US farms made $200m via human smuggling and labor trafficking operation
In June 2021, a farm worker from Mexico who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, was transported through a trafficking network from Monterey, Mexico to work on farms in the southern US state of Georgia.
They paid 20,000 pesos, around $950 to the traffickers that they were loaned from their mother, taking frequent trips to Monterrey, Mexico, back and forth, before being told it was safe to leave and they were finally transported across the border.
Initially, the worker was told they would be working on a blueberry farm, but was sent to a corn farming operation instead.
“We arrived at the house where we would live and had to clean the rooms ourselves. There were roaches, spiders, mosquitoes, and the mattresses were covered in lice,” the worker said. “The bathrooms and showers were dirty and clogged. The kitchen was horrible. We had no air conditioning in hot weather.”
The worker started work daily at 3 or 4am and worked until 3 or 4pm with just one 15-minute lunch break, making just $225 for 15 days of work. They heard rumors that the contractor had several workers die under them due to exploitation and the worker claimed that Haitian immigrants were also brought into the same network.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-lot-of-abuse-for-little-pay-how-us-farming-profits-from-exploitation-and-brutality/ar-AAS8i8o
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