SACRAMENTO, California: California's multibillion-dollar farms are facing a growing crisis—not from drought or pests, but from a sudden disappearance of labor. Immigration raids earlier this month have driven away a large share of the workforce, leaving crops unharvested and farmers deeply anxious.

Lisa Tate, a sixth-generation farmer in Ventura County, has seen the fallout firsthand. Her county is a hub for fruit and vegetable production, much of it hand-picked by undocumented immigrants.

"In the fields, I would say 70 percent of the workers are gone," Tate told Reuters. "If 70 percent of your workforce doesn't show up, 70 percent of your crop doesn't get picked and can go bad in one day. Most Americans don't want to do this work. Most farmers here are barely breaking even. I fear this has created a tipping point where many will go bust."

Ventura County and the Central Valley—major agricultural zones north of Los Angeles—have been hit hard. Two farmers, two field supervisors, and four immigrant workers described how the ICE operations, part of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, have emptied the fields at peak harvest time.

One Mexican farm supervisor said he normally oversees 300 workers to prep strawberry fields. On a recent day, only 80 showed up, and another supervisor reported a drop from 80 workers to just 17.

According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the state produces over a third of America's vegetables and more than three-quarters of its fruits and nuts. In 2023, its farms generated nearly US$60 billion in sales.

But many of those crops are now at risk. "If things are ripe, such as our neighbors' bell peppers here, [and] they don't harvest within two or three days, the crop is sunburned or over-mature," said Greg Tesch, who farms in central California. "We need the labor."

The chilling effect has been swift. Of the four immigrant workers Reuters spoke with, two said they are undocumented and fearful. One 54-year-old, who's worked U.S. fields for 30 years, said many of his colleagues have stopped showing up.

"If they show up to work, they don't know if they will ever see their family again," he said. Another added, "We wake up scared. We worry about the sun, the heat, and now a much bigger problem — many not returning home."

Community groups said that while some workers are staying home initially, many return out of economic necessity. Others are taking precautions like carpooling with legal residents or sending U.S. citizen family members to run errands.

Experts warn the raids could ripple far beyond the fields. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, estimates that around 80 percent of U.S. farmworkers are foreign-born, nearly half undocumented. "This is bad for supply chains, bad for the agricultural industry," he said. Price hikes may follow.

Bernard Yaros, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, noted that native-born workers are unlikely to replace the missing labor. "Unauthorized immigrants tend to work in different occupations than those who are native-born," he said.

Even authorized workers feel unsafe. "Nobody feels safe when they hear the word ICE, even the documented people," said Tesch. "We know that the neighborhood is full of a combination of those with and without documents."

President Trump acknowledged the disruption in a post on Truth Social, saying ICE raids were "taking very good, long-time workers away" from farms and hotels. "They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be great," he later told reporters, adding that a policy response was being considered—though no changes have yet been announced.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Trump "has always stood up for farmers" and would continue to boost agriculture while enforcing immigration laws. For California's farmers, though, time—and labor—may be running out.