Owners and managers of large agricultural farms in California will tell you that their businesses could not exist without the efforts of undocumented and seasonal farm workers. Although most of them are willing to hide American workers, few apply and even fewer last beyond a few hours of the physical demands made to harvest crops of fruits and vegetables.

Trump’s vendetta against Hispanics has never been explained. However, his racist words and actions against an entire group of people has become his trademark. Yesterday the orange buffoon announced a 60-day moratorium on all immigration. This is the peak growing season, and without the aid of immigrants with green cards, many of these crops will rot.

This last weekend, hundreds of supporters from all walks of life participated in a caravan in Watsonville, California. Their purpose was to praise farm workers, both legal and undocumented.

”Next time you see someone in the farms, working like this in the ranches, in the campos, honk your horn, honk your horn, let them know you are so thankful for them because without them, no hay vida—without them, there’s no life,” one of the advocates said in a video by filmmaker Gabriel Medina. “They’re out here working every day no matter what, and nobody gives them the thanks that they deserve.”

One entire group has been ignored during this pandemic. Americans are encouraged to praise and offer aid to doctors, nurses, grocery store workers, delivery drivers and others, but no one has mentioned the men and women whose efforts to bring fresh food to our tables.

In a Facebook post, Medina wrote that millions of farm workers, including those without legal status, “are putting their lives on the line to ensure that America is being fed during these dark and confusing times.” But, not only are they continuing to work at added risk to their health, the Trump administration is seeking to slash wages for some. “Let’s show our gratitude for those who are constantly being overlooked, underpaid, and underappreciated,” Medina continued.

The slogan, “we are all in this together,” must include the thousands of men and women who are here illegally, but without them farmers will be forced to allow their crops to lay in the fields unpicked and rotting.

Thousands of workers arrive in America each spring and are issued green cards to work in fields across America. Trump is destroying another group of farmers by reacting hastily and apparently unilaterally. His tariffs ended the future of many soybean farmers. He must be stopped.

Until Bush 43, I never considered the assumption that I was more intelligent and more qualified to be our nation’s president. Trump has proven that most Americans are smarter than the orange buffoon now defiling our nation’s most revered residence.

This narcissistic egomaniac is a danger to the future of America and the welfare of the majority.

An American president should be a woman or man of exceptional intellect and an incomparable ability to surround her or himself with the most qualified and talented advisers to make decisions based on fact and science. None of this applies to Trump and his failed circle of sinners. Nothing proves this more than this administration’s failure to address the current coronavirus pandemic.

We, the people, deserve an American president who places all 330 Americans first. The people must be priority number one above the profits of egregiously rich corporations.

Op-ed by James Turnage

SOURCE

Photo courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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