Thread: Days before new Florida law takes effect, undocumented workers fear for their future

Days before new Florida law takes effect, undocumented workers fear for their future



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Clara-Sophia Daly
Sun, June 18, 2023 at 6:00 AM EDT






On the edge of the Everglades, among plant nurseries, fields of avocado trees and dragon fruit cactuses, migrant workers rest under a plastic tent, sitting at long picnic tables eating chili-rice tamales wrapped in banana leaves or carnitas with tortillas out of reusable containers.

They talk about their children and they laugh at each other’s jokes. But there is one thing on everyone’s mind that nobody really wants to talk about. And when it comes up, the playful banter stops.

Florida’s new immigration law, set to take effect on July 1, has undocumented workers worried — and afraid. They fear losing their jobs. They fear being forced to leave the state.

And they fear having no choice but to return to their home countries, leaving their lives in South Dade, where some have been for decades, behind.

“We are worried, and not sure if in the future we will have work,” Sara Perez said of the new law, which she believes targets undocumented workers like her. “We are not doing anything bad, and we are not doing anything wrong.”

The new immigration law is packaged as a far-right counter to what the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature sees as President Biden’s inaction on border policy, and is meant to discourage undocumented immigrants from entering the state.

Parts of the recently passed law will take effect July 1, with other parts beginning next year. But fear of its effects has already affected communities of undocumented workers across the state.

The law, which bars businesses with more than 25 employees from hiring undocumented workers, has ignited intense anxiety even among immigrants who have lived in the state for decades, jolting the delicate balance that has long existed between employers and employees.

The law also sets aside $12 million dollars for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ migrant relocation program, restricts the validity of identification cards and drivers licenses issued by other states, and makes it illegal to transport undocumented people into Florida from outside the state. It also penalizes workers who use false documentation to gain employment.

For the past 30 years, Perez has worked among the rows of plants in the farms and nurseries in South Dade, raising her children off the money she earns planting, weeding, watering and picking.

Her two children attend West Homestead Elementary School, one in first grade and the other in fifth, where she says they have good teachers and good friends. Since the law was signed, she stays up at night worrying she may have to separate her children from their friends and their life in Florida and move the family back to Guatemala, where she was born.

“With the new law, I am always thinking about the papers,” she said. “It’s not going to be the same. We are not going to be free.”

Homestead, Florida - May 31, 2023 - A worker trims plants at a nursery in South Miami-Dade County

‘PURE FEAR’

Undocumented labor has kept industries like agriculture and construction afloat in Florida for decades. Farms in and around Homestead and Florida City have survived on the labor of workers from Latin America, many from Guatemala and Mexico.

Employers have been grateful for the reliable, hardworking workforce, and the workers have been grateful for the employment. Fake Social Security numbers have been easy to come by, and, aside from the occasional crackdown, a culture of “don’t ask, don’t tell” between workers, employers and the state has prevailed, according to advocates and workers in the area.

Across Florida, tourism, construction, food service, waste management, retail and agriculture industries rely on the labor of undocumented workers. The Florida Policy Institute estimates undocumented workers make up nearly 10 percent of employment among the state’s most labor-intensive industries.

With the money they earn, recent immigrants can put food on the table and afford to rent a room in a shared house. Some workers have saved up enough money to rent or even buy a larger apartment or home for their family. Some are saving up to pay for private traveling-club soccer teams for their children or a new car.

But now, they face the challenge of trying to legalize their immigration status.

Maite Garcia, an immigration attorney for the ACLU of Florida, says most undocumented workers she has dealt with are in the process of applying for some form of legal status. Examples include humanitarian programs such as asylum and temporary protected status, as well as family-based and employment-based immigration petitions.

But for most paths to legalization, wait times can take decades and the system can be difficult to navigate. In addition, for those who entered the country without documents, there are further restrictions as to which pathways to legalization they are eligible for.

Some of the workers already have a so-called alien registration number, meaning immigration officials know they are in the country, but this in itself does not confer legal status. Others remain totally undocumented.

Though scared, many workers continue to show up to work, grateful for each day they are able to make money to bring home to their families. But others have already left Florida for more immigrant-friendly states such as Michigan.

“There is pure unadulterated fear within the immigrant community,” said Zareefa Khan, an immigration attorney in Miami. “People are already starting to leave because this is not an immigrant-friendly state right now,” she added, saying her phones have been ringing nonstop since the new law was signed, a common refrain among immigration attorneys across the state.

A worker, whose name we are not using to protect her privacy, poses for a photo at the plant nursery before clocking back in to work after lunch.

A teacher of English as a Second Language at a South Dade middle school said five of her students have left the state with their families so far.

Rachel Salinas Buena is the Educational Specialist of the Title I Migrant Day Labor Program in Homestead, which supports families of migrant workers who have children in the public school system. She says the group has received many calls from anxious parents who, fearful of the new law, have left the state or are considering leaving, asking for information and advice. According to the Florida Department of Health there are upwards of 150,000 migrant and seasonal farm workers that travel annually to the state.

Homestead, Florida - May 31, 2023 - Workers at a nursery in South Miami-Dade County

One undocumented worker, Carina, who did not want to reveal her last name out of fear she could be deported, said she is worried about her children.

In the next few weeks she plans to return to her home country of Guatemala after 20 years, together with her three children, ages 19, 13 and 9. She said she had been thinking about returning for some time now, but that the new law was the push she needed to decide to return home.

Carina’s friend, Noaemi, also from Guatemala and mother of a four-year-old, adds, “The law is unjust. All we want to do is make money to give things to our kids.”

Noaemi wakes up at 5:30 every morning to cook breakfast, dress her kids and take them to daycare. “For now,” she says, “we have work, and I will keep working.” Unlike Carina, she does not want to return to Guatemala and dreams of someday being able to buy a house with a pool in Florida.

A group of workers sit in the back of a trailer after their lunch break, on their way back into the fields.

EFFECT ON EMPLOYERS

Employers are also feeling the impact of the new law, which the Republican super majority in the Florida Legislature easily approved.

The law will require employers with 25 or more employees to verify that their workers are legally allowed to work in the state. The law will also make it a felony to transport undocumented people into the state, and will restrict the use of identification cards and driver’s licenses issued to “unauthorized immigrants.”

“You have a duty to ensure that these borders are secure,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Jacksonville when he signed the law in May.

The new law was pushed by the governor as a precursor to his campaign for president. He tried and failed to pass a similar bill when he was first elected to office in 2019 but, after agriculture, tourism and construction industry officials worked to persuade legislators it would hurt their ability to attract needed workers, the measure was watered down to require worker documentation of only companies that worked for the state.

The governor pushed it again this year as he competes with Donald Trump and other Republicans seeking votes in the GOP primary. He has said the law was passed as a direct counter to Biden’s border policy.

The most recent estimate of undocumented workers in Florida is a 2016 survey by the Pew Research Center that found that about 775,000 unauthorized immigrants live in the state, close to 4 percent of Florida’s population at that time.

None of the employers of large agriculture farms and plant nurseries in South Dade would speak on the record about the new law. But an owner of a small family-run nursery said he has spoken to farm owners at larger plant nurseries who fear the law’s impact on their businesses.

One owner of a large maintenance company in the Miami area has already hired an immigration attorney to go through all of the immigration statuses of his workers to ensure everyone’s papers are up to date.

The law has already also affected healthcare decisions by undocumented workers.

Under the new law hospitals that accept Medicaid will be required to collect and submit data to the state on the costs of providing care to undocumented people.

Although identifying information about those getting the care will not be sent to the state, physicians at clinics that treat immigrants in the Miami area say they have seen distrustful patients cancel their appointments, fearful that their information may cause them to be detained or deported.

Marcia Cortez was in her work clothes but still managed to put on pink blush, red lipstick, and eyeliner before punching in and beginning work at the plant nursery in Florida City at 7:30 one recent morning.

Cortez, who is from Tijuana, Mexico, has a thyroid condition which sends her to the hospital several times a year for blood tests. She has a long scar on her collarbone at the bottom of her neck from a procedure.

“Now, what are we going to do? They’re asking for Social Security numbers. I am afraid,” she said, explaining that she fears being deported if she goes to the hospital for her blood and ultrasound tests.

While the new law does require hospitals to include a question on their intake forms about the immigration status of patients, it does not require Social Security numbers. People can decline to respond to the question. That is of little comfort, however, to immigrants who do not have the required work permits, or legal authority to work in the U.S.

SPREAD OF MISINFORMATION

Advocates say that beyond the actual implications of the new law, what is worse is the atmosphere of fear which has resulted because of the law. But whatever the case, the fear is real, fueled by rampant misinformation being spread among communities.

The fears have sparked all kinds of rumors, some based on parts of previous versions of the legislation that did not make it into the final version. An earlier version of the bill would have made it illegal to transport any undocumented person within the state of Florida, prompting widespread concerns among undocumented people over driving or being a passenger in a vehicle. During lunch breaks or at night after work, workers often browse social media. But undocumented workers do not have a widespread culture of reading or watching traditional news where they might get accurate information about the new regulations.

Ana Nicolas, 33, pulled weeds in a small family-owned nursery in Homestead, where she has been working on and off for the past few years. In the western highlands of rural Guatemala where she grew up, she only spoke the Mayan language Qʼanjobʼal, and only learned Spanish after coming to Florida. What she knows about the law she learned only through the grapevine.

A farmworker from Guatemala works at a plant nursery in the Homestead area.

“We came to work hard and fight for our lives,” Nicolas said. “We don’t want to go.”

According to some of the legislators who drafted the law, fear is exactly what they intended to cause when they voted to require companies with more than 25 employees to use the federal program E-Verify, to ascertain that none of their workers are undocumented. Beginning July 2024, employers can be charged up to $1,000 a day for hiring undocumented workers.

“If you’re an illegal undocumented alien coming from New York state where you harvest crops in the summertime, and now you’re coming to Florida in the wintertime but don’t have a valid driver’s license, don’t come,” said Rick Roth, a fruit and vegetable farmer in Belle Glade and a Republican state legislator who voted for the law.“ He added the law is “is purposely meant to scare people a little bit.”

Immigrants rights advocates who oppose the immigration law say it turns Florida into a police state, with local law enforcement charged with cracking down on undocumented workers. Opponents of the law say the definition of “undocumented” in the bill is overly broad and allows for too much discretion in the hands of law enforcement officers and agencies.

But Roth dismisses this claim.

“This is not Communist China. This is Florida,’’ he said. “Nobody’s going to be looking for your papers.”

But Roth says he now realizes there may be some unintended impacts on employers, not just employees.

“I have a lot of friends in the landscape and nursery industry and they are very concerned because all of their employees are year-round employees and this bill is a problem when you go to hire new employees,” he said.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, employers that participate in E-Verify will be required to post notices on their work site informing workers of their rights. For example, employers can only use E-Verify after a worker has accepted a job offer, not before they are hired.

Employers are also required to give workers a chance to contact the Department of Homeland Security or Social Security Administration to resolve any immigration status issue before the employer can fire them.

PROVIDING DETAILS

But such details have not yet trickled down to undocumented workers.
To counter the lack of information about the law among migrant communities, advocates, local community organizations and schools have rallied to provide accurate details.

Earlier this month, dozens of migrant families strolled into the library at Homestead Middle School, signing in and grabbing a cookie before taking a seat. Surrounded by shelves of young adult books and computer monitors with headphones draped over them, parents sat at round tables for an educational event meant to dispel the fear and anxiety.

Speaking in Spanish, attorney Sandy Pineda began her presentation by leading the families in a few deep breaths, and telling them that she understands why people are anxious, stressing that it is important to remain calm.

Pineda offered information about different kinds of visas and asylum that migrants may be eligible for, then distributed a handout summarizing the upcoming law in Spanish.

She told them that if they are stopped by a police officer, the only information they are required to give out is their name and date of birth. She included her contact information on the screen and encouraged families to take a photo of her information. If they are stopped or get into trouble, she said, they can say they have an attorney and use her name.

A middle-school worker sat at the table and translated for the one English speaker, an undocumented worker from Jamaica.

“They’re gonna come and get us with the new law?” he asked. By the end of the presentation, he understood that as long as he works for a company with fewer than 25 employees, that is unlikely to happen.

Harry, a father from El Salvador who did not give his last name and who works in construction remodeling houses, attended the event with his wife. He said there is a pervasive sense of uncertainty spreading among communities of undocumented people.

He doesn’t know what he will do or how he will support his two children because of the new law, but is hanging on for as long as he can, with no intentions of quitting until he is forced to. “This is something unjust,” he said. “For the moment, I wait.”

Rodolfo Geronimo, who lives in Florida City and works for a construction company with only 15 employees, said 10 of his neighbors have already moved out of state. He feels lucky that he will be able to continue working, since he works for a small company.

But in an industrial area of produce-packing facilities with many more than 25 employees in Florida City, Norma, a single mom with a four-year old daughter who came to Florida from Guatemala said she is unaware of any attempts to educate workers like her about their rights.

The 24-year-old mother carried a plastic bag of home-cooked food as she walked up the steps to the produce packing facility on her way into work. She asked her last name be omitted to ensure her safety.

“Americans don’t want to do this work,” she said. “I am afraid. I do not know what to do.” For now, she said, she will continue working to bring food home to her child and pay for her daughter’s daycare.

Norma arrived from Guatemala just five months ago with her daughter, and like many workers from Guatemala and Mexico, the two walked much of the way, despite a painful fracture in her daughter’s arm. When Norma arrived in Homestead she noticed a sign on the side of the road offering work, and even without papers, she got the job at the warehouse working for $10 an hour.

“I feel good here working,” she said. “I am able to bring food home to my daughter. But I am worried that now with the new law I will be deported.”

Immigration attorneys representing undocumented workers say they are doing what they can to provide clients with a sense of safety. Zareefa Khan has written upwards of a hundred letters for her clients who are in the process of gaining legal status, which can be presented to law enforcement if they are stopped. The letters may keep a client from getting detained. But those who are truly undocumented without any papers or even an alien number are out of luck, she said.

Homestead, Florida - June 1, 2023 - Marchers chant slogans as their march through the streets of Homestead to protest SB 1718.

WeCount! is one of the groups working to educate workers who may not have legal representation. Since the law was signed, they have been focused on trying to dispel misinformation and disinformation to the disparate groups of undocumented workers in South Dade and across the state.

At the WeCount! headquarters in downtown Homestead, the walls are decorated with posters displaying slogans like “Los inmigrantes trabajan para la prosperidad de América,” — Immigrants work for the prosperity of America —and “Que Calor!” — “How hot!” — a reference to how bad it can get for workers as they tend to plants and pick fruits and vegetables under the hot sun.

Esteban Wood, the group’s policy director, says he is frustrated that legislators in Tallahassee did not think about how the law would impact the everyday lives of its workers, instead pushing the law through to gain political support among their constituents. He says DeSantis has created a political climate where elected officials are afraid to engage in conversations around immigration, for fear of backlash, making it even more difficult to reach undocumented workers.

“People feel like they have to leave the state because they have wrong information about the law,” he said, frustrated by the lack of effort by police, hospitals and other institutions to educate workers on their rights.

But Wood is proud to show off the community radio station in a small room that broadcasts music and public service announcements to the community in 12 different languages. Workers in South Dade speak dozens of indigenous languages including Kaqchikel, Mixteco, and Zapoteco, and the station allows WeCount! to broadcast to a diverse group of workers.

Read more: Memories of home: Immigrant radio station in Homestead broadcasts in indigenous languages

The group also sponsored a “Marcha para la Unidad” or a “March for unity” rally on a recent Saturday aimed to bring the community together and double down on the fact that despite the fear and anxiety, undocumented immigrant workers are not going anywhere.

Hundreds of people attended, as did a number of pastors and the vice mayor of Homestead, Julio Guzmán.

For the past 20 years, Enedina, who does not want to disclose her last name for privacy purposes, has shown up to the same plant nursery in Homestead six days a week, working to bring money home to her family. Over the years, she has seen neighboring farm owners die and sell off their land to developers, housing prices rise, and new fast food restaurants replace local taquerias. She too is afraid, but she says she has trust in god that everything will work out, and will not let fear overpower her.

“I am not going anywhere.”


Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this story.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/days-flor...100000389.html

Their "future" is back home! Take your offspring and your entire illegal alien family with you!

Working here for decades and not paying into our tax system, steal from us by popping out anchor babies and getting free stuff, living off the backs of the American taxpayers. How many BILLIONS of dollars are spent on their offspring at our schools, food banks, healthcare system, medical problems, crime that they do NOT pay for!

How much do these women pay in taxes to send their hordes of offspring to our schools at $15 GRAND a year. How much did they pay for free school breakfast and lunch? How much did they pay for the $30 grand bill for the childbirth? They pay ZERO. This is infuriating.

What is the "future" of the USA if we do not stop this unfettered legal and illegal immigration from people who come here and bankrupt our communities.

We already pay the "high cost" of produce, just not at the checkout stand. We pay through the nose with their anchors, healthcare, crime, law enforcement, jail, judges, deportations, medical problems, DUI's, theft, destruction of housing, the list is long.

We need to go to automation, and they did take the jobs American's used to do in many fields, especially from our own minority communities who earned a living in these jobs.