Oh, they just cut my audio to you, I'm sorry.
We can pick it up on the back end.
But that's cool, I want to hear about it.
Okay.
We are recording.
This week, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency confirmed the arrest of 24 undocumented immigrants in Manitowalk County,
one of whom was arrested for sexual assault of a child in May, according to authorities.
A few others have convictions for traffic offenses, including drunk driving and possession of narcotics equipment.
Immigrant advocates said some of those detained were dairy workers swept up in the raid.
Is ICE coming for immigrant farm workers who supply upwards of 80% of the labor milking cows on Wisconsin dairy farms?
We turn to longtime dairy farmer who employs workers from Mexico on his western Wisconsin operation,
John Rosano, who joins us from Buffalo County.
And thanks very much for being here.
Glad to be here.
So, have you seen or heard about immigration enforcement on farms in Wisconsin?
No.
So, are there hasn't been any and knocked on wood?
There's been one in Vermont and one in New Mexico in the United States since the election.
How dependent on immigrant labor are Wisconsin dairy farms?
Any farm that employs anybody is going to have immigrants, any dairy farm.
And we estimate it sat down with a CEO of a large dairy co-op a number of years ago.
At that point, we determined based on everything that we know that at least 80% and I would guess 90% of the milk harvested every day in Wisconsin is harvested by immigrants.
And so, are these workers in the U.S. legally?
Well, there is no visa available for immigrants to get to work on dairy farms.
The H.U.A.V. visa is for short-term employment, 10 months.
And dairy is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
So, there is no legal way for them to get here.
And so, the answer would be that most of these people are not legally in the U.S.
That would be, I guess, what each employer has to do, whether you're dairy farmer or you're a steel mill, is you have to fill out a 99 in a W-4 within three days of employment.
And you look at the documents and if you're a reasonable person, according to the directions from the IRS,
if you look at the documents and they appear genuine, you accept them.
And that's what we do. And all of our employees have green cards.
So, the latest version of the Farm Workforce Modern Notization Act of 2025 would make those H.U.A.V.s a year round and allow for a path to permanent residency for dairy workers.
What do you think about this legislation and where might that go?
Well, it's not going to go anywhere, because none of them do.
And we've had, probably from the last 25 years that I've been involved in this.
I think every year somebody introduces something and nothing ever happens.
Most of the time, it's political posturing. People introduce a bill and then they tell their constituents that they're doing something about it, but it never gets out of committee.
Nobody wants to touch it. And so I have no hope.
Like I told somebody, I think it'd be better off. Rather than reading the bill, it'd be better off if I went and walked my dog.
So, you're cynical about this. And in the meantime, dairy farmers need to do the work.
We have to get those cows milked every day. I've been to Washington and I talked to the Republicans and Republicans say,
as soon as we get the borders secure, then we'll do something. And I talked to Democrats and they say,
well, we got no power, so I can't do anything. In the meantime, we have to get the cows milked. And that's what farmers do.
If Congress isn't going to do their work, we still have to milk the cows. We still have to produce the milk.
We still have to deliver calves. We can't just sit and wait for some political posturing and re-election things and everything else.
We get things done, and that's what we need to do.
What are your own 13 immigrant workers saying in the midst of the current climate on immigration enforcement?
When the current president was elected last time, there was a lot more concern, and not a lot happened to them or their friends or neighbors or people they knew.
So this time, they're going with, it's going to be the same as last time, so they're probably less concerned this time than they were last time.
So do you suspect that even in the midst of this kind of heightened ICE activity that there is a recognition that farmers, particularly dairy farmers, need this labor?
Yes, I've been involved in a few calls with leadership in the administration, conference calls.
And what I can gather from that is that there are two factions, one faction led by Stephen Miller.
Thanks, all immigrants are bad. Doesn't make any difference who or where you are. They all got to go.
And then the other side is people from like Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Labor and Secretary of Homeland Security are on the other side that there are immigrants that are really helping the country.
And I think this is the battle that's happening within the administration. I hope common sense prevails.
We leave it there. John Rosenow. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
I got to say, it's super cool that you've been on conference calls with Stephen Miller and the Secretary of Agriculture.
Well, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Stephen Miller knows.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Great. Well, super, super interesting stuff and thank you for your perspective.
And I think we'll follow up via email about what you're doing with your workers and their families and that, which you were about to tell me.
Yeah, we have our grand opening is at the University of Wisconsin-O-Claire at the McIntyre Library, October 14th at 4 p.m.
Oh, that's coming right up.
So, we think it's good.
It's some recognition of people that maybe don't get recognized very often and they deserve it.
They're the real heroes.
Can you send me anything you have on that?
Yep.
Okay. We will do that.
All right. Thank you. Thank you again for doing this with us.
Okay. Thank you.
All right. Bye.