As a reporter, I always set up too many interviews. There's only so much we can cram into a few minutes for our radio pieces. Herein is the beauty of the Web. This is a bit more from some interesting people I met in California.
-Jason Margolis
The immigrants
On May 1st, May Day, immigration rallies were held throughout the nation. I attended one in Fresno, the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. This video was produced by Loren Mendell. A longer video will be coming on PBS's Frontline World later in the summer.
Most every immigrant who crosses illegally from Mexico has a similar story: a treacherous cross through the desert with the help of a "coyote," or smuggler.
Esteban Lopez first crossed through the Arizona desert nine years ago before he made his way to the California farm fields. Food and water were scarce. They had to drink water alongside cows during the long walk. Lopez has done the crossing twice. Three years ago, he went back to Mexico to visit family. He came back through the Arizona desert with his wife and three children, including a one-and-a-half year old daughter.
The farmer "Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over." – Mark Twain
These aren't easy times for farmers in the San Joaquin Valley. Paul Betancourt has been farming in the Valley since 1981. He grows almonds, cotton, barley tomatoes and wheat.
Paul Betancourt
Farmers here say they don't have enough water. There's been a three-year drought. On top of that, farms in the San Joaquin Valley are getting less water: two years ago a federal judge ordered a diversion of water away from farms to help the threatened fish, the delta smelt. Then, throw in a worldwide recession.... It's tough to be a farmer these days.
Like all the farmers I met, Betancourt relies almost exclusively on Mexican labor. He only has three full-time employees. Gone are the days of crews of hundreds of men picking most crops – Betancourt's cotton machines can now do the work of 300 to 600 men. When Betancourt needs more help, he checks the documents of all the workers he hires. Still, everybody here knows it's a game. Phony documents are ubiquitous. "The system's not right," says Betancourt.
The lawyers
For many immigrant farm workers, women like Phoebe Seaton and Laurel Firestone are the only representation they have in society. Both Seaton and Firestone are fairly recent grads from top law schools. Seaton is an attorney with the California Rural Legal Assistance and Firestone co-directs the Community Water Center in the San Joaquin city of Visalia.
Phoebe Seaton and Laurel Firestone (right)
Relief isn't coming to poor farm worker communities in California anytime soon. Congress and President Barack Obama passed the $789 billion stimulus package in February. But Seaton says money won't be coming to the communities where she works. These places don't qualify for stimulus money.
Firestone's organization seeks to bring clean drinking water to low-income immigrant farming communities in the San Joaquin Valley. Drinking water in the San Joaquin Valley is the worst in the state.
Mark Masaoka is the policy coordinator for the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, an association of nearly 40 non-profit social service organizations around Los Angeles. These organizations help Asian immigrants find jobs. They provide computer training. And in times of recession, they're even helping immigrants find meals.
Masaoka says social service organizations are swamped with requests. Asian immigrants in Los Angeles got caught in the sub-prime mortgage mess. Now they need foreclosure assistance. Wages are down, there's less work. People are coming to these agencies complaining that their employers have gone out of business, and they are trying to collect back wages.
Now, just as these social service organizations are serving more people than ever, Masaoka says it's become doubly challenging. Reduced foundation and government agency spending are shrinking their budgets.
Rick Oltman is the guy who makes liberals' blood boil, a duty he relishes. Oltman works for the group, "Americans for Border Security Now." Shutting down the borders is his cause.
Oltman calls illegal aliens a drain on California's health care, prisons, schools and law enforcement. "Every illegal alien that we allow in and allow to stay, which is what's going on right now from this government, is a slap in the face to legal immigrants that want to do it the right way and come to our country," says Oltman.
Oltman has spent time on the front lines of the Arizona border. Now, he takes up the fight from Northern California.
The academics
Data from the Mexican census indicates that emigration to the United States has fallen steeply. At the same time, undocumented Mexicans aren't going back home. "Why would you go back?" asks Ruth Milkman, a UCLA sociologist who specializes in labor. "There's nothing there for them. The reason they left in the first place, was that the opportunities were so limited, and it's not like they've expanded in a period of recession."
Ruth Milkman
Times are tough for the undocumented immigrant day laborers on the corners: there's less work, for lower wages, and the threat of deportation constantly lingers. But Milkman says this is a resilient group of people.
Kent Wong
If we pay workers $15 or $20 an hour, plus health insurance, say goodbye to the cheap strawberries and peaches we've come to love. Not so, says Kent Wong, director of the UCLA labor center.
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