Last Thursday, Oct. 20, in her speech at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said, “We have the resources to remove from the country around 400,000 people a year out of perhaps 10 million who are in the country illegally.” This may be true, but by implying that these 10 million individuals are unwanted, Napolitano overlooks the critical roles many of them play in our country. Yes, unauthorized immigrants violate federal laws by entering the United States without proper documentation; however, while they are here, their work in many low-wage occupations allows legal citizens like us to maintain our standards of living. This is a fact that deserves recognition.
Specifically, I refer to farm work, an area in which 53 percent of workers are unauthorized immigrants. Farm work should be of some interest to Duke students—agriculture is, after all, North Carolina’s leading industry. Over 150,000 farmworkers in North Carolina harvest the crops that bring in more than $1.8 billion in sales a year. And it is no easy job. Farmworkers suffer from food insecurity (ironically), limited worker’s compensation, substandard housing and poverty. On the job, they are exposed to toxic chemicals, adverse weather conditions and poor field sanitation. Green tobacco sickness and nicotine poisoning are common in the field. We say we need to fix the “immigration problem,” but let us not forget that unauthorized immigrants form the very backbone of this state’s economy. The blueberries, apples, strawberries and peaches that we eat daily? Probably they were harvested by an unauthorized farmworker. I may not support unauthorized crossing—but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate what unauthorized immigrants, including many of North Carolina’s farmworkers, do for our society.
Rebecca Lai, Trinity ’15
Student Organizer, Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF)
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.