Trump + Mass Deportation

Huge food price inflation? Immense food waste caused by crops rotting unharvested? Recession caused by labour shortages? President-Elect Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportation of illegal immigrants has provoked fears of all three. This article suggests that these problems can be solved and also an attack on the root cause of these problems is made by reducing the demand for human agricultural labour. At its most basic, illegal immigration is driven by demand for low-cost labor that is not met by those lawfully residing in the United States (the same is true in all developed nations). Unless and until that condition is addressed, illegal immigrants will continue to flood into the United States no matter how strictly border crossings are controlled or HB2-A visas are limited. As seen in the results of the 2024 general election in the United States, concerns over the United States loss of control of immigrant inflows is a political question that elected officials will have to address or face the electoral consequences. In short, the root cause of illegal immigration is the demand for low-cost workers in the United States. Until this situation is addressed, the related political and economic issues cannot be solved. In addition, in the near term, this technology is likely adaptable to defending the United States and its allies.

Currently, there are multiple companies that provide fruit and vegetable harvesting and de-leafing tasks. For example, Floating Robotics’ robots currently pick and box strawberries, green peppers, cucumbers, grapes and chilis that are grown in a greenhouse. Floating Robotics, a Swiss company, asserts that its robots can harvest during the day and “autonomously carries out de-leafing operations without [human] supervision at night.” Floating Robotics – Robots Running Greenhouses Similarly, Agrobot’s robots harvest field grown crops and also de-bug these plants by aspirating them, i.e., suctioning them off the plants! Remarkably, Agrobot’s robots suction bugs from plants without using pesticides. Bug Vacuum | Agrobot: Agricultural Robots  Agrobot’s robots are also sufficiently sophisticated that they are able to harvest strawberries without damaging the strawberries’ flesh. Agrobot was founded in Spain and currently ships agricultural robots throughout the world and harvests, weeds, and prunes both in greenhouses and open fields.

Put simply, the technology exists to replace virtually all, or at least a very high percentage, of the illegal workers entering the United States for agricultural work. This will simultaneously mitigate the political risks of creating a permanent non-English speaking, ill-educated underclass whose descendants (who will be U.S. citizens after being born in the United States) will likely never fully assimilate into American culture as well as provide the tools to increase American productivity. Put simply, failure to adopt this technology creates the risk that mass deportations (no matter how politically desirable) will damage the American economy. Congress and the executive should act to ensure that these products enter the United States on an expediated basis and without tariffs.

But what are the other implications of this technology? If a robot can seamlessly and efficiently harvest the delicate flesh of a strawberry, it can fire a grenade or a machine gun. If a robot can “autonomously de-leaf without human supervision,” why can’t the same robot autonomously hunt Russian or North Korean soldiers in Ukraine or Chinese submarines in the Formosa Straight or pursue those unlawfully entering the United States? The technology is essentially developed, if only it is put to the proper use, it can enhance the United States ability (and by extension that of the Western World’s) to defend its vital interests.

Viva the [Robot] Revolution!

Malcolm E. Whittaker is a former candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Malcolm is an engineer and patent attorney in Houston, Texas.