Farmer Speaks Out on Mass Deportations | The Don Lemon Show
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What urgent immigration raids prompted this conversation and who is affected?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to The Don Lemon Show, a very special show for you. I want you to sit down and watch or pay attention wherever you are, OK? During the latter half of this week, Donald Trump's ICE immigration raids began in earnest. We have seen the video. We've heard the stories. Federal agents swept through multiple cities all across the country, rounding up scores upon scores of undocumented people. so far it seems they are prioritizing individuals with criminal records but we've also seen many reports of law-abiding men and women being caught up in this crossfire so the fear it is palpable it's palpable in undocumented and documented american communities alike so i want to pose a question to you okay as these rates continue here
How will they affect the day-to-day life of all of us who live in this country? How is it gonna affect the day-to-day life of all of us who live in this country? And more specifically, how will the agricultural industry be impacted and other industries as well? Construction, services, you know, so how is it gonna affect that, all right? MAGA voters often cite the price of eggs. That's the reason that they voted for Donald Trump. So will these raids, Bring those costs down. Today, I've got the perfect co-pilot, perfect person to talk to about this. I have a very serious and I think open-hearted, open-minded discussion. Brian Reisinger, the author of Land Rich, Cash Poor. There it is up on your screen and in my hand as well.
My Family's Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer. Brian, I am so grateful that you're joining us today. How are you doing?
Man, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.
I really appreciate it. Good, good, good. Great. And so, look, let's talk about these things. Brian, before we start talking about politics and immigration, I just want to properly introduce you to my audience. And I hope everything is correct. You're a fourth generation farmer, right? Can you talk to me about you and your families, story?
Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that kind of question more than anything, as we, you know, like you said, get to know people. And our farm is four generations, as you say, it began when my great grandpa and great grandma fled pre-war torn World War I Europe, you know, to do better living out of the dirt. And it persisted through the depression as my grandpa climbed into the middle class. It persisted through the farm crisis in the 1980s as my dad and mom carried it forward during that tumultuous time. And it carries forward today. My dad and mom are still farming. My sisters were going to take it over. And I'm honored to tell our story and be involved in a little bit myself, trying to figure out where we go from here.
Because through all of that, the one thing that our family has seen that is just a common threat is that the average American farmer continues to see it harder to make a living each year. And there's different types of farms, different eras of history, different challenges. Different times of prosperity as well. But that's kind of been the overall trend. And so with me and our story, I try to talk about what is our personal experience? What's our lived honest experience with that? And how does that fit with the bigger issues, the hidden reasons that farmers have been disappearing at this point for a better part of a century?
All right, we're gonna talk more about that. Thank you for that. So look, I understand that you watched one of our recent episodes about the dangers that farmers are facing when it comes to these, back then it was a proposed mass deportation or raids. And look, I was a bit hyperbolic, but also I was also upset because of kind of the racist nature of how people were responding to the possibility of this and their lack of understanding, right? And so sometimes to get people's attention, you gotta do that. And so I'm glad I got people's attention. But after you watched that, you released a statement saying, quote, our immigration policies have to account for the massive workforce it takes to feed our country.
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