Valley leaders urge immediate action amid worker shortage

MCALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) —  Rio Grande Valley mayors and business leaders met today to discuss urgent, practical solutions to the ongoing immigration crackdown, which they say is crippling local industries.

Many sectors — especially agriculture — are struggling to find enough workers to meet demand.

"We are going to depend on people, and if we don’t have the people, then farming is going to go somewhere else," said Dante Galeazzi, Texas International Produce Association President and CEO. "We need the solution now, not tomorrow, not a year from now."

Local leaders are urging Congress and President Donald Trump to take immediate action to stabilize the region’s workforce.

Farmer Jed Murray, who works with the Texas Vegetable Association, says the situation on the ground is already impacting day-to-day operations.

"They're not having employees show up, or the cost of labor has gone from $12 an hour to $20 an hour, just for general work," Murray said. "That's definitely affecting the cost of operation, and then having people show up to work regularly is difficult to find employees who are willing to do that."

Murray warns that without swift intervention, the food supply chain could also feel the strain as harvest season nears.

"We start our growing season soon, and we're going to have ICE raids. We're going to have these problems, and we need to start looking for another source of labor," Murray said. "That's going to be the H2A program, which is very successful, but it's very expensive. Some of our smaller growers don't have the ability to participate in that program."

The crisis extends beyond the agricultural fields. Cities such as McAllen are feeling the economic impact as stalled projects and declining consumer activity start to affect municipal budgets.

"When the tax base is stagnant because we cannot develop anymore because we don’t have the workforce, since that workforce is not spending anymore. They are not earning, they are afraid, and then we know that our sales taxes go down, our tax base will get stalled, and that can affect," said Javier Villalobos, mayor of McAllen. "I don’t think that this will affect us in this budget, but if we keep on going, it might next year."

Villalobos says he has already seen local construction projects halted and hotel operators scrambling to find available workers. He is now in talks with congressional leaders to identify sustainable, long-term solutions.

In the meantime, both Villalobos and Murray believe the fastest fix would come from the White House. They are calling for an executive order from President Trump to stop the targeting of workers in fields, hotels, and construction zones.

"We need to take the pressure and the fear off of our employees and the citizens here in the Valley and let them be able to get out and move around and go back to a normal life," Murray said.