Ana Navarro shared her fears that the deportation of illegal immigrants will increase prices and force American workers into "God-awful work" in the dairy industry. The Senior Political Commentator at CNN spoke Tuesday in reference to Trump's brief pause on ICE raids at farms and hotels.
"We're going to find that milk gets a lot higher, because I don't know if any of you have ever been on a dairy farm," said Navarro. "It is God-awful work. We're going to see vegetables and groceries get higher."
Replacing illegal immigrants with American labor may make prices increase, but businesses that employ illegal immigrants can exploit their employees, by paying them less than minimum wage and by violating labor laws. This allowance can create employment systems that become inescapable for undocumented employees who often have no legal or financial recourse. Navarro's argument does not address this.
Ana Navarro: Milk prices are going to be higher because of illegal aliens being deported:
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) June 18, 2025
"I don‘t know if any of you have ever been in a dairy farm. It is God-awful work."
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'Who’s going to milk our cows' is the new 'who’s going to pick our crops' pic.twitter.com/JLSdcQ0azI
"Undocumented immigrants are an integral part of our society and our economy," said Navarro. "And we're going to have to get used to seeing the videos of US citizens detained, of US citizen children being ripped from the arms of their mothers while they wail. Of dads and moms and business owners."
The legal status of undocumented illegal immigrants and U.S. citizens are not the same. Different legal states endow the respective person with different legal rights.
A Wisconsin dairy farmer told CBS News last month that about 90% of the work on his farm is done by immigrants, but he did not specify the legal status of his employees.
"If I hired Americans to do the work, I would have to pay probably about $100,000 a year per person, and they would only work maybe 40-50 hours a week at that rate," farmer John Rosenow said. "Clearly, I couldn't be able to afford to pay Americans as much as they want. It's about working hard. These people, wake up, two o'clock in the morning, one o'clock in the morning, they go out. You know, they finish around 11, 10 at night. The milk doesn't stop."
Navarro is facing backlash online from audiences who feel her comments towards dairy farmers were ignorant and insulting. Her comments also did not address the modernization of dairy farms or the complicated mechanics in dairy parlors across the nation.
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