The Trump administration’s push for mass deportations has major cities like Chicago on high alert.

But some residents in rural areas are also expressing concern — specifically farmers who are worried about losing their workforce.

“Immigrants are critical to the farming industry,” said Rebecca Shi, CEO at the American Business Immigration Coalition. “I mean, I’m having a hard time finding eggs right now, and I’m sure a lot of viewers are as well. We appreciate having avocados and milk, and if you were to just remove a significant part of our farm workforce, we’re going to start seeing $20 lettuce, $16 cartons of eggs, or no milk. Because nearly all of the dairy farmers and farm workers here in in our nation, including in Illinois and the Midwest, are immigrants.”

Undocumented immigrants account for 16% of America’s food supply chain, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 42% of farm workers are lacking legal immigration status.

With the domestic agriculture sector already struggling with labor shortages and a recent 7% farm decline between 2017 and 2022, mass deportations could be detrimental to the U.S. economy.

“I think that the effects are clearly going to be negative,” said Steven Durlauf, a professor in educational policy at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility. “Removing 40% of the farm workers in the United States will inevitably cause substantial increases in food prices. Nonpartisan organizations that have studied the effects have argued, I think credibly, that there’ll be something on the order of a 10% increase in overall food prices. This is just basic supply and demand. … And remember, these are workers that have skills, and it’s not a matter that those skills are certainly going to replicate themselves and whoever might replace them.”