Michigan apple growers could lose millions without migrant workers

Here in the Sparta area, north of Grand Rapids, finding migrant workers like Carlos and Hernandez to clear the orchards is getting increasingly difficult. Most of them have come from Mexico; some are undocumented. This year, Michigan had roughly 45,000 jobs available for migrant workers, starting with bedding plants in February, vegetable and fruit season starting with asparagus and wrapping up with apples in the fall, and ending with Christmas trees in November, according to a statement from the Michigan Farm Bureau.While better work opportunities have conspired to lured many young migrant workers away from Michigan agriculture, the Trump administration's immigrant policies have also threatened to shrink the migrant worker pool. The days of having to turn migrant workers away are over, farmers say.  “The border is essentially closed,” said Steffens, a fourth-generation apple farmer. “It’s very difficult for them to get here.”For years, labor struggles have been the biggest issue for the apple industry nationwide according to the Virginia-based U.S. Apple Association. “It’s really all of labor intensive agricultural that has been struggling with this issue probably for a decade. Think produce, think dairy, think anything that can’t be harvested with a combine," said Diane Kurrle, the associations senior vice president. Harvest workers in the apple industry Kurrle said, support on average 2 to 3 other full time jobs year-round. "The economic stability of rural communities is really at stake (in the U.S.) also when you think about the domino impact of losing those harvest workers and what that would mean for the community," she said. For Michigan farmers and workers it's most likely, only the beginning of the tough road ahead.