To win the presidential elections in the United States is “almost” necessary to win the state of Florida. US citizens will vote in November and will do so, thinking about issues such as economics, immigration, climate change, among others. In the specific case of Florida, immigration is a significant issue, according to the American Immigration Council, more than 4 million immigrants (representing 20% of the population) live in Florida.
Johns Hopkins University and the Migration Policy Institution (MPI) showed a documentary called “Swing State Florida The Fields of Immokalee” that tells the day-to-day life of workers in a tomato plantation in South Florida in Immokalee. On the panel were Andrew Selee, president of the MPI; Francisco E. González, Professor of International Political and Political Economy of Latin America; and Samuel George, director of the documentary.
The documentary is full of sensitive scenes: fathers or mothers who only come to the United States for specific periods of work, there are two types: legal and illegal. The legal ones come with work visas that allow the “bosses” to bring cheap labor from Mexico, they are assigned a home, transportation and feed them, but they are at the mercy of the employers. The illegals earn more, but the risk is high; every day, they wake up to see if any employer needs someone, understanding that each day they do not work, the damage is significant. Most dramatic is the separation of minors held in correctional facilities, in the documentary show, as the Democratic presidential candidates attended this center to witness and document the conditions in which these minors lived. In the end, workers from the detention center did not allow them to get in. The documentary did now show it, but inferring from the statements given by the Democratic representatives at the gates of the center, it can be understood that the conditions under which these minors are kept are not humane.
Experts explained that most Americans see immigration as something positive for the economy, even if President Trump says otherwise. What worries Americans is the policies that are applied in migration, since the terrorist attacks of September 11, immigration laws have been increasingly severe. When President Trump arrived, there was an intensification of these policies. Among his first promises, he planned to divide the border with Mexico and that the Mexicans were going to pay for it. Fortunately, he could not achieve it not only because of the absurdity of the idea but because of the impact that this would generate on Latinos and the Americans themselves, they both need each other.
Policymakers should do more intense work and explain the impact that immigrants could have on decisions made in Washington and at the local level. The director of the documentary told how the workers are entirely disinterested in politics, to the point of believing that the United States has its laws, and they, submissively, must obey everything and that Trump does the best for his citizens. All this without understanding what happens and that the abuses they suffer in their jobs should not occur. For the MPI president, the Democrats, although they have been more moderate in their immigration policies, have not brought new proposals, according to him, they simply want to undo everything Trump has done when it comes to migration.