“‘We need ’em worse than they need us’: how Haitian workers feed the US”

… Haitian migrants also come to the US and locations across the hemisphere to work in food production or other service industries. Their numbers have increased after the devastating 2010 earthquake…

Others brave unsafe border crossings into the Dominican Republic’s sugarcane fields for abusively low wages. … Many endure human trafficking into Maryland to pick tomatoes …

… Blueberry pickers often make money by the bucket or box…

The six-week season is intense, with long workdays in blistering heat and rain. Beyond the general physical exertion and working in an unfamiliar place, workers are also exposed to pesticides that linger on the berries or soil. They are sometimes shuttled from farm to farm because it’s “always blueberry season somewhere”. This group of workers would be moving in 10 days, and that made it all the more important to vaccinate them before their next stop…

In poultry processing, Haitians drive delivery trucks, butcher carcasses and trim skin from the meat. It’s not only dirty work; it’s dangerous. A town resident told me one laborer lost his hand….