Immigrants help power America’s economy. Will the election value or imperil them? [Video]

Erika Marquez, center, leads a meeting at the nonprofit Make the Road Nevada, where she works as the immigration and justice organizer, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Las Vegas. Marquez is a recipient of an Obama administration amnesty for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. (AP Photo/John Locher)

BAKER, Nev. (AP) — Few things say America like Janille and Tom Baker’s ranch, with its grazing cattle, scrub brush-dotted desert and snow-capped mountains.

If only they could get American citizens to work on it.

The ranch in remote eastern Nevada produces around 10,000 tons of hay annually, and combines cowboy culture with a dash of Manifest Destiny. Rabbits, gophers and the occasional badger always outnumber humans and the nighttime sky is dark enough to count the stars.

But the Bakers’ business couldn’t survive without an agricultural guest worker program that brings in Mexican immigrants for about nine months a …