North Carolina is among the most important agricultural states, making the debate over raids at farms and packing plants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers a big issue here.

Ag industry officials are pressing the Trump Administration to make smart decisions in their handling of the farm labor market, which relies heavily on foreign workers.

There haven’t been raids here so far, at least that the North Carolina Farmworkers Project has heard about, according to Executive Director Quirina Vallejos. The group is based in Dunn in Harnett County and helps farmworkers receive healthcare and other services, with funding from the N.C. Department of Agriculture and private groups.

The state has long been among the largest users of H-2A workers, referring to what N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler calls “the legal way to bring workers into the country.”

The program has been a backbone of North Carolina agriculture for decades, mainly for harvesting tobacco, sweetpotatoes, cucumbers and other fruits and vegetables that require a lot of handwork. The Farmworkers Project estimates as many as 100,000 foreigners work in the state annually, Vallejos says.

“Our growers have an established history of working through the H-2A program to help meet the labor needs to harvest crops,” Troxler says in a statement shared by his office.

Shawn Harding, president of the N.C. Farm Bureau, says for years farmers have stressed the need “for a dependable guest worker program that assures them an affordable and legal workforce, and the events of this past week strongly reinforce that idea. It’s time for elected officials to recognize the importance of legal agricultural guest workers and come up with a long-term solution that gives farmers the certainty and stability they need.”

H-2A workers are supposed to be seasonal employees, hired by U.S. employers only after attempts to attract domestic workers proves fruitless. That’s been a non-issue for many years given the lack of job applications from U.S. workers interested in working in the fields, says Ray Starling, general counsel of the NC Chamber.

“Very few native-born people want to work in 100-plus degree heat, 12 hours a day, six days a week,” Vallejos says, noting H-2A workers earn at least $16 an hour. “You can make that at a fast food job without risking a heat stroke.”

But dairy, hogs, cattle and other parts of the farm economy that aren’t seasonal rarely make use of the H-2A program. It’s believed that North Carolina has many undocumented farmworkers, creating potential targets for ICE enforcement.

This week, the Trump Administration ordered ICE to resume workplace raids at hotels, restaurants and farms after such moves were briefly paused. Various media reports noted that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins urged President Donald Trump to suspend the raids over fears of eventual food shortages.

Starling is in Washington, D.C. this week, talking to federal officials about the agriculture industry’s need for strengthening and creating predictable, long-term reforms to help Tar Heel ag interests that employ migrant workers.

“There’s a lot of confusion over who can come here with a valid guestworker visa and those who don’t have that,” Starling says. “People tend to put them in one spot, but some agriculture industries can’t use that H-2A system.”

Troxler said he hasn’t had “personal contact” with the Trump Administration, “but a lot of us have emphasized the importance of labor with agriculture and food processing,” according to a statement shared by his office. “If you think back to the pandemic when there were labor shortages in packing plants, and we saw the effect of that in protein shortages on the grocery shelves, I think this could go that same way. I am thankful they are taking a closer look at the labor that produces food for America.”

Federal research shows that foreign growers are gaining market share over U.S. farmers because of lower labor costs overseas, though U.S. agriculture remains “phenomenal,” Starling says.

“Part of our message is that we don’t do something that will increase our dependence on imports,” he adds. “Food security is national security, and labor security is also national security.”