Saturday, September 4, 2010

I-95 A 'Trap' For Migrant Fruit Pickers

September 4, 2010

Audio for this story from Weekend Edition Saturday will be available at approx. 12:00 p.m. ET
Transcript
Phillippe Diederich/Getty Images
Farmers depend on cheap and flexible labor to pick fragile crops like oranges, peaches, blueberries and more.
text size A A A September 4, 2010 Look closely at the traffic on Interstate 95, between the tractor-trailers and the vacationing families piled into minivans, and you might see them: migrant farm workers, following the growing season from state to state. When the season ends in the North, those workers along the East Coast will head south in search of work.

For the undocumented workers who make up the majority of that labor pool, the journey can be harrowing. Just ask Ramiro, a migrant worker on a tomato farm in New Jersey. "Last year, we almost had an accident," he says. "Thanks to God we didn't, but we came close."

Ramiro was riding in a van with other undocumented workers on I-95 in Maryland when another car swerved into their lane. Ramiro's van wound up on the side of the road, and the police came to investigate. He was afraid of being deported.

"We definitely were scared. It stays stuck in your mind," he says.

Ramiro doesn't want his last name used because he's afraid of attracting attention from immigration officials. But it's a risk migrant workers can't always avoid when traveling.

"They just move and hope they will not be detained, stopped or anything like that. So that's the risk that they're taking," says Nelson Carrasquillo, the general coordinator of CATA, a support group for agricultural workers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Carrasquillo says migrant workers try to keep a low profile, traveling with friends and labor contractors in cars and unmarked vans. They generally avoid buses for fear of running into immigration checkpoints.

"The 95 corridor — the traditional way of moving for them — has become kind of a trap," Carrasquillo says.

A Change Along The Way

Greg Schell, an attorney at the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project in Florida, estimates that more than 100,000 farm workers commute up and down the I-95 corridor every year.

"When the Florida harvest ends and the workers need to get to North Carolina, the fastest way there is to get on the interstate," he says. "Likewise, when they finish in the Carolinas and need to get to Pennsylvania or New Jersey, Interstate 95 or other interstates are the highway of choice."

Migrant workers have been traveling up and down the East Coast since well before the days of I-95. Farmers depend on cheap, flexible labor to pick fragile crops like tomatoes, peaches, blueberries and more.

In the 1960s, the workers were mostly American citizens. University of Delaware professor Mark Miller says the migrant workforce has changed dramatically since he began studying it 30 years ago. "There, still at that juncture, was a prevalence of African-American migrant workers from Florida. Today, the composition is very different. There's been a 'Hispanization' of the agricultural workforce," he says.

African-Americans have largely moved on to jobs with better pay and working conditions, Miller says. Back on the New Jersey tomato farm, Ramiro says he, too, would like to settle down.

"I've been thinking about it," he says. "Work's going to be finishing up pretty soon. I would like to stay here, but I don't know what else to do."

Without documentation, Ramiro says, it's difficult to find work in the off-season. So in October, he'll probably head back down I-95 to Florida and take his chances.


by Joel Rose
NPR News

5 comments:

  1. Unfortunately this is an issue that will be prominent for a while. I believe that is is only going to get worse before it gets better. The migrant workers are stuck living in limbo, changing location, traveling via I-95 following the crops in season. Immigrants move here for hopes of a better life then where they have come from. However, this may not be the case, with a heightened awareness of illegal immigrants due in part to the immigration laws in Arizona for example. Illegal immigrants risk versus their benefit of living as an undocumented worker may be changing. In the past it has been a hard life but one that more often then not paid off. The future however looks as if the tables have turned and the risk of getting caught is becoming elevated and sooner or later it may not be worth it to run the risk of being deported for the money they will make working on the farms.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I read this post with interest, as a frequent traveller of the I-95 corridor; however, I don't see how the I-95 has become a "trap" for the undocumented worker. Is this a perception or fear or has the INS targeted this corridor for immigration or deportation initiatives?

    As a claims professional, I have seen many cases involving undocumented workers applying for No-Fault or Medpay benefits, or pursuing bodily injury claims as a result of an auto accident and they receive the full benefits as documented workers or US citizens for that matter. In NJ, meeting all other requirements, their undocumented status would not preclude them from receiving $250,000 in medical benefits. The only difference of which I am aware is that an undocumented worker can't assert a lost wages claim.

    Conversely, I know of no case of deportation or INS reporting on these cases even when the undocumented worker has come face to face with the US government through the police and court system.

    Doreen Rubio FIU student

    ReplyDelete
  3. The I-95 interstate is becoming more strict with who and what is traveling on it. Take for instance a Florida law that requires all trailers (mainly livestock trailers) to check in with the Dep't of Agriculture at sites located along Florida's major interstates. (One on I-95 is near Jacksonville). Failure to do so will cause you to be stopped by a Dep't of Agric. officer. (Yes, it really happens, it happened to me while pulling a trailer).

    This situation though, with the migrant workers afraid of getting into an accident and having to come into contact with local police, reminds me a lot of the property case State v. Shack. The case involved migrant workers (that could have most likely been illegal immigrants such as the ones in this case) that were in need of legal aid. The property owner though, would not allow the gov't agents to meet with the migrant workers and therefore was denying the gov't access to his property. (The Court decided the property owner did not have an absolute right to exclude from his property.)

    In State v. Shack, the gov't knew where the migrant workers were- and assuming they were illegal- there didn't seem to be any problem with immigrantion officials. I'd have to say that in the event of an accident that it would be the least of anyone's worries whether or not the victims involved were illegal immigrants.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The I-95 interstate is becoming more strict with who and what is traveling on it. Take for instance a Florida law that requires all trailers (mainly livestock trailers) to
    check in with the Dep't of Agriculture at sites located along Florida's major interstates. (One on I-95 is near Jacksonville). Failure to do so will cause you to be stopped by a Dep't of Agric. officer. (Yes, it really happens, it happened to me while pulling a trailer).

    This situation though, with the migrant workers afraid of getting into an accident and having to come into contact with local police, reminds me a lot of the property case
    State v. Shack. The case involved migrant workers (that could have most likely been illegal immigrants such as the ones in this case) that were in need of legal aid. The
    property owner though, would not allow the gov't agents to meet with the migrant workers and therefore was denying the gov't access to his property. (The Court decided the
    property owner did not have an absolute right to exclude from his property.)

    In State v. Shack, the gov't knew where the migrant workers were- and assuming they were illegal- there didn't seem to be any problem with immigrantion officials. I'd have to say
    that in the event of an accident that it would be the least of anyone's worries whether or not the victims involved were illegal immigrants.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I find it striking but not surprising that migrant workers have to live in the shadows of American society. These individuals are engaged in arduous jobs for less than minimum wages. Yet because of xenophobic immigration laws are made to live in fear on a daily basis.

    Tishana W. (FIU)

    ReplyDelete

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