Arizona farmer warns migrant surge is contaminating crops, threatening food supply
Pasquinelli Produce Company president Alex Muller on how the influx of migrants as a result of the border crisis has affected his produce
A farm company president in Yuma, Arizona, is sounding the alarm on how the border crisis is impacting the nation's food supply as migrants destroy produce by crossing through crops.
Pasquinelli Produce Company president Alex Muller joined "America's Newsroom" to discuss how the migrant surge has led to contaminated crops and safety concerns for his workers.
"We have certain branches that are on the border and people are crossing through the branches. We have to flag those areas off, and we have to disc them under just because of the risk of foodborne illness," Muller said Tuesday.
"This is our livelihood, and we're very proud of what we do… There are a lot of things we don't have control over. But what we do have control over is the people who enter the field, the food safety situations, we have control over those things."
Muller said the border crisis has also created safety concerns for the women working at the ranches and resulted in them not wanting to be working alone at certain times.
"In the last two years, we've seen an insane uptick of crossings," Muller said. "There will be 100 people out there, they'll be 25 people, or there will be two or three guys out there crossing through, and you're not sure who you're encountering."
Migrants walk through farmland after passing through the unsecured U.S.-Mexico border. (Courtesy: Alex Muller)
Muller said it would be "helpful if we could get some help" from the federal government in making the border more secure.
"When they say the borders are closed, they're 100% not closed. And it's very alarming. And it's not just food safety. I feel like it's a national security issue. Everybody should be alarmed."
Yuma — the country's agricultural leader in leafy green production during the winter months — provides about 90% of the nation’s supply of romaine and iceberg lettuce, according to the Department of Agriculture. It supplies around 9 billion servings of leafy greens per year, but farmers fear they will lose crops as more migrants pass through the border wall's gaps and into their fields.
Yuma migrant crossings increased 171% between 2021 and 2022, according to Customs and Border Protection. About 1 million migrants have crossed Arizona's southern border during the Biden presidency.
Muller told Fox News Digital that Yuma's agricultural production is vital to feed Americans. He pleaded for the Biden administration to close the border wall gaps and enforce stricter immigration policies to ease the strain on Border Patrol.
CBP announced on Jan. 6 that construction to close Yuma's border wall gaps would begin this week but it hadn't started as of Sunday evening.
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"This is produce that we're growing for the whole country, and it should be protected," Muller said.
Fox News' Megan Myers contributed to this report.
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