Eighty-one percent of migrant workers are immigrants from Mexico and Central America. (1) They are women, men, and even children, though most are men under the age of forty-four. (2) Some have legal immigrant status, but “more than half of farm workers in the U.S. are undocumented immigrants.” (3) The vast majority of farm workers have low education levels and little experience with the English language. As a matter of fact, “...less than five percent of Latin American-born crop workers reported that they could read and speak English well.” (4) Regardless of education level, sex, immigration status, or age, all migrant workers have experienced some form of human-rights violation. “Nearly every player along the supply chain of farm producers—including farm labor contractors, growers, suppliers, buyers, retailers, consumers, and investors—takes advantage of the desperation of farm workers.” (5)

The abuse of farm workers often begins with a lie. In Mexico and Central America, a farm-labor contractor or a coyote will promise future laborers a chance at a better life in the United States. Once laborers have bought into this deception, the smugglers will transport them across the border. This stage of a migrant’s life is a dangerous one. Just like past slave traders, coyotes are willing to exploit people in order to make a profit. Numerous immigrants experience health problems or lose their lives crossing the border from Mexico to the United States.

Examples of exploitation:
• Gilberto Lugo was left in the desert because he couldn’t keep up with his coyote. He was found by Border Patrol with a blister covering the ball of his foot. (6)
• On Esperanza Vazquez’s family’s crossing to the U.S., her youngest daughter died of dehydration. Esperanza’s coyote had lied to her about the amount of water needed for the journey. (7)
• Army SP4 Thomas Salemi, a former Border Patrol guard, recalls watching helplessly as an entire family was swept down the Rio Grande. (8)
• A coyote who has already been paid sometimes leaves a person or a group in the desert to die. (9)

Once across the border, migrants are treated with little respect because they are seen as less than human. The farm-labor contractor more often than not sees them as slaves being brought to a farm for work. Migrants are brought to a state with a crop ready for harvesting. Some migrant workers may be taken to Florida where they will pick tomatoes, others to North Carolina to pick cucumbers and strawberries, and others as far as Vermont to pick raspberries. When the farm workers make it to their destinations, they find that the “better life” they had been promised has no basis in reality. They are often mistreated both in the field and in the farm labor camps.

Exploitation in the field includes:
• Threats from employers for attempts to join a union
• Lack of medical insurance or health care (10)
• Unfair rates of pay for work, unfair tracking of hours worked, or no pay at all (11)
• Unsafe working conditions (12)
   ~ “The disability rate for U.S. farm workers is three times higher than that for the general population.”(13)
   ~ “An estimated 300,000 farm workers suffer pesticide poisoning each year.” (14)
   ~ Farm workers have little access to water during hot workdays. Six farm workers are believed to have died because of dehydration in North Carolina during 2006. (15)
   ~ Cesar Pascual was struck and killed by lightning after a contractor ordered him to keep working in a storm. (16)
• Long work days with no overtime pay (17)
• Sexual discrimination in hiring (18)
• Exploitation of child labor (19)

These are just a few of the ways migrants are mistreated in their places of work. At the end of their workday, many migrant workers are transported to migrant-worker camps where the exploitation continues.

Exploitation in migrant camps includes:
• Sexual assault of women and children. Women are afraid to report abuse for fear of being deported (even if they are legal migrants), or being separated from their families. 
• Poor living conditions
   ~ “Farm workers are among the worst-housed groups in the United States,” according to Housing Assistance Council, Washington, D.C.
   ~ “85% of all housing units are overcrowded and 50% have children living in these units according to HAC.”
   ~ Some units lack access to toilets. (20)
   ~ 16% of units surveyed have at least one major appliance broken. (21)
• Forcibly locked into farm labor camps
   ~ In a farm labor camp in South Carolina, Julia Gabriel was forced by gunmen to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week. (22)
   ~ In Cocoa, Florida, the owner of the Hydro Age tomato farm was charged with imprisoning 15 women. (23)
   ~ “In Wimauma, South Tampa, men were found padlocked in a trailer. They said they had been ‘bought’ by a labor contractor.” (24)

The food Americans eat every day comes at a high price: it has been produced at tremendous cost to the farm workers. Migrant workers experience extraordinary levels of abuse. Many employers will do anything to deliver a crop quickly and to maximize profits. And worst of all, as consumers, our ignorance sends a message to farm workers that we don’t care about the exploitation they are subjected to as long as we can pay low prices for our food.

Take Action:
The treatment of migrant workers will not improve unless we take action. One of the most important things anyone can do to help end injustice is to stay informed on the issue. To do this, please read “Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States,” Southern Poverty Law Center, 2007 {http://www.splcenter.org/pdf/static/SPLCguestworker.pdf} and  “Like Machines in the Field: Workers Without Rights in American Agriculture,” Oxfam America, 2004{http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art7011.html}. After you have a good grasp of the issue, you must take the next step of action, which is to inform others.

Tell your family and friends about what is happening. When your friends go out to eat at Taco Bell, tell them about the fight Florida workers have had against the company. Florida workers have campaigned and boycotted fast food restaurants in order to have the price of tomatoes raised just one penny. In 2005, the Immokalee Workers convinced Taco Bell to pay more for tomatoes and in 2007/2008 they also convinced McDonalds, Burger King and Subway to do the same. (25) One penny more for a pound of tomatoes increases a migrant worker’s pay from $50 a day to $90 a day. (26) Tell your friends and family about the victory of the farm workers and how one penny can make a huge difference in a migrant worker’s life. Once you are informed, you MUST inform others. The matter cannot be dropped.

After you have become informed and have informed others, keep up with current information on the topic. You may find local labor unions working to help migrant workers in your area. Some examples are the Coalition of Immokalee Workers {http://www.ciw-online.org/} in Florida and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee {http://www.floc.com/} in North Carolina. Finally, call your representative and senators and remind them that migrant workers must be treated fairly! The injustices they experience cannot be ignored.

While you are talking to your legislators, mention the H-2A guest-worker program. H-2A program provides visas that employers can use to legally employ workers from out of the country. (27) The employer must prove that there are not sufficient numbers of U.S. workers who are able or qualified to work for their company. The employer then can use the H-2A visa to import workers. The H2-A guest worker program provides workers with legal status, but it has one stipulation that allows for abuse of workers. Under the H-2A guest-worker program, the immigration status of workers depends on their being employed by the company that originally hired them. If they report abuse, they risk losing their jobs and then are likely to be deported. Tell your congressman or -woman that you would like that stipulation in the H-2A guest-worker program to be changed.

Listen to your heart; stand up and fight for migrant workers’ rights.  All people should be treated with respect and guaranteed human rights. Help protect migrant workers through the actions you take on their behalf.

(1) “Machines in the Field: Workers Without Rights in American Agriculture,”March 2004;
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art7011.html
(2) Ibid.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Palm Beach Post Special Report. “Modern-Day Slavery,” 2005; http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/moderndayslavery/reports/albums1207.html
(7) Ibid.
(8) Thomas Salemi, Email Interview. June 6, 2009.
(9) Beware of the 'coyote,' ” Daily Herald, November 16, 2003;
http://www.dailyherald.com/special/exodusfrommexico/day1coyote.asp
(10) “Machines in the Field: Workers Without Rights in American Agriculture,”March 2004;
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art7011.html
(11) Ibid.
(12) Ibid.
(13) Ibid.
(14) Ibid.
(15) News Observer. “Heat Deaths on Farms Draw Little Notice,” July 13, 2007; http://www.newsobserver.com/662/story/635934.html
(16) Palm Beach Post Special Report. “Modern-Day Slavery,” 2005; http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/moderndayslavery/reports/albums1207.html
(17) “Machines in the Field: Workers Without Rights in American Agriculture,”March 2004; http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art7011.html
(18) Ibid.
(19) Ibid.
(20) Ibid.
(21) Ibid.
(22) Ibid.
(23) Palm Beach Post Special Report. “Modern-Day Slavery,” December 7, 2003; http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/moderndayslavery/reports/tomatowomen1207.html  
(24) Ibid.
(25) “This Agreement Has Incredible Importance for Our Movement”-Immokalee Workers Win Agreement with Subway over Tomato Prices in Florida” Democracy Now, December 10, 2008; http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/10/this_agreement_has_incredible_importance_for
(25) Ibid.
(26) “Farmworkers get a Whopper of a win.” Creative Loafing, June 04, 2008; http://tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/farmworkers_get_a_whopper_of_a_win/Content?oid=454791
(27) “Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 8th, 2007
http://www.splcenter.org/pdf/static/SPLCguestworker.pdf