Human Trafficking-One Family's Story

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Human Trafficking-One Family's Story

This woman in the picture is working with her husband and her son all day in the fields...

The day starts at 4 am when we get to the fields and ends at 4 in the afternoon. This farmer is kind and allows a 15 minute break twice a day. He brings water and peanut butter crackers to us. Lunch is a half hour at noon, unpaid for the hour of breaks. 

It is cold and damp at 4 am with the morning dew. The plants shed water onto the workers, we are cold. The heat comes then, some days 102 degrees in the North Carolina sun. We walk, bending at every plant to pull weeds from around the roots. Afternoons sometimes there is a quick shower, no-one stops working. We steam off when the shower ends. By the end of the day, it must be 20 miles of walking back and forth through the huge fields. 

I am watching closely one family. I attach myself to them as I have no idea how to work in the fields. I will be the only American there the entire summer despite that we traveled to many fields and farmers. Only one time an American showed up to work, despite heavy ads in newspapers and local store boards. He did not last to the noon hour. Our crew struggled to keep up but many of the farmers had a great deal of crops left rotting in the fields.  Changes in the law and deportation had created a shortage of farm help. Where were the Americans these people were taking jobs from?

The family is struggling to survive on a daily basis...The son is severely handicapped, he can not be left alone so despite his mental and physical conditions so he works with them in the field all day long. He was severely beaten by coyotes and left for dead. 

How difficult it must be for the mother and father, who paid a great deal of money to have him brought over..but they have no choice but to have him work in the field. There is no day care..there is no school for him to go to. This child's life is hard. He falls down a lot and doesn't do a good job..the other workers are fearful of being fired if the work doesn't come up to standard so they cut through the rows from their own to his to check on him.  The mother and father do the same...the dad I am guessing to be in his very late 60's.  They are struggling and work hard because there is 2 other children to be brought by the coyotes. They are fearful but pray to Jesus constantly that the coyotes will bring them and not ask for more money....or worse yet pick the children up, keep the money and kill them. 

Cost of Coyotes has gone up as it is harder to get over the border. The mother has not seen her children for 10 years, they were 2 and 3 years old when she left. Ten years they sent money home for the children's support and try to save what they can. Finally, they have enough.

The dad is suffering from what they call tobacco poisoning.  It is worse than poison ivy by ten times but if you have ever had that you know what I am talking about ..The bubbles are huge and cover his whole back,,it is itchy enough to drive you out of your mind..The sun makes the boils burst and they leak more poison over him...They are too afraid of being deported to go to the hospital although it can get extremely serious...I take him to the store and give him Beneydrl pills and teach them how to use them...They didn't know how to buy them or had even heard of them..News of this soon spread to hundreds of workers..

There was many workers with this....they just accepted it

THEY HAVE GONE YEARS WITH NO MEDICINE FOR THIS...

so hard to believe, a simple over the counter medicine sold at most gas stations.......

Sometimes when you wonder,

What is it I can do personally to help someone?..Can you see how just a small exchange of information is helpful. Think about what you could do to make a difference, one person at a time...they stay hidden but if you look hard enough you will see them.They are everywhere..our fields,our factories, the churches when they can get there...reach out to someone around you.,give a hand...there are many ways you can help.

The mother wears a bandanna, she remains cheerful despite the tiredness I see in her eyes.  She offers me a bandanna to put on...I didn't want to wear it at first but within a few hours I realized her cough did not come from a cold but from years of working with the dust has ruined her lungs.

Often times the coyotes bring a family member for a set price..paid in advance.  The family just has to  hope they get here...sometimes they don't...95% of the time when the coyote delivers there is an additional 5000.00 demanded, sometimes a lot more.  The hope is when he is paid they will have a good life. This family has worked years so far for the mother, father and son to be here in our country. They are fearful as they have paid the coyote now to bring the other two children and wait anxiously.

This farmer insists they rest Sunday or this family would probably work! They get work on Sunday from small motels that pay them in cash to clean the rooms.

I couldn't fathom the situation they were in ...course at that point I thought a coyote was something like a wild small dog ...............

I also didn't realize work didn't last long and it was hard to come by especially with the new laws...

Every morning I would see the family arrive...it never occurred to me..I mean

THE FAMILY LIVED IN AN OLD CAR ABANDONED ON THE EDGE OF THE FIELD AND HAVE NOT MUCH FOOD..

Comforts like good shoes and clothing they don't even have. 

I used nail glue in the field to fix one workers sneakers that the bottom flap on both of them separated at the same time...the other workers laughed with him...it was just their life.. I am ashamed to say my thought was" Why doesn't he just buy a new pair of shoes, surely they make enough money"..I thought it was just their choice to save money to send home to Mexico,.ignorance is bliss and we live in a blissful country

................ PAYING OFF COYOTES....SUPPORTING LOVED ONES WHO HAVE NO WORK AT HOME....

The sneakers were still holding a few months later...every time I saw him he pointed to them and thanked me for I later learned he had little money anyways but besides that what we take for granted ..a DRIVERS LICENSE! It is with great risk that the few that drive, drive for the chances of being discovered and pulled over and deported are 100 percent greater...You don't ask someone to risk deportation for a ride to buy sneakers........................)

I MEAN LIKE I REALLY DIDN'T GET IT...start thinking about it...the ones that drive? How do they buy a car....how do they register it so they won't be pulled over?  They don't! I just never thought about the tremendous list of things all the way down to not being able to go buy a pair of sneakers even if you had the money.....

A lot of the money goes to the coyotes, the rest to support family at home where there is no work to be found! I have lost touch with this family,  I went back to the fields one time after this (When I realized that the pesticides sprayed on the plants, the parents were not advised of the risk to their children,another article) ,... but I pray for them that their children arrived safely and that they are not split up in the future.

I can't tell you how many women I have taken to the jail to visit their husband only to find he has been deported already.

There is nothing sadder than to hear the cries of the women.

It does not take long for them to be made to work as prostitutes. The driver of the van bringing these poor ladies around, an American woman.  Unbelievable yet I am not surprised and take my dinner outside to sit with some of the other workers. One man is drinking heavily, fifteen years he has sent money home to his wife to build a house. He calls her daily with a unlimited phone card for the month to Mexico.  The house is done and he was overjoyed to be going home. When he told his wife this, that at long last they would be together, she told him she had plans to marry another.

Sometimes the coyotes get more money by taking the money to bring the child and then selling the child to someone else.., which I pray with all my heart does not happen to this family......it happens often, human trafficking is a part of their lives.

Update on this post:

One of the workers who became a good friend died recently.

These people have no health care.

There was no health care for the family's son.

There was no health care for this man.

His death was un-necessary. They did not know "diabetes".

In a diabetic coma ,which the underlying condition can be treated, his only brother who did not speak English was convinced to "pull the plug" despite that he had only an IV drip. He was told his brother's kidneys would soon shut down from drinking.

Personally, I visited him and don't believe this to be true. This man loved to cook which was his passion and rarely had a beer even. With diabetes, there is 2 different types of comas. 

The hospital he was in is government run.

The rating is 63

He was then deprived of food and water in the coma and died 13 days later.  13 days of starvation. It would have taken less time and cost to treat him was my thought.

He worked in our fields...providing food for our tables yet not even a free clinic for basic care.

I was hospitalized for 11 days with the tobacco poisoning and pneumonia in 98 percent of my lungs from the field. The emergency room doctor told me if I had waited even a few more hours to come in, probably I would not be here. How many field workers died without medical care? 

The hospital stay exceeded the basic medical coverage I had. Being a legal citizen and American,There were funds to cover the balance. I only had to fill out paperwork.

Is there any way we can petition our government to at least let the some farm grant funds help cover hospitalization for our field workers? Perhaps a few free clinics?

Give us this day our daily bread...thousands of these people suffer to bring it to us, Just for the privilege to live in America.

Original article 2012 by Deborah Rolon