[music playing]
VAN JONES: California farmers call
this place fly over country.
It's only a few hours from San Francisco,
but you will likely never see it.
You're just going to travel above it on your way
to the coast.
But, while you may never even look down on these fields,
make no mistake, you probably eat what's
produced here every single day.
Take a look in your refrigerator, all right.
Chances are the food you're putting on your table tonight--
you've got vegetables, you've got fruit,
you've got nuts-- chances are, they
came from right here in the Central Valley in California.
- Up you go.
VAN JONES: Come here, spend a little time,
and this is what you see.
Day in, day out, undocumented immigrants
working these fields.
Farmers call them the backbone of their business,
the same farmers who say that Donald
Trump was the guy they wanted to see in the White House.
We're here to find out what Trump's
policies are going to do to make farming better or worse.
So how could farmers like Paul Betancourt, who
lives in a blue state, support a man who was threatening
to deport the very people they rely on to keep
their businesses running?
Your entire business requires immigrant labor.
Donald Trump says, get them out of here.
PAUL BETANCOURT: Yeah.
VAN JONES: And you vote for Donald Trump.
Why did you vote for Donald Trump?
PAUL BETANCOURT: You're going to make me--
this is the first time I've ever confessed publicly
that I actually voted for him.
I've dodged the question for a few months.
[laughter] The alternative was unthinkable.
Continued pressure from the federal government
was squeezing us out.
Big issue here is water.
We got no help from Washington on water during the drought.
And, you know, the regulatory burden continues to increase.
So the continuation of what we had was unthinkable.
VAN JONES: But Trump, if he takes the regulations away,
he's also going to take your workers away.
How do you deal with that?
PAUL BETANCOURT: Well, this is where I've disagreed with him.
You know, the idea that we're going
to send 11 million people out and then walk them back in,
it's not going to happen.
So we need a solution for the whole country where
we can bring people out of the shadows
so we don't have this problem.
VAN JONES: Well now you sound like a Democrat.
You're confusing me.
PAUL BETANCOURT: This is messy.
The farmers are not in lockstep.
You know, you get three farmers together,
you get five different opinions.
And so, you know, I have no problem
voting for the president and disagreeing with him
on trade and immigration because I think
he's wrong on those issues.
PAUL WENGER: Today--
VAN JONES: Nut farmer Paul Wenger also
supports President Trump, but he says if the workforce goes,
so will the farms.
PAUL WENGER: We like to say your food that's
going to be on your table tonight,
it's probably going to be picked by immigrant hands.
The real question is, is it going
to be picked by immigrant hands here in the United States
and, for us, in California or in another country?
VAN JONES: Does this part of the state
even exist without these workers?
HORACIO AMEXQUITA: No, no they won't.
You can create a big problem because the whole economy
can collapse.
VAN JONES: Yeah.
HORACIO AMEXQUITA: You know, you need the workers here.
VAN JONES: Farm worker advocate Horacio Amexquita
says the nation's food supply relies on undocumented labor
and that deporting them is not just bad for business,
it also threatens to break up families.
A lot of people that we saw today, you know,
they're good people, they're hardworking people.
But you said they're afraid.
What are they afraid of?
HORACIO AMEXQUITA: Well, they're afraid to go to the store.
They're afraid to go to the restaurants.
They're afraid to go out because they
might get deported and then, who's going
to take care of their kids?
VAN JONES: So what's the answer?
The farmers may be free of some regulations,
but will the president listen to them when
it comes to their workforce?
PAUL BETANCOURT: My hope for a Trump presidency
is, what's his real reputation?
He's the deal maker.
He's the negotiator.
And I'm hoping we can get past the rhetoric, past the tweets,
and he can bring people around the table
and we can start coming up with real solutions
and get away from that polarization.