Nobody in Wilder, Idaho expected this. The tiny farming town of 1,725 people—where nine out of ten voters backed Donald Trump in 2024—is now scrambling to figure out what comes next after federal immigration agents swept through in mid-October and arrested more than 100 Hispanic workers at a local horse racetrack. So far, 75 people have been deported, and the farms that keep this place running are facing a labour shortage with no easy fix in sight.

  • yesterday
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    50
    ·
    2 days ago

    ‘We rely on Hispanic labour,’ he told The New York Times this past Sunday. ‘Nobody thought something like this could happen here.’ Wilder felt far enough off the beaten path that residents assumed the aggressive immigration crackdowns they’d been hearing about were a big-city problem.

    They actually said it. Incredible.

    • kent_eh
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      2 days ago

      You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land—the common clay of the new West. You know… morons.