How immigration raids could weigh on North Carolina's labor force

What they're saying: "This issue could cause real problems in agriculture, which relies on immigrant labor in the harvest of foods and plants and in processing proteins," North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said of raids in a statement to Axios.

• Troxler added that his office has been encouraged, however, by what President Trump has said about the importance of the agricultural workforce.

By the numbers: Immigrants make up roughly 11% of North Carolina's labor force, according to the North Carolina Justice Center.

• Nearly 30% of the state's construction workers are foreign-born, and one in four workers in the agriculture industry is foreign-born, according to the N.C. Commerce Department.
• Other industries with a large immigrant workforce include administrative support and waste management, accommodation and food services, and manufacturing.

The big picture: Immigration enforcement has ramped up in recent months amid pressure from the Trump administration, which has been demanding that agents arrest 3,000 immigrants a day — an unprecedented pace that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is still trying to reach, Axios' Brittany Gibson reported.

Between the lines: Whitaker Farms in Randolph County, founded by Faylene Whitaker and her husband 50 years ago, employs about 80 workers to grow tobacco, strawberries, squash, and tomatoes — more than half of whom are migrant laborers, primarily from Mexico, Whitaker tells Axios.

• Some of those workers have been on the farm for three decades. Others recruit family members to work there, too. "We could not farm without them," she says.
• Whitaker says she hasn't encountered issues with ICE because her workers are all on H-2A visas, a program that allows farmers to hire foreign workers for nine months out of the year. The farm provides housing and transportation, and pays the workers about $22 an hour.
• Still, given shifting immigration policies, there's uncertainty over the future of the H-2A program — and Whitaker hopes it will be expanded to allow temporary workers to be here for 12 months a year.
• She once tried hiring three American workers. They lasted two days. It's hot in the fields, Whitaker notes, and it's hard work.

"Many farmers simply could not operate without seasonal labor, and they must have a dependable guest worker program that assures them an affordable, legal workforce," North Carolina Farm Bureau president Shawn Harding said in a statement to Axios.

• Harding also said he's encouraged by President Trump's recent recognition of the value of farm workers, and "we are eager to hear his plan."

Yes, but: Unlike places like California, there have been few reports of mass workplace raids in North Carolina.

• Last month, ICE agents detained approximately a dozen people at Buckeye Fire Equipment Company in Kings Mountain, a company that produces fire protection equipment.
• A Buckeye Fire Equipment Company representative did not respond to a request for comment.

Zoom in: Finding workers has always been a challenge in the hospitality industry, and it's perhaps even more so now, says Lynn Minges, president and CEO of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association.

• "In general, there's a concern about the raids and the likelihood that the hospitality business may be targeted," she adds.

Zoom out: Immigration in general is good for economic growth, Tarek Hassan, a professor of economics at Boston University, recently told the Los Angeles Times.

• "This idea that immigrants take away Americans' jobs is not correct," he added.