Moving and wonderful, Bob. Could I quibble about one detail? The copy editor/old movie buff in me notes that the film was The Quiet Man, not The Tall Man.
Well, I have happened to have crappy jobs, some good ones too. Not many I liked, but that's me, I think there are probably a lot of People with, so called good jobs that they hate, that are crappy to them. What I mean is I've had some jobs that no one else would do. After working with DD adults( which was a good job) the thing I couldn't stand any more was how people mistreat each other. Bullies! It's terrible what trump is doing, today they had a video of ICE chasing farm workers through strawberry fields. I did a video during the first trump term of a Woody Guthrie Song about refugees, about a plane crash that killed several refugees being deported, some of them Woody's friends. I changed the lyrics to Busses. I'll try to find it and update it. Again Great writing and story!
Worker exploitation is the norm in poor states with high, chronic unemployment such as NM. The stories told by my business classmates at Central New Mexico Community College were appalling. Envirotech is indeed awful to their workers, and Rudy’s still has a terrible reputation 30 years later. The poverty in NM is an entirely different world. (I have never heard anyone swear that much in Spanish, though, especially transnational people, unless they were very, very drunk.)
I earned college money by sorting Cargill ears of corn for 34 days straight for 12 hour days plus an hour commute each morning and night, and no day off. Some of us were local others were migrants brought in by a coyote. They worked hard and looked out for each other. I said after that job I would never criticize migrants . they work hard, very hard for the pay. After my 34 days I more or less collapsed from exhaustion. your experience rings so true.
Great article..but I can't help but wonder why people believe that its ok or even beneficial to have illegal/undocumented persons in the US. Isn't it just simple logic that if we want and need (which we do) immigrants in the country that they are here legally and documented? I keep seeing that the undocumented/illegal immigrant crime rate is much lower than citizens or legal immigrants (approximately 2% rate). That makes sense, keep your head down if you're here illegally and could be deported if caught commiting a crime. With approximately 12M illegal immigrants in the country that's nearly 240,000 crimes committed by people here illegally. Without having true statistics, I'd assume that if the ~12M people here illegally had gone through a formal vetting process and were here on a green card/visa or path to citizenship that many of the "bad actors" committing the crimes would have been denied entry. What am I missing?
Part of what is missing from the picture is how and why people come to the US, and why and especially how they stay. A majority of undocumented immigrants were part of the legal visa system when they arrived. Unfortunately, visas are essentially a lottery, with far too few to meet the needs of employers, and egregiously too few for people who are here under legitimate duress. When a work visa expires, the EMPLOYER may not be able to obtain another one. The worker cannot realistically return home, so they stay and continue in the same job. Many people had a different kind of visa, which expires, at which point the visa-holder enters a relationship with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) (which is a different agency than ICE). It is a lot like being on probation and having to meet with a probation officer and go to court periodically. People in this situation are among those labeled “illegal.” Some work, many are family caregivers. There are also a variety of visa classes that can be can only apply for from within the US. The number of people eligible and applying for these visas outnumber the available visas by about 100 to 1. These visas include ones for victims of slavery and domestic violence. Anyone applying for one of these also has a relationship with USCIS, but they are also called “illegal” because their status is not finalized. Then there are the millions of people who and eligible and have applied for a certain status, but because of government understaffing, the status has not been finalized. Backlogs can be as much as five years. The problem of understaffing affects nearly everyone. To navigate any of this, you need to have a personal attorney, and there are surprisingly large fees at every step of the way. The fee for DACA is $475 to apply. It has to be renewed every two years. DACA is a streamlined process, but it is still complicated. The USCIS has a page for DACA application tips. Reviewing it gives an idea of how complex immigration is and how much rides on factors that an individual cannot control. Most US citizens will never have to do any kind of application, for anything, that is nearly as complicated. Applying for college or starting a business is easy by comparison. The page notes, near the bottom, that applicants need to have a lawyer—this is for 16 year olds! Even apart from the expense, there are not enough immigration lawyers in the entire US either inside the government or outside it to handle the volume. Targeting undocumented immigrants is not about fixing the system, or even about employment. The goal is to terrify communities—families, schools, businesses, healthcare—that have immigrants as part of the community. Scared people are easier to control and easy to exploit. The goal is to frighten and manipulate all of us, not just immigrants. Remember when we used to say that we were all immigrants? We may not say that any longer, but targeting immigrants and people who disagree with the government makes all of us wonder who is going to be next.
I forgot to mention that none of this addresses the US-Mexico border or human smuggling. The number of people who migrate through Central America occurs in waves that no one really understands right now. The numbers began falling in 2022 and are historically low right now. Customs and Border Patrol publishes the numbers as “Encounters” every month. There are cycles, and you can see them across the data. Visa information is harder to find, but CPB information , like DACA information, is easy to access.
I am glad to help. Immigration is so complicated and it is hard to find accessible information. My experience comes from serving as an AmeriCorp VISTA for an immigrant-focused domestic violence agency in Albuquerque, NM. I learned a lot between 2016-2017. Apprehensions dropped under the first Trump administration. The previous administration was aggressive in pursuing deportations, but there were also some huge surges during the Obama administration that severely strained ICE resources. People were terrified when Trump was elected and justifiably so. ICE agents began stalking the local courthouse, apprehending anyone on the day’s docket who was an immigrant. Domestic violence victims need to go to court and to the police department for restraining orders, which is mostly paperwork. They are accompanied by an agency advocate for safety and because so many victims are intimidated by uniforms. Most of the victims had experienced life-threatening violence, including rape. With ICE at the courthouse, victims were terrified to go and often refused, with good reason.
Were in for a long hot summer. It doesn't have to be this way. Democrats and Republicans had a bi-partisan bill to start to deal with immigration in a rational way. This isn't about immigration. This is about authoritarianism.
Bob this powerful on so many levels. I worked doing junk removal for awhile. We had a old truck we filled w scrap metal...nothing as exhausting as what you did.
These are the folks doing the dirty work nobody else will do. The Envirotech segment almost made me vomit. Sobering to know millions of migrant workers are doing this stuff...in life threatening conditions...for little pay, if they get paid at all. I would bet wage theft is the most-committed, least prosecuted American crime.
But apparently our govt doesn't want these folks doing this work. I'd love to see Stephen Miller last a single freaking hour doing the job you did...would be fun to see a maga snowflake literally melt!
Brilliant work as always Bob...this is one of your best.
Five or six years ago the DOJ and the Department of Labor completed a major investigation of wage theft in southern NM, about 2 hrs south and west of Abq. I cannot remember the details of the settlements and fines but they were very large. The project was initiated by activists affiliated with a workers’ rights non-profit in NM.
Makes me feel very privileged to never have experienced anything like this. In fact I would have stopped the painful reading it if I didn't have previous contact with you and your persistence to tell the truth. Thanks.
This is an amazing story; America will have a rude awakening as our migrant population is disappeared and these jobs go unfilled. Thank you for documenting this hardship.
Moving and wonderful, Bob. Could I quibble about one detail? The copy editor/old movie buff in me notes that the film was The Quiet Man, not The Tall Man.
Thanks Joan! you are right. This must be a new one for you. a correction on a nearly 30 year old piece of writing!
Hahahahahha.
This is beautifully written - yet horrific. Now is right time to share it, Bob. A must-read.
Thank you, Rachelle.
Well, I have happened to have crappy jobs, some good ones too. Not many I liked, but that's me, I think there are probably a lot of People with, so called good jobs that they hate, that are crappy to them. What I mean is I've had some jobs that no one else would do. After working with DD adults( which was a good job) the thing I couldn't stand any more was how people mistreat each other. Bullies! It's terrible what trump is doing, today they had a video of ICE chasing farm workers through strawberry fields. I did a video during the first trump term of a Woody Guthrie Song about refugees, about a plane crash that killed several refugees being deported, some of them Woody's friends. I changed the lyrics to Busses. I'll try to find it and update it. Again Great writing and story!
Wow, Bob!! Great story!! Steinbeck, H.Miller Quality. Over the years I've worked in a number of crappy jobs, you explain it well. Thanks!
Thanks Orlan. If you haven’t done crappy jobs, you have no clue, right?
Thank you, Dr. Bob. Another great story about the life you and Annie have lived and learned.
I could not stop reading. What a great story and so enlightening! Thank you for sharing.
Worker exploitation is the norm in poor states with high, chronic unemployment such as NM. The stories told by my business classmates at Central New Mexico Community College were appalling. Envirotech is indeed awful to their workers, and Rudy’s still has a terrible reputation 30 years later. The poverty in NM is an entirely different world. (I have never heard anyone swear that much in Spanish, though, especially transnational people, unless they were very, very drunk.)
I earned college money by sorting Cargill ears of corn for 34 days straight for 12 hour days plus an hour commute each morning and night, and no day off. Some of us were local others were migrants brought in by a coyote. They worked hard and looked out for each other. I said after that job I would never criticize migrants . they work hard, very hard for the pay. After my 34 days I more or less collapsed from exhaustion. your experience rings so true.
You’re still one of the best storytellers I know.
Thanks Marcel. I was surprised this one was so good from nearly 30 years ago. A little over written, but, I'll take it.
I can tell it’s one of your earlier ones, but still so good.
Great article..but I can't help but wonder why people believe that its ok or even beneficial to have illegal/undocumented persons in the US. Isn't it just simple logic that if we want and need (which we do) immigrants in the country that they are here legally and documented? I keep seeing that the undocumented/illegal immigrant crime rate is much lower than citizens or legal immigrants (approximately 2% rate). That makes sense, keep your head down if you're here illegally and could be deported if caught commiting a crime. With approximately 12M illegal immigrants in the country that's nearly 240,000 crimes committed by people here illegally. Without having true statistics, I'd assume that if the ~12M people here illegally had gone through a formal vetting process and were here on a green card/visa or path to citizenship that many of the "bad actors" committing the crimes would have been denied entry. What am I missing?
Part of what is missing from the picture is how and why people come to the US, and why and especially how they stay. A majority of undocumented immigrants were part of the legal visa system when they arrived. Unfortunately, visas are essentially a lottery, with far too few to meet the needs of employers, and egregiously too few for people who are here under legitimate duress. When a work visa expires, the EMPLOYER may not be able to obtain another one. The worker cannot realistically return home, so they stay and continue in the same job. Many people had a different kind of visa, which expires, at which point the visa-holder enters a relationship with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) (which is a different agency than ICE). It is a lot like being on probation and having to meet with a probation officer and go to court periodically. People in this situation are among those labeled “illegal.” Some work, many are family caregivers. There are also a variety of visa classes that can be can only apply for from within the US. The number of people eligible and applying for these visas outnumber the available visas by about 100 to 1. These visas include ones for victims of slavery and domestic violence. Anyone applying for one of these also has a relationship with USCIS, but they are also called “illegal” because their status is not finalized. Then there are the millions of people who and eligible and have applied for a certain status, but because of government understaffing, the status has not been finalized. Backlogs can be as much as five years. The problem of understaffing affects nearly everyone. To navigate any of this, you need to have a personal attorney, and there are surprisingly large fees at every step of the way. The fee for DACA is $475 to apply. It has to be renewed every two years. DACA is a streamlined process, but it is still complicated. The USCIS has a page for DACA application tips. Reviewing it gives an idea of how complex immigration is and how much rides on factors that an individual cannot control. Most US citizens will never have to do any kind of application, for anything, that is nearly as complicated. Applying for college or starting a business is easy by comparison. The page notes, near the bottom, that applicants need to have a lawyer—this is for 16 year olds! Even apart from the expense, there are not enough immigration lawyers in the entire US either inside the government or outside it to handle the volume. Targeting undocumented immigrants is not about fixing the system, or even about employment. The goal is to terrify communities—families, schools, businesses, healthcare—that have immigrants as part of the community. Scared people are easier to control and easy to exploit. The goal is to frighten and manipulate all of us, not just immigrants. Remember when we used to say that we were all immigrants? We may not say that any longer, but targeting immigrants and people who disagree with the government makes all of us wonder who is going to be next.
I forgot to mention that none of this addresses the US-Mexico border or human smuggling. The number of people who migrate through Central America occurs in waves that no one really understands right now. The numbers began falling in 2022 and are historically low right now. Customs and Border Patrol publishes the numbers as “Encounters” every month. There are cycles, and you can see them across the data. Visa information is harder to find, but CPB information , like DACA information, is easy to access.
Such important information. Thanks for sharing. What’s your background? Sounds like you work in the field of immigration.
I am glad to help. Immigration is so complicated and it is hard to find accessible information. My experience comes from serving as an AmeriCorp VISTA for an immigrant-focused domestic violence agency in Albuquerque, NM. I learned a lot between 2016-2017. Apprehensions dropped under the first Trump administration. The previous administration was aggressive in pursuing deportations, but there were also some huge surges during the Obama administration that severely strained ICE resources. People were terrified when Trump was elected and justifiably so. ICE agents began stalking the local courthouse, apprehending anyone on the day’s docket who was an immigrant. Domestic violence victims need to go to court and to the police department for restraining orders, which is mostly paperwork. They are accompanied by an agency advocate for safety and because so many victims are intimidated by uniforms. Most of the victims had experienced life-threatening violence, including rape. With ICE at the courthouse, victims were terrified to go and often refused, with good reason.
Thank you so much. I hope you are writing and sharing your experience and wisdom broadly.
Good question. There was a bipartisan border bill that trump killed. Joni Ernst said it was the best bill that we would get in her lifetime. Trump wanted the wedge issue. https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/25/politics/gop-senators-angry-trump-immigration-deal
Were in for a long hot summer. It doesn't have to be this way. Democrats and Republicans had a bi-partisan bill to start to deal with immigration in a rational way. This isn't about immigration. This is about authoritarianism.
Bob this powerful on so many levels. I worked doing junk removal for awhile. We had a old truck we filled w scrap metal...nothing as exhausting as what you did.
These are the folks doing the dirty work nobody else will do. The Envirotech segment almost made me vomit. Sobering to know millions of migrant workers are doing this stuff...in life threatening conditions...for little pay, if they get paid at all. I would bet wage theft is the most-committed, least prosecuted American crime.
But apparently our govt doesn't want these folks doing this work. I'd love to see Stephen Miller last a single freaking hour doing the job you did...would be fun to see a maga snowflake literally melt!
Brilliant work as always Bob...this is one of your best.
Five or six years ago the DOJ and the Department of Labor completed a major investigation of wage theft in southern NM, about 2 hrs south and west of Abq. I cannot remember the details of the settlements and fines but they were very large. The project was initiated by activists affiliated with a workers’ rights non-profit in NM.
Thanks, Tim!
Makes me feel very privileged to never have experienced anything like this. In fact I would have stopped the painful reading it if I didn't have previous contact with you and your persistence to tell the truth. Thanks.
I posted this to my page on Facebook, Dr. Bob. It has been a while since I’ve read something so impactful. DJ Hassel
Thank you, DJ!
This is an amazing story; America will have a rude awakening as our migrant population is disappeared and these jobs go unfilled. Thank you for documenting this hardship.
I am in tears, Bob. Thank you for reminding me of the gifts I have been given.
Thanks Tej. the gifts I’ve been given as well…