How Trump's plan to deport undocumented immigrants threatens the workforce for U.S. farm workforce

January 25, 2025 / 8:29 PM EST / CBS News Talk to any farmer, and they'll tell you it is difficult work. "This is a 24-hour job," New York dairy farmer Nate Chittenden told CBS News. "So I need people who are willing to work in shifts at different times of the day." But Chittenden says it is difficult to find those workers. All this as American farms are on the decline. There was a 7% drop in farms from 2017 to 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 142,000 fewer farms in just five years. Farmers are facing several challenges in keeping their businesses running, including climate change, bird flu outbreaks and higher costs for feed and fertilizer. Now, many of America's farmers must face the possibility of the Trump administration uprooting a huge part of the workforce with its threat of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants.