Trump Announces Plan to 'Put the Farmers in Charge' of Migrant Farmworkers
www.latintimes.com
Pres. Trump shared a new proposal that would allow farmers unveiled a new proposal that would allow migrant farmworkers facing deportation to remain in the U.S.
  • peoplebeproblems@midwest.socialEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    I’m maybe an idiot. But like, could I start a produce garden, and get like a family to tend to it?

    That way I can keep them shelter and fed, and they’re free to do other work (probably much better paid) so they could get established on their own (as long as they came back to do the gardening I guess,)

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
      0·
      10 days ago

      The problem is, that by doing that you make it look like this system is valid and not outrageous. YOU might be a good person, but others wont be and from the outside nobody can tell if you treat your slaves well. By participating you are inflating the numbers that trump will use to show that this system is wanted.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
    0·
    10 days ago

    I mean, isn’t that kind of how migrant workers have always operated? 🤔

    Good PDF here:

    https://pvarts.org/dev/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Yaya-Timeline-of-Agricultural-Labor-USA.pdf

    I’m going to snip out some choice bit I personally found interesting, but the whole thing is worth a read:

    "1860s-1930s: Farming became a large-scale industry.

    The U.S. began importing Asian labor as African Americans moved into other industries and as the need for labor increased.

    By 1886, 7 out of every 8 farm workers were Chinese. Japanese and Filipino workers were also brought into the country.

    1882: The Chinese Exclusion Act banned the employment of Chinese workers. It was the first major attempt to restrict the flow of workers coming to the U.S.

    1914-1918: During World War I, migration to the U.S. from Europe declined, increasing the demand for Mexican labor to fill the void.

    During this period, growers lobbied to create the first guest worker program, allowing more than 70,000 Mexican workers into the U.S. The program ended in 1921.

    Based on this history, we can argue that in modern times not much has changed: farm workers continue to be some of the most exploited workers in the U.S.

    This broken immigration system fails to recognize the people who work hard to put food on grocery store shelves, restaurants, and dinner tables across the country.

    Instead, they are marginalized and face abuse, detention, and deportation."

    I’d also say this… the first home I remember was on a farm just outside city limits. Next door to a saw mill and across the street from railroad tracks. Yes, yes, I have slept through an earthquake. ;)

    For the kids in that area at that time, the summer job was “berry picking”. It is the most tedious, hot, sweaty, back breaking, mind-numbing, finger aching work any human being can ask another human being to do.

    The idea that we treat those workers any less than any other worker should be criminal.

  • Evil_Shrubbery@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    … (even heavily alerted) school textbooks would have you think they had a whole civil war about this exact issue.