Idaho Dairy Industry Fears Labor Collapse Amid Immigration Crackdown
Idaho dairy producers warn that federal immigration enforcement threatens a workforce where up to 90% of employees lack legal status.
Idaho's multi-billion-dollar dairy industry, the fourth-largest milk producer in the United States, faces a critical labor crisis as federal immigration enforcement intensifies. Estimates suggest up to 90% of the workforce across the state's 350 dairies lack legal status. While large-scale raids have largely spared agricultural facilities, the industry remains vulnerable because dairy work is year-round, making it ineligible for seasonal H2A visas.
Donald Trump pledged in July 2025 to create a registration system for undocumented farmworkers to prevent their removal, but no such system has been implemented. Simultaneously, a GOP-backed bill to remove seasonal requirements for agricultural visas remains stalled in Congress. Local recruitment has proven ineffective; only four residents applied for 7,500 advertised positions last year.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to operate twice-weekly deportation flights from Twin Falls. This activity, combined with displacement at processing plants in Burley, has created a climate of fear leading some families to self-deport to Mexico. Industry leaders attribute the current lack of large-scale farm raids to the sector's political influence in the Republican-led state, though they warn this leniency may be temporary.
