Many Essential Workers are Undocumented
by John Lawrence, September 12, 2020
Trump said: "When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. ... They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists." Guess what else they are? Essential workers. Most essential agricultural workers are undocumented. Immigrant field workers have been told to keep working despite stay-at-home directives, and given letters attesting to their “critical” role in feeding the country. They live in fear of being deported despite the fact that America now calls them "heroes." Heroes work here, and most of them are undocumented. They are ordered to go to work and risk getting COVID for minimum wages. What's wrong with this picture. Trump is in effect saying well OK you can stay for now as long as you keep picking our vegetables and packing our meat.
The New York Times reported:
For many workers, the fact that they are now considered both illegal and essential is an irony that is not lost on them, nor is it for employers who have long had to navigate a legal thicket to maintain a work force in the fields.
“It’s sad that it takes a health crisis like this to highlight the farmworkers’ importance,” said Hector Lujan, chief executive of Reiter Brothers, a large family-owned berry grower based in Oxnard, Calif., that also has operations in Florida and the Pacific Northwest.
Mr. Lujan, whose company employs thousands of field workers, described them as unsung heroes for guaranteeing that Americans have food security.
“Maybe one of the benefits of this crisis is that they are recognized and come out of the shadows,” said Mr. Lujan, whose company has been lobbying Congress to pass a bill that would legalize immigrant farmworkers.
About half of all crop hands in the United States, more than one million, are undocumented immigrants, according to the Agriculture Department. Growers and labor contractors estimate that the share is closer to 75 percent.
In addition to picking our vegetables and packing our meat, undocumented workers are also employed heavily in the construction and leisure and hospitality industries. They are building houses and cleaning hotel rooms in large numbers. So far from being a crisis in illegal immigration as Trump suggests, undocumented workers are keeping what remains of the US economy running in the age of COVID and taking chances with their lives in doing so. Oh and by the way they pay American taxes with no hope of ever getting social security. So when is Trump going to put up a big sign on his "wall" that says "Thank you Mexican workers for bailing out the US economy and keeping the food chain up and running."
Pew Research Center estimates that about 11.3 million people are currently living in the U.S. without authorization, down from a peak of 12.2 million in 2007. More than half come from Mexico, and about 15 percent come from other parts Latin America. CBS News reported:
Further studies show that the importance of this population of workers will only grow in coming years. For example, in 2014, unauthorized immigrants made up 24 percent of maids and cleaners, an occupation expected to need 112,000 more workers by 2024. In construction, the number of additional laborers needed is estimated at close to 150,000. And while only 4 percent of personal care and home health aides are undocumented, the U.S. will soon require more than 800,000 people to fill the jobs necessary to take care of retiring baby boomers.
So Trump can demonize "illegal aliens" all he wants to gain political points. Let's see his supporters who are irate about losing their jobs go to work in the fields picking vegetables and working in meat packing plants after all the undocumented workers are sent back to Mexico. And after he has exacerbated the relationship with China where American corporations have sent all the American manufacturing jobs, let's see if Americans will still have access to all the products they consume which are manufactured there. It sure didn't help that in the initial stages of the pandemic critical supplies were unavailable because most of them were manufactured in China. Antagonizing essential workers in the American economy as well as the US' major trading partner will only land up the US in a pickle in which not only food but consumer goods might be unavailable in the future.
