Architect of Trump’s anti-family immigration policy turns on struggling black farmers
By SARAH OKESON
Miller founded America First Legal Foundation (AFL), which is
bankrolling a Texas lawsuit against Agriculture Secretary Tom
Vilsack. It’s over Biden’s planned debt relief for Black and other minority farmers.
The lawsuit is one of at least 13 challenging the constitutionality of
the program.
“AFL is filing a lawsuit . . .against the Biden administration
to prevent it from administering programs created under the American Rescue
Plan Act that discriminate against American farmers and ranchers based
on the basis of race,” Miller said last year.
In 1910, Black farmers owned 16 million to 19 million acres, about 14% of our
nation’s farmland. The number of Black farmers plummeted more than 90% from
1920 to 1969. In 2017, about 1.4% of our nation’s farmers were Black, and they
operated about 0.5% of agricultural land.
Historian Pete
Daniel said that federal agriculture offices increased discrimination against Black
farmers after the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Black farmers
were excluded. Farm Service Agency county committees, which decided who qualified for
loans, were dominated by white men.
In 2021, when Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture rejected about 42% of Black farmers for direct
loans compared with a rejection rate of 9% for white farmers.
Florida farmer Kelvin Cannon told the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, which wants to intervene in the Texas lawsuit, that he had to resubmit his loan application in 2021 at least 15 times before he was approved for an FSA loan. By the time the loan was approved, it was too late to plant any soybeans, corn, or peanuts.
“If I do not receive my anticipated debt relief from the USDA, I
will be unable to adequately support myself and my two little girls who are 4
and 6 years old,” Cannon said. “I’d lose everything – my house, my truck, and
all my farm equipment. My family will be homeless.”
Under Biden’s American Rescue Plan, socially disadvantaged farmers could receive
debt relief for up to 120% of the value of the loan. This includes African
Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.
Rodeo cowboy Sid Miller, now the agriculture commissioner in Texas,
and four other white farmers or ranchers sued Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
in federal court in the northern district of Texas.
The Texas court is favored for Republicans because
of Judge Reed O’Connor. He ruled against transgender rights and the Affordable Care Act in other cases, issued a
preliminary injunction that prevents the USDA from making debt relief payments
to minority famers while the lawsuit is active.
Judges hearing other cases over the constitutionality of the law
have put those cases on hold until the Texas lawsuit is decided.
Jessica Culpepper, an attorney for Public Justice, said
O’Connor is likely to find the law unconstitutional, following another case about help for restaurants that was decided
in May.
Democrats are trying to include debt relief for minority farmers
in Biden’s Build Back Better package, but that could exclude thousands of farmers debt relief was
supposed to help because of changes in loan eligibility.
Bankers are also pushing back against federal help for Black
farmers. The American Bankers Association and other banking groups told the
USDA there could be adverse consequences to bank income because of
help for financially struggling farmers.
Sarah Okeson is correspondent for DCReport, reporting
on the environment, gun control and the COVID pandemic. She is a former staff
reporter for the Springfield News-Leader, Joplin Global and Florida Today ; and
her work has also been featured by Salon, Miami Herald, Washington Times,
Barons and more.
