“The majority of us do labor that Americans don’t want to do,” said the man, who asked not to be named because he is undocumented and fears being deported. “I don’t know if Trump doesn’t understand or see that this country also depends on us.”
Some 643 million pounds of mushrooms — roughly the weight of a skyscraper — were sold in the 2023-24 season, with Pennsylvania accounting for 69% of the volume of sales, followed by California with 11%, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The value of this crop nationwide was estimated at $1 billion, according to the USDA.
In Chester County, where Avondale is located, mushroom farmers produced nearly 200 million pounds of mushrooms, according to the USDA, a decrease of 29% from the previous year. The county has a growing area of 11.1 million square feet.
“Migrant labor is a necessity in agriculture, there’s just no if ands or buts about it,” said the owner of the farm, adding that if deportation efforts focused on immigrants in the area, “it would be decimating” for the industry. Some mushroom pickers have been with him for more than 33 years and have never caused any problems, he added.
Second Trump administration brings a new round of fear
Noreydi, a 17-year-old asylum-seeker from Guatemala and a mushroom farmworker in the area, came to the U.S. during Trump’s first term, when she was among the thousands of children separated from their parents under the administration’s family separation policy.
“He was the president when I came in and he’s the president now. Where things are going, it is just so scary, and it just terrifies me,” said Noreydi, who asked that her full name not be used because the Trump administration has also been arresting and deporting people with open immigration cases like herself.
