Our food industry—from farm to table—depends on the work of immigrants to keep quality high and prices low. Immigrants plant our food. They fertilize it, grow it, water it, harvest it, butcher it, clean it, pack it, deliver it, and unload it. Once it gets to your neighborhood restaurant, they’re usually the ones who cut . . .
Here’s a question I hear all the time: If it’s so difficult and dangerous to cross through the Arizona desert, why do so many immigrants choose to enter the country that way? Why don’t more immigrants just fly to the US on an airplane, pretend to be a tourist, then remain in the country indefinitely? . . .
Did you do anything to be born where you were? If given the choice, most of us would pick wealthy, loving families in rich countries like Italy, France, the United States, or Canada. But we don’t get to pick. We don’t do anything to earn the blessings or misfortunes we are born with. Imagine being . . .
I am of Irish and Italian ancestry, born and raised in a primarily white, suburban area of Louisville, Kentucky. I grew up knowing (and caring) very little about Mexico or why so many Mexicans come to our country. My first introduction to immigration issues came about somewhat accidentally when I moved to Chicago in my . . .
Poll after poll shows that most Americans support immigration reform. Politicians, on the other hand, have been relatively silent on the issue for about five years. Despite the public’s desire for an overhaul of our immigration system, it’s unlikely that we will witness any kind of comprehensive immigration reform in the near future. This statement . . .
There are about 11-12 million undocumented (or illegal) immigrants in the United States. So how do they enter the country? 1. Legal Entry: Believe it or not, many undocumented immigrants actually start out as legal immigrants. They obtain a legitimate visa and pass through immigration control at the airport or at a border checkpoint. They . . .
For decades, the Mexican government supported its coffee farmers. It provided them subsidized seed and fertilizer, and purchased crops from farmers at guaranteed prices. Guaranteed prices are essential because they allow people to plan for the future and secure loans to purchase inputs. All of this changed when, in 1989, the Mexican government began . . .
I am a fruit grower/marketer in western New York. My husband and I own and operate 250 acres–approximately 40,000 trees in production. Every individual piece of fruit that we and the thousands of other fruit growers need to have harvested must be handpicked. They must be handpicked by people with gentle and strong hands who . . .
Bob Kee came across more human remains this weekend during a hike through the Arizona desert. Read my earlier piece about why and how frequently this is happening. Photo courtesy of Bob Kee
Over the weekend, my friend Bob Kee, a volunteer with the Tucson Samaritans, sent me tragic photos of human remains that he came across during an excursion in the Arizona desert. The person whose remains appear in the photos was almost surely an undocumented migrant making his or her way through the desert to work . . .
Winner of the 2011 American Library Association Notable Video Award, "The Other Side of Immigration" explores the root causes of Mexican immigration like no other documentary.
