Threat of ICE raids worries Long Island wineries, farms as spring arrives

The ICE raid last month in Greenport could not have come at a worse time for Pindar Damianos.

The general manager for family-owned Pindar Vineyards in Peconic was already behind schedule to prune nearly 300 acres of vines when federal agents raided a Greenport coffee shop and picked up two of his workers, Alexandro Rivera Magaña and Martir Zambrano Diaz. Earlier this month, he said he had yet to learn of the whereabouts of the workers, who are part of a crew of more than a dozen, many of whom have worked for Pindar for decades.

"This is a new wrench we’re going to have to figure out," said Damianos. "I can tell you it’s going to be a struggle if we lose more guys."

Across the East End, the threat of further crackdowns by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement teams is sending a chill through the region's agricultural businesses. Many are preparing for more intense work schedules as spring approaches, in greenhouses, in the fields and at farm stands.

The isolated crackdowns across Long Island are playing out against higher-profile campaigns targeting migrant workers across the country, including in big cities such as Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Chicago. Some are fighting their cases in federal court, but the toll on workforces across the country is becoming more evident as the deportation efforts enter their second year.

At Pindar, the work continued through winter, and pruning must get done in advance of budbreak on the vines that takes place in April and May. Pindar at early March still had 50 acres to prune.

"Of course, we’re very concerned," said Bill Zalakar, executive director of the Long Island Farm Bureau, noting that many farms are just now beginning to ramp up spring work schedules. Zalakar, former general manager for a large greenhouse grower on Long Island, knows the importance of a seasonal workforce, the pressures of losing workers and facing the uncertainty of a workforce shortage.

The Farm Bureau estimates that upward of 65% of the Long Island agriculture and related workforces are seasonal migrants, a force that Zalakar said numbers as many as 2,000 people. Pay for the workers starts at the minimum wage of $17, he said, but the more seasoned can make $20 to $25 or more an hour. 

He said he worries that if fewer turn up for the jobs, it may force growers to cut back on production. "They may not produce as much. We can only produce with what we have [in staff] to grow and harvest it with," Zalakar said. 

Minerva Perez, executive director of OLA of Eastern Long Island, a Latino advocacy group, said the raid in Greenport earlier this year, coupled with one at a Greenport laundromat last summer, has sent shock waves across the community.

“It’s another industry that is impacted right now and it’s going to be impacted in the worst way,” said Perez, noting that neither vineyard worker taken into ICE custody had criminal records. “We have a lot of farms out here and vineyards, we’ve got pumpkin season. What are people going to do if they can’t line” to buy pumpkins and other produce?

“Truly the farms that we have are only working because of the labor that we have,” Perez said. “And this does not mean that they are undocumented people. ”

In January, a month before the Greenport raid by ICE, Damianos told Newsday it appeared immigration enforcers were leaving the sleepy North Fork alone, and his unionized crew of workers were busy doing what they do so effectively through the cold winter months — standing eight hours a day to trim away most of last year’s growth to make room for new and the season’s latest vintage.

And the winter was hard enough. Waves of freezing temperatures and thick layers of snow and ice made it difficult for teams to get out in the field for the long days of pruning vines.

Then on Feb. 3, customs enforcers picked up the two workers at the Greenport coffee shop. Damianos hasn’t heard from them since. He said he believes the two men were not targeted but rather "in the wrong place at the wrong time," but he also acknowledged his unionized workforce isn’t subject to background checks. He said he has stressed to his workers the importance of keeping out of trouble — more so now that the Trump administration is cracking down.

Word of the crackdown spread like wildfire across wine country, where winter crews were either busy pruning or starting bottling operations.

"We’re trying to be as mindful and as supportive as possible," said Courtney Fitt, hospitality director for RGNY winery in Mattituck. "We’re trying not to get too political, but you can’t not."

RGNY employs a small crew of workers who have been with the winery for years. "There’s no reason for it to come to our property," Fitt said of any enforcement action. In any case, she said, the winery has an action plan in case it does. The hope is there’s no reason to enact it.

"We’re just trying to ride the wave and keep everyone safe," she said.

Allissa Goodale, winemaker and vineyard manager for Borghese Vineyard and Winery in Cutchogue, said her crew of workers spent two months pruning through the vineyard's 18.5 acres during the winter, and the work was nearly done by early February. After pruning, there’s clean up, and then tying down the clipped vines.

"There’s an air of nervousness," she said of the word of enforcement actions. "It’s such a small community. Everybody knows."

Damianos said the most frustrating part of all is that the workers, many from Guatemala, are extremely good at their work, are paid a fair wage and there is no one else to do it.

"These guys are just amazing at what they do and they just do it," Damianos said. "They don’t complain, it’s amazing. America is fortunate to have this work crew. I’m in the middle. I’m an owner, and I have to pick up the pieces. Is it fair? No, but these are the cards I drew. I’m not going to fight with the government." 

Worse, locals who are American citizens don't apply for the vineyard jobs, he said. 

"I don’t think we’ve ever had an American work in the vineyard," he said, certainly not a local high-schooler seeking employment. Once, a middle-age man with a corporate background took up the work as a romantic pursuit, said Damianos, who has run the family vineyard since 2003. "That lasted for about a week and a half — he couldn’t do it. His hands were raw, they were sunburned and couldn’t do it.

Anthony Sannino, who heads the family-owned Sannino Vineyards in Cutchogue, has had three workers pruning through the winter, with breaks for the weather, and he’s been looking for two more as the work opens up. He hasn’t been impacted by enforcement actions.

"None of my guys are concerned," he said.

There’s a seasonal need for more help during harvest in the fall, he said, but his grown children all pitch in to get the work done. Were the federal government to crack down on the North Fork, he said, "We’d have to train a bunch of high school kids" to do the work, with wages averaging $25 an hour.

Sannino said he’s on the Southold Town Agriculture Advisory Committee and thus far hasn’t heard of a labor shortage impacting farmers.

Southold Supervisor Al Krupski, also a farmer, called the labor issue "always a challenge," exacerbated this year by concerns about the immigration crackdowns. "I know the labor situation is always difficult," he said. "People come and go and you try to have a consistent workforce. For me, it's not settled at all." 

Zalakar, of the farm bureau, said farmers and their advocates are walking a very fine line. "We're all cautious with what we'll say because right now they haven't really targeted the local farms. What we’re faced with is if we start screaming about this, they could easily turn around" and target the farm industry’s seasonal workforce.

Zalakar said he holds onto the hope that the federal government will "separate out the agriculture reform process and don’t lump it in with everything else because there are so many variables."

"We're all on board with immigration reform," he said. "We all realize it's such a large controversial issue, but the agriculture industry is so reliant on immigrants and workers that we'd hope that the federal government would pull out the agriculture aspect and work on it separately to help the industry."

Vineyards and their year-round operations aside, Zalakar said the broader agriculture sector on Long Island will begin ratcheting up operations in the next month or so. If farms start seeing problems luring workers to the fields and greenhouses, it could ripple into the big summer growing season.

"It’s still a little bit early," he said. "You’ll see a lot happen in the next 30 days. Most greenhouses are just ramping up now, but most of the workforce really starts toward the end of March."

Newsday's Andrew Ehinger contributed to this story.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.