Migrant Legal Aid stands for farm workforce

Organization has advocated for migrant workers for 50 years.
Migrant Legal Aid stands for farm workforce
<strong> Courtesy Migrant Legal Aid </strong>

Migrant Legal Aid formed in 1973 in response to the mistreatment migrant workers were suffering at the hands of their employers, including being forced to live in a chicken coop.

Over the next 50 years, the nonprofit has advocated for the rights of those who are unable to advocate for themselves, with the goal to “protect the health, dignity and livelihood of the farm workers.”

This means seeing migrant workers through difficulties such as occupational illnesses and injuries, infectious outbreaks up to and including COVID-19, health issues related to pesticides, lack of insurance, unhygienic housing conditions, wage theft, unfair working conditions and labor abuses.

Executive Director Teresa Hendricks started her work at MLA 30 years ago, first as a law clerk and then as an attorney.

During her time with the nonprofit, she has seen how abuses toward migrants evolve. While MLA started with the goal of protecting migrants from wage theft and poor working and housing conditions, in recent years it has incorporated more targeted crimes such as racist attacks by employers.

“I’ve seen how we’ve improved conditions and empowered farm workers to avoid exploitation,” she said. “And then I’ve seen how the tricks of the farm employer or crew leader have evolved over time to be more clever, more sophisticated and easier to hide. We had to keep on top of that.

“We have protected the dignity of their working and living conditions, but as anti-immigrant sentiment grew over recent years, we ended up having to defend against hate and support them as victims of crime, and then bridge the gap between the mistrust of law enforcement entities and the community. Law enforcement not understanding the cultural background on why (migrant workers) wouldn’t complain if they were victimized by a crime.”

Michigan’s migrant worker population stands at around 94,000 right now, mostly concentrated along the west side of the state.

“Counties that are predominantly agricultural have specialty crops that have to be hand harvested,” she said. “In Michigan, we have about 45 crops that have to be handled by farm workers. (And) about 50% of that population is undocumented.”

In a state with over 90,000 migrant workers, this means that around 45,000 of them are undocumented immigrants.

“We can’t harvest our crops without all of the labor. So, Michigan operates on a ‘wink and nod system’ where if the growers want to get their crops to market, they have to not look very closely at application papers and then follow the I-9 procedure very carefully, only fill out the portions that apply to them and let the worker fill out the portions that apply to them. Without immigration reform, there would be no way Michigan would have been able to operate its agriculture business.”

The food and agriculture sector contributes $104.7 billion annually to Michigan’s economy, according to stats by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD). Field crops alone have an economic impact of $5.12 billion yearly. Michigan has just under 10 million acres of farmland, and the state is home to roughly 47,600 farms. Michigan’s main agricultural exports include apples — providing an economic impact estimated at more than $700 million yearly — asparagus, blueberries, cabbage, tart and sweet cherries, corn, Christmas trees and many more.

“A lot of farms would shut down if they didn’t have migrant labor,” Hendricks said. “They would be out of business.”

While Michigan and its farms rely on migrant workers for millions in revenue, anti-immigrant sentiment is driving them away.

“As we looked at how to empower the farm workers, we want to preserve income,” Hendricks said. “Our traditional legal services are protecting against wage theft and living conditions. (But) then as we saw all of the other things that were affecting their income, we knew we had to meet the emerging needs. So, we looked at reasons why they might not stay at their jobs or might remain victimized.

“One of the things that we saw surge was violence against farm workers and acts of hate and harassment. There was anti-immigrant rhetoric and migrants were being told to go back to Mexico, and children that were born here of farm parents were being told in school that their parents were going to be sent back to Mexico.

“There was an instance where a farmer in Lansing was attacked by two individuals who stapled a (racist) note to his chest. So, we realized that that was a bigger concern of the farm workers, and it had to do with their dignity and their ability to stay here and earn a living.”

MLA pivoted from its traditional course and started taking action to protect targeted workers.

One of its first obstacles was helping engage law enforcement with migrant communities, both to help law enforcement learn how to conduct interviews with migrant workers and understand their unique needs and to help migrant workers grow comfortable reporting crimes to them.

“What resulted was a number of crimes getting reported and the victim following through with the court procedure, and it raised awareness to the point where the greater community realized what was happening,” Hendricks said. “We had a farm employer who was notoriously abusive with the workers who were empowered to videotape the abuse, and he was caught on tape in a racist tirade against one of the workers that he was unhappy with.

“It included five video/audio sections of him calling the worker a number of curse words and spitting on him. The farm worker followed through and made a report to law enforcement that was culturally competent and adept at getting the right information. All of that led to the first conviction of a farm employer for this type of racist tirade of abuse that we had seen.”

Hendricks said she has seen employers over the years committing crimes ranging from holding a gun to a worker’s head to threatening MLA advocates with a gun, to spitting on them, even migrant workers housed in a chicken coop.

Since higher levels of undocumented workers in the past gave employers a more plentiful workforce, it was easier for them to find new workers if their employees left them as a result of mistreatment. Now, as worker supply dwindles, employers must treat migrants with more respect to keep them employed, she said.

To help migrant workers, MLA does outreach to farm housing sites throughout Michigan’s growing season, speaking with workers and observing their conditions to report violations in housing or labor to state inspectors and document information to bring a class action.

In this way, MLA acts as a watchdog, keeping farms accountable to the state for their actions.

“We are the boots on the ground to hold bad farm employers accountable,” Hendricks said.

Heading into its 50th year, Hendricks is grateful for the hard work of her team and urges communities to respect the hardworking migrants who feed them and keep Michigan’s economy buoyant.

“For 30 years, I feel that I have had the privilege and honor of representing a group of superhuman neighbors,” she said. “If you see how much physical exertion goes into a growing season (by people) who are basically making poverty wages, you can’t help but admire the people that you represent. I’m hoping that the 50-year anniversary marks a new attitude and appreciation for the people that feed us. And I feel like that is happening, the more people are aware of where their food comes from.

“If you’re enjoying local fresh produce and you’re against illegal labor, then maybe you should take half of the food off your plate, because that probably was harvested by hands that weren’t legal. Almost everything on a plate has first passed through the hands of a farm worker or an agricultural worker. So, we need to respect the people that feed us. Our neighbors are feeding us. If you don’t understand how (your food) got on your plate, you shouldn’t speak ill of immigrant workers.”

This story can be found in the Feb. 20 issue of the Grand Rapids Business Journal. To get more stories like this delivered to your mailbox, subscribe here.