...I had reported on immigration and immigrant communities for a decade, so I knew about H-2A visas. I knew about the men—because they are overwhelmingly majority men—who came to the United States to work in agriculture for months at a time and then went back to Mexico— because they are overwhelmingly Mexican.

I had an idea of the substandard living and working conditions for many farmworkers, documented and not... U.S. farms took advantage of farmworkers’ immigration status to pay them as little as possible (often below their state’s minimum wage)…

I met strong men, whose face lines showed the years of work in the sun and whose hands told the stories of all they gave this country, break down in front of me when talking about their hardships in the program. I stood in the epicenter of H-2A visas in Mexico and felt the power that recruiters exude there…

The number of H-2A visas reached record-high levels during the Trump administration, with about 250,000 workers. It opened the door for more abuse…

And here are two things I’ll leave you with. Despite the known flaws and lack of oversight in the H-2A visa program, Congress and the White House are looking to expand it without fully reforming it…