With Immigration Reform on the Table, Advocates Put Human Face on Calif’s Migrant Farmworkers

Edward Henderson | California Black Media(CBM) – About 99% of the commercially grown crops consumed by people across the United States come from California, according to data compiled by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).Between half and one-third of the farmworkers who help to grow, tend, harvest and package these crops live in the Golden State. That’s about 500,000 to 800,000 workers.Astonishingly, 75% of them are undocumented.“People are very afraid,” said Manuel Ortiz Escámez, a sociologist, audio-visual journalist, and co-founder of Peninsula 360, a news organization based inRedwood City.“I hold interviews with people who later call and say, ‘Please do not publish anything, because I’m afraid of what could happen,’” he added.Escámez spoke earlier this month during a news briefing organized by Ethnic Media Services (EMS) that addressed the plight of migrant workers in California, particularly those who live in the United States without legal status.During an election year when immigration is a polarizing issue with strong opinions on all sides, Escámez says the lives and critical contributions of farmworkers have been reduced to soundbites or barbs in Left vs. Right talking points.The fervent anti-immigration rhetoric these debates generate can brew hate and motivate hate crimes and hate...