Yes, in the Donald Trump administration’s speech immigrants suddenly became essential, something unimaginable until the beginning of the pandemic. The work they do in the United States, the work they have done for years –many without a legal status– takes on vital meaning in this crisis brought on by the new coronavirus: the seasonal farm workers in charge of maintaining the harvest and the workers in the less visible links of the food supply and distribution chain are fundamental to the success of the U.S. economy.
They now have protection to go to work, yet they are not shielded from eventual deportation.
“We want them to come in,” Trump said about the farm workers at a recent press conference “We’re not closing the border so that we can’t get any of those people to come in. They’ve been there for years and years, and I’ve given the commitment to the farmers: They’re going to continue to come. Or we’re not going to have any farmers.”
In a report by Miriam Jordan for The New York Times, Mexican seasonal worker Nancy Silva, 43, says she now carries a letter from her employer saying that she and the work she does are vital to maintaining the food supply chain.
So she, who has no legal residency papers in the United States, and who because of her situation lives in fear of losing her source of livelihood, according to Jordan’s report, has now a document in her pocket that protects her, for the time being. The paper allows her to go to work without being fined for leaving home during confinement, but it does not yet exempt her from deportation.
The “Coronavirus Guide to America” issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency states: “If you work in a critical infrastructure industry, as defined by the Department of Homeland Security, such as healthcare services and pharmaceutical and food supply, you have a special responsibility to maintain your normal work schedule.”
It’s like safeguard, Pablo Guimón and Pablo Ximénez de Sandoval explain in a report in El País. Manuel Cunha, president of the Nisei Farmers League union in Fresno, said to these journalists letters like the one Nancy Silva carries contain the name of the worker, the name of his or her employer and their contact telephone number. “If you get stopped by a police officer or sheriff’s deputy, you just show the letter, call the farmer, and they confirm that the person is coming to work.”
In western California, there is a significant amount of fields where farm work is done. There are 800,000 farmworkers in the region, according to the University of California, as cited by El País’ journalists. “The lowest estimate is that 60% are undocumented. These days of isolation, they are the hands that guarantee that there are fresh fruits and vegetables in the supermarkets,” they wrote.
Nancy Silva lives and works in California, in the clementine fields of Bakersfield. “It’s like suddenly they realized we are here contributing,” she told The New York Times’ Jordan.
Anita Kumar reported for Politico that the business community, including the Chamber of Commerce that operates nationwide, has been pushing since before the pandemic for the government to allow temporary positions for immigrants, as unemployment had fallen and they had no way to fill them. Now that the crisis has had the opposite effect on employment, they have continued to demand it.
Jon Baselice, executive director of immigration policy at the Chamber of Commerce, told Kumar: “Many immigrant workers are currently helping our nation fight the spread of Covid-19. Their contributions to our national well-being are critically important to our safety and security until we flatten the curve on this pandemic.”
“Immigrants are working in the supermarkets, in the fields, processing food, in construction,” added Sindy Benavides, director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, interviewed by El País reporters. “They are the people who, in moments of emergency, keep this country going.”
We give visas but not so much
Journalists Guimón and Ximénez mention in their report that on March 5 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had precisely announced that they would give 35,000 more visas this year to temporary workers in non-agricultural fields such as tourism or catering. But on April 2 the government backed down, alluding to the economic situation triggered by the pandemic with the exponential increase in unemployment.
“The problem is that many employers see foreign workers as crucial to certain jobs that are hard to fill with U.S. citizens. Especially when they can now earn more income with unemployment benefits and other assistance under the giant economic stimulus plan,” the journalists stressed.
In addition, the State Department, through its Bureau of Consular Affairs, issued a public request on March 27: “We encourage medical professionals seeking work in the U.S. on a work or exchange visitor visa (H or J), particularly those working on #COVID19 issues, to contact the nearest U.S. Embassy/ Consulate for a visa appointment.” They posted it on their official Twitter account.
The announcement came days after the government suspended all but essential consular activities abroad.
El País’ journalists Guimón and Ximénez say the tweet triggered massive responses, in calls to consulates and in criticism from critics.
The State Department was quick to rectify this. In another tweet, hours later, published a contradictory clarification: “Please note that you must have an approved U.S. non-immigrant or immigrant visa petition (I-129, I-140, or similar) or a certificate of eligibility in an approved exchange visitor program (DS-2019) to apply.”
Raids and express deportations
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on March 18 that they was temporarily curtailing their aggressive practice of raids in search of undocumented immigrants – a trademark of the Trump government – except for those who, in their judgment, would be “a risk for national security,” as The Guardian reported at the time.
In theory, ICE would not make arrests of immigrants near hospitals and other health care facilities, The Washington Post reported, to encourage undocumented immigrants to receive health care and prevent further contagion.
However, an article by Sam Bojarski for The Haitian Times shows that the raids and detentions have not stopped. For example, Haitians Fredly Charles and Junior Augustine were detained in Louisiana with a deportation order pending. Both are leaving their families in the United States. Charles, for example, is married to a U.S. citizen and has no criminal record, according to his lawyer, so he would not be a security threat, the article details. Augustine’s case is similar.
Genia Blaser, an attorney with the Immigrant Defense Project in New York, told the reporter that ICE uses “public safety rhetoric to normalize the way it conducts operations.”
The attorney says the virus has not prevented ICE agents from entering immigrant communities “and potentially becoming transmitters of the disease,” and that in “very few instances” has ICE released people with a vulnerable health situation in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Journalist Jorge Cancino confirmed last week that the agency released 160 people, although it identified 600 as vulnerable.
The fact that the U.S. government recognizes that much of the work of immigrants is essential does not protect them from the fierce immigration policies that are still in place anyway.
The Washington Post revealed on April 9 that authorities under Trump’s command have expelled 10,000 immigrants from the country since the pandemic crisis began, on the grounds of emergency measures. These are express deportations in effect since March 21.
A previous report in the same newspaper showed that, with the argument of public health, the government has put the laws protecting migrant minors and asylum seekers on hold, so that “the U.S. government can immediately deport them or turn them away.”
Without a medical check-up, the border patrol can return them to Mexico in only 96 minutes, the article, dated in Texas, added.