Amid the coronavirus outbreak and new restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border, many farm workers are stuck in Mexico during one of the busiest times of the season
MONTERREY/CHICAGO - It’s watermelon season in Florida. But as the top U.S. watermelon-producing state prepares for harvest, many of the workers needed to collect the crop are stuck in Mexico, unable to secure visas.
They had traveled from all over Mexico, aiming to secure work picking fruits and vegetables and manicuring lawns in Florida, Texas, Tennessee and beyond. Produce companies, who counted on 243,000 H-2A workers to harvest crops in 2018, immediately lobbied the government for exemptions for agriculture workers.
A migrant seeking for a U.S. work visa is seen resting in a park of downtown of Monterrey, Mexico March 27, 2020. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril Without the workers crops could rot in fields throughout the country. U.S. citizens have not harvested fruits and vegetables for decades, and grain harvests are mostly automated.
Sanchez said she was already short some 250 workers and had been unable to get paperwork approved to bring more in. She has workers doubling up on shifts in Florida, picking oranges in the morning and blueberries in the afternoon.Some applicants in Lara’s group in Mexico had already spent seasons laboring in U.S. fields.
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