may be realizing their mistake - or they will shortly. Way back in December, Governor Tony Evers expressed concern over Trump's deportation plans, specifically because they would negatively impact his state's agriculture and farming industries.
Well, it looks like Vermont farmers may be feeling the same regret. The Boston Globe interviewed some dairy farmers from the far north state of Vermont who had very strong views about immigrants....coming across the border...thousands of miles away.
One Trump supporting dairy farmer, Dustin Machia was "excited" that Trump would keep out all the "bad people...drugs and the gangbangers." I guess those gangbangers were racing up to Vermont to work on dairy farms?
Anyhow, following a surge in deportations of migrants farmers from Vermont, Machia is regretting his vote. He shared with the Globe the typical "it wasn't supposed to be ME getting negatively impacted by the awful, racist, hateful policies I voted for. It was supposed to THE OTHER PEOPLE."
He told the Globe: “All the dairy farmers who voted for Trump were under the impression they weren’t going to come on farms and take our guys. It’s happening more than we’d like. It’s scaring the farming community and we’re like, ‘This wasn’t supposed to happen.’”
He meant to say "This wasn't supposed to happen TO ME."
See, if it happened to other people, he would have smugly smiled and said to himself "see, you broke the law and now you are being punished" but when it is him, he thinks it is "not supposed to happen."
In April, US Border Patrol detained eight Mexican men from Vermont's largest dairy farm, Pleasant Valley Farms. This is bad news for the Vermont dairy industry, as "migrant workers are essential to the dairy industry", per a statement by Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts.
Machia, quoted at the start of the article, has 25 people on staff year round, 11 of them migrants! He says he follows the law and asks all workers for documentation, but isn't responsible for verifying the accuracy of the documents. Oopsie. That sounds a bit like a convenient excuse to underpay your clearly undocumented immigrant staff.
I hope you all get what you voted for!
