Trump-Backing Washington Farmer Admits He Got Played After ICE Deports His "Squeaky Clean" Workers

Randy Kraght runs Barbie's Berries in Ferndale, Washington, and he's got a problem. Two of his most reliable workers — men he's known for more than ten years, men without so much as a traffic ticket — were just deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. And Kraght, who voted for this, is finally realizing he didn't get what he was promised.

"As far as I can tell from what comes out of Trump's mouth, they're not supposed to be taking innocent people — good, hardworking, innocent people that we need," Kraght told local reporters. "I've been knocked on my butt, I'll admit it. I'm really disappointed."

Kraght describes himself as a "right-winger" who believed the administration's repeated claims that enforcement would target only the "worst of the worst" undocumented immigrants. Instead, he watched agents round up family men who'd been model employees.

"They've had not even a traffic ticket — I mean nothing," Kraght said. "That's why they're so squeaky clean. They're so happy, they feel so blessed that they can work here and feed their families."

The Reality on the Ground

The Whatcom County farm owner initially allowed ICE agents onto his property after being told they were searching for "dangerous criminals" among the farmworker population. What he witnessed changed his perspective entirely.

Ben Tindall, executive director of Save Family Farming, says Kraght's experience reflects a broader pattern across western Washington agriculture this spring. "The narrative that the administration is preaching is not translating here on the ground," Tindall said.

Agricultural advocates report a surge in ICE activity as workers return to the fields for the growing season. The timing couldn't be worse for an industry already in crisis — Washington currently ranks dead last in the nation for farm profitability.

An Industry on the Brink

The deportations threaten to accelerate the collapse of Washington agriculture. Without workers willing to risk showing up to the fields, this fall's harvest could rot on the vine.

"If that workforce is scared to go to work because they or their family might be targeted by ICE, that puts your entire operation in jeopardy," Tindall warned. "This is just another nail in the coffin of Washington agriculture."

Kraght's assessment is even blunter: "If we didn't have them this country would fall flat on its face."

The farmer now finds himself in the uncomfortable position of hoping his own government backs off. "I'm hoping and praying that they stop going after the people we need," he said.

The Leopards-Eating-Faces Department

Kraght's awakening follows a familiar pattern: Trump supporters discovering that campaign rhetoric about targeting "bad hombres" and "criminals" was always a smokescreen for mass deportation. The administration never distinguished between undocumented immigrants with criminal records and those without — that was always the point.

Farm advocates are calling for Congress and the Trump administration to implement comprehensive immigration policy rather than continue enforcement actions that rely on "intimidation and fear in the fields." But there's little indication the administration has any interest in that approach.

For now, Kraght and other Washington farmers are left to reckon with the consequences of policies they supported — and to wonder whether anyone will be left to harvest their crops come fall.

"We're kind of like an easy picking area," Kraght said of his farm's vulnerability to ICE sweeps. The irony is hard to miss: in an industry built on picking, it's the workers getting picked off.