Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
USA, Sep 4.- Last year, Hugo saw a friend die in a vast field of sweet potatoes. His lifeless body was left leaning against the tire of a truck, one of the few places where there was shade on the farm where they worked in North Carolina.
“They forced him to work,” Hugo recalled. “He kept telling them that he felt bad, that he was dying. An hour later, he fainted.”
Hugo, which is not his real name, has spent most of his time in the United States as a migrant farm worker, a job that generally pays at or below the minimum wage and where working conditions can be extreme.
The BBC agreed to use a pseudonym because it expressed concern that it could face retaliation for speaking out about the incident.
Hugo left Mexico in 2019 with a visa to work in the United States. He left behind a wife and two children to pursue the “American dream,” not knowing if or when he would return.
His friend, the one who died on the farm, was called José Arturo González Mendoza.
It was the first time that Mendoza, 29, traveled to the United States for work. He died in his first weeks on the farm in September 2023. He had also left his wife and children in Mexico.
“We come here out of necessity. That is what makes us come to work and leave behind what we love most, our families,” says Hugo.
From farmers and meat processors to cooks and construction workers, migrants often perform dangerous jobs and workplace deaths often go unnoticed by the public.
However, over the past year the issue has been in the spotlight due to multiple high-profile deaths and a migrant crisis at the border that has amplified anti-migrant rhetoric.
scorching heat
The heat was intense the day Mendoza died. Temperatures were around 32°C. There was not enough drinking water for workers and the farm only allowed a five-minute break during hour-long shifts.
The only place to escape the heat was an unair-conditioned bus, which was parked in an open field.
These details are captured in a report from the North Carolina Department of Labor, which fined Barnes Farming Corporation this year for its "dangerous" working conditions.
The report confirmed Mendoza's death at the farm and mentioned that management "never" called health services or provided first aid.
In the hours before his death, Mendoza “felt confused, demonstrated difficulty walking, speaking and breathing, and lost consciousness,” the report states.
Another farmworker eventually called emergency services, the report said, but Mendoza went into cardiac arrest and died before they arrived.
The farm's legal representation said in a statement to the BBC that they take the health and safety of their workers "very seriously" and are challenging the Department of Labor's findings.
"Many of the team members worked at Barnes for years and returned again for this growing season, due to the farm's commitment to health and safety," they said.
But Hugo did not return. He says that he now works for a welding company.
“Bad things happen to a lot of us,” he says. “I know it could happen to me too.”
Workplace deaths
The agricultural industry has the highest rate of workplace deaths, followed by transportation and construction, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Earlier this year, several consecutive deaths highlighted some of these dangers.
Six Latin American workers died in Baltimore when the bridge they were repairing overnight collapsed in late March.
Weeks later, eight workers died when a bus transporting Mexican farmworkers to the fields crashed in Florida.
Speaking at the Democratic National Convention, Maryland Governor Wes Moore recalled the Baltimore incident and paid tribute to the workers who died “fixing potholes on a bridge while we were sleeping.”
Both Mendoza and Hugo had H2A visas, which allowed them to work temporarily in American agriculture. The number of foreign-born workers who rely on these types of visas has increased in recent years.
Between 2017 and 2022, H2A visa holders increased by 64.7%, equivalent to almost 150,000 workers.
About 70% of farmworkers are foreign-born and more than three-quarters are Hispanic, according to the National Center for Farmworker Health.
“Migration is the key source of workers for many jobs in the United States,” says Chloe East, an economics professor at the University of Colorado Denver who specializes in immigration policy.
"We know for a fact that foreign-born workers are taking these types of dangerous jobs that Americans don't want."
modern slavery
A 2020 federal investigation into H2A farmworkers in Florida, Texas and Georgia described conditions similar to “modern slavery.” As a result of the investigation, 24 people were charged with trafficking, money laundering and other crimes.
"The American dream attracts desperate people around the world, and where there is need, there is greed on the part of those who would seek to exploit them," Acting U.S. Attorney David Estes said in a news release at the time.
Migrants who enter the country irregularly may have even less protection if they are hired to work, experts say. And almost half of agricultural workers are undocumented, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
“Undocumented migrant workers are concentrated in the most dangerous, risky and unattractive jobs in the United States,” warns an article published in International Migration Review, a magazine specialized in migration.
milk production
One of the most dangerous jobs in the agricultural industry is dairy farming.
Risks include overexposure to poisonous chemicals or dangerous machinery. Manure pits generate deadly toxic gases, which can cause drowning.
Animals can also be a threat.
Olga, who moved to the United States from Mexico as a teenager, is an undocumented migrant worker on a dairy farm in Vermont. She claims that she saw her sister nearly dead while she was working.
“Basically a cow stepped on her and she was dying. She had her tongue sticking out,” Olga recalls.
The 29-year-old says that although the incident left her sister with an arm and two broken ribs, the estate manager demanded she return to work almost immediately.
It wasn't until she presented a doctor's note showing that her sister couldn't work that “the boss left her alone,” Olga says. Her sister no longer works in agriculture.
Olga, however, still does it. She claims that she works “12 hours a day, every day.” “There are no raises, no breaks and they don't even pay on time,” she points out. “They pay you whenever they want.”
Agricultural workers
Agricultural workers claim that the labor rights of undocumented migrants are not respected.
"They always attack us for being migrants"
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Department of Labor implemented new rules designed to make working conditions for seasonal agricultural workers safer.
These measures include protection from employer retaliation against workers who organize to defend their rights and a prohibition on employers withholding workers' passports and immigration documents.
But just as authorities have tried to crack down on abuse of migrants, rhetoric against them, fueled by political debates over record levels of irregular migration across the US-Mexico border, has added to the difficulties. that they face.
On multiple occasions, Donald Trump has referred to irregular migration as an “invasion” and has called those who cross the border into the United States “animals,” “drug traffickers” and “rapists.”
“It makes me feel sad,” Olga said. "They should see the conditions we are in to survive in this country."
Border restrictions enacted by President Joe Biden in June may also worsen security conditions, Professor East said.
The researcher indicated that stricter immigration laws can make workers afraid to defend safety protocols.
“Most people stay silent because they are afraid that all the laws will be passed,” says Hugo. "You can't complain."
Hugo says he has noticed more discrimination lately and recalls a recent experience in which a store owner refused to sell him water because he had difficulty speaking English.
"People treat us badly." (Text and Photo: Cubasí)
