Quasi-slavery forms in US agriculture. Farm workers from Tamaulipas

Abstract

Most of the labor force employed in U.S. agriculture are undocumented immigrants because a biased implementation of immigration policy in the interests of employers allows them to employ immigrants who do not have documents, but places unauthorized immigrants at risk for civil and criminal penalties for crossing the border without authorization and using false documents. This paper points out that a biased implementation of U.S. immigration law has caused slavery-like practices to emerge in the farming sector. Testimonies from Tamaulipas farmworkers interviewed do not mention scenarios of physical violence. On the contrary, references to psychological coercion were frequent. Verbal violence, indebtedness, and paternalistic treatment are used by employers to subject migrant workers to strict labor regimes and to pay them wages below the legal minimum. For example, in tobacco plantations nicotine poisoning was very frequent since Tamaulipas migrant workers had to work when agrochemicals were applied.