Catherwood LibraryILR School

The 2016 election results, and the subsequently introduced immigration policies, have made some employers audacious in threatening their guest workers with deportation if production isn't satisfactory. At the same time, working conditions have deteriorated for many undocumented workers, such as long shifts without breaks in hot conditions - with the workers not complaining due to being afraid of "la migra" (immigration), and being told to "go back to Mexico" if they did. For example, workers for Munger Brothers in California, the nation's largest blueberry grower, came back for the season to find harsher, more demanding managers; spoiled food and inadequate water and bathroom facilities; and shifts without lunch until 3pm. Since January 2017, the California Labor Commissioner's office received at least 172 complaints about employer retaliation; from 2014 through 2016, there were only 29 such complaints. Yet berry growers are the leading source of demand for foreign workers who are here on agricultural work visas, making up more than 10% of the 200,049 positions that were certified in 2017 and the 242,762 in 2018. After the 2016 election, immigrant arrests increased 41%, and became worse in 2018 at 55%. Employers have been fined anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 for threatening to send guest workers back to their home countries. The U.S has traditionally been a sanctuary from labor trafficking abuses, with immigrant workers being allowed to apply for a four-year "T" (temporary) visa that allowed them to seek permanent residency, but in June, the current administration announced that anyone who did not receive a T visa must appear in court for deportation proceedings, while making qualification for T visas more difficult.