Migrant labor has long been essential to the dairy farmers in the rolling fields of Western New York. But beyond the usual problems with tractor repairs and feed prices, this season has brought a new worry: the serious threat that farm workers will be deported as part of President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Now, those farmers are arriving at work every day wondering how many of their employees will still be there. Photographs by Craig F. Walker
A Mexican immigrant named Sergio approaches the heifer farm at CY Farms in Elba, N.Y., on March 6. He’s one of the thousands of farm workers in Western New York who have grown increasingly fearful in the last five months since Donald Trump’s election. Rumors of workers being pulled off of farms or of immigration control officers waiting in Walmart have spread like wildfire. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)
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