Unnecessary Stupid Pet Tricks from the Clown Car Cabinet: American Food Insecurity

 

Unnecessary Stupid Pet Tricks from the Clown Car Cabinet: American Food Insecurity

On paper, Brooke Rollins actually seemed that she might qualify to be one of the rare Trump cabinet appointees to know what she is doing. With an undergraduate degree from Texas A&M (B.S. in agricultural development) and a JD (with honors) from the University of Texas, having served as a presidential advisor during Trump 1.0, Rollins seemed appropriate. She’s no “woke” animal rights advocate, but she had widespread support in the farming and ranching communities in Texas and beyond. She sailed past the Senate confirmation as Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture. Then she opened her mouth, attempting to address issues like high egg prices and the fast-rising farm labor shortage. Later, saying that replacing the vast hordes of missing undocumented farmworkers and meat processing employees would be exceptionally easy.

Back in March, after pushing even beyond the Trump mantra – Biden was the cause of all that bad that only Trump could fix – she had this most egg-sellent suggestion, telling a March 1st edition of Fox & Friends for Americans to fight higher egg prices by simply raising their own chickens if they’re upset about the soaring price of eggs: “I think the silver lining in all this is how do we, in our backyards — we’ve got chickens too in our backyard — how do we solve for something like this? And people are sort of looking around thinking, ‘Wow, well, Maybe I can get a chicken in my backyard,’ and it’s awesome.” Wow, Brooke, how insightful! Works really well for folks where zoning permits and, well, where they actually have a backyard. Or just tell the landlord for your rental apartment that you will use your living room to raise chickens.

But farmgirl Rollins was full of solutions for the Trump administration in early July as ICE farmworker sweeps – right off the fields where their stooped bodies were harvesting crops (40% of US farmworkers are undocumented) – leaving rotting crops in the fields… and where livestock lacked the necessary butchers and meat-prep workers to process for our grocery shelves. Farm states have been trying for years to get US citizens to do that unpleasant, back-breaking work (often in searing heat), simply by upping the compensation to meet the price for unskilled citizen labor (although a lot of agricultural work is extremely skilled). Even when farms posted acceptable wage rates, US citizens seldom lasted more than a day. Bad idea. Never worked at any price.

And even as Donald Trump was beginning to recognize that farmers in his diehard MAGA constituencies really could not function without those undocumented workers, genius Rollins completely disagreed: “[She] declared that the Trump administration’s massive deportation plans will continue without any amnesty for migrant farm workers, and insisted that ‘able-bodied’ American adults who access Medicaid for health care insurance should be the ones to replace deported migrant farm workers. Critics have pushed back.

“‘I can’t underscore enough,’ Secretary Rollins said at a press conference at the USDA on Tuesday [7/8], ahead of a White House Cabinet meeting. ‘There will be no amnesty, the mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way, and we move the workforce towards automation and 100% American participation.’… She added that, ‘with 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly.’

“Secretary Rollins’ remarks do not take into account that nearly two-thirds (64%) of adults under 65 accessing Medicaid are already working, according to [the Kaiser Family Foundation]. Another 28% are exempt due to illness, school, or care-giving responsibilities.” David Badash, writing for the New Civil Rights Movement, July 8th. I wonder if Pete Hegseth, when he is demoted from Secretary of Defense, just might be the right choice to replace her? But were such undocumented sweeps the game plan? Writing for the July 14th Associated Press, Melissa Goldin explains:

“President Trump has pledged to deport ‘the worst of the worst.’ He frequently speaks at public appearances about the countless ‘dangerous criminals’ — among them murderers, rapists and child predators — from around the world he says entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration. He promises to expel millions of migrants in the largest deportation program in American history to protect law-abiding citizens from the violent threats he says they pose.

“But government data around ongoing detentions tell a different story… There has been an increase of arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Trump began his second term, with reports of raids across the country. Yet the majority of people currently detained by ICE have no criminal convictions. Of those who do, relatively few have been convicted of high-level crimes — a stark contrast to the chilling nightmare Trump describes to support his border security agenda. The latest ICE statistics show that as of June 29, there were 57,861 people detained by ICE, 41,495, or 71.7% of whom had no criminal convictions…

“Nonpublic data obtained by the Cato Institute show that as of June 14, 65% of the more than 204,000 people processed into the system by ICE since the start of fiscal year 2025, which began Oct. 1, 2024, had no criminal convictions. Of those with convictions, only 6.9% had committed a violent crime, while 53% had committed nonviolent crimes that fell into three main categories — immigration, traffic or vice crimes.” It seems that the Trump administration is addicted to quotas, and unless they can round up masses of ordinary, usually taxpaying undocumented workers, they could never remotely meet their promised goals. Plus, driven by an obsessive hatred of California, Trump could kill two birds with one stone: meet the quotas and decimate California’s economy.

“Trump officials defend immigration raids after deadly California sweep… Federal officials on Sunday [7/13] defended President Donald Trump's intensifying deportation campaign, including a controversial raid at two California cannabis farms that left one worker dead and sparked widespread protests. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump's border czar Tom Homan said the administration would appeal a federal judge's ruling that temporarily blocked immigration detentions based on racial profiling and restricted access to legal counsel for detainees… ‘We will appeal, and we will win,’ Noem said on Fox News Sunday, denying that the administration used discriminatory tactics. Homan added on CNN that physical characteristics could be one factor in establishing reasonable suspicion during enforcement actions.” Amanda Castro, writing for the July 14th Newsweek.

No, they are not targeting criminals, and California is NOT a hotbed of crime, unless intentionally provoked by unidentified ICE agents: “Trump’s claims of a California ruined by crime are not supported by statistics law enforcement agencies submitted to the state’s Department of Justice… California’s homicide rate last year was the second lowest since at least 1966, and the overall number of homicides decreased by nearly 12% since 2023, the Governor’s Office announced in a news release… California’s overall violent crime rate dropped 6% statewide last year from the previous year.” Sacramento Bee, July 12th.

The litany of ICE cruelty and violence has finally backfired: “The share of Americans who thought immigration should decrease – 55% – reached a 5-year high point in 2024. This year, it has dropped to 30%, and positive views of immigration have hit a record high of 79%, according to poll results released July 11. The poll surveyed 1,402 Americans between June 2 and 26.” USA Today, July 14th. And that’s even before grocery prices take off again… way above what they were.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if these immigration policies are making life worse for most of us -witnessing exceptional cruelty, a tromping of constitutional rights and watching costs soar – exactly who is Trump trying to satisfy with his immigration policies?