...The first time I spoke to Valeria, I heard her sweet, kind voice, unsure of the information she could share. We texted for a month. Her husband Diego helped me convince her to talk…

…For months Valeria feared for her life and that of her children. In 2018, Diego obtained an H-2A visa and traveled to the United States to pick blueberries on a farm in North Carolina. They both decided this would be a way to earn more money and improve their family’s finances. Diego escaped from the farm where he was working just a few weeks after arriving in the U.S. There, he lived in unsanitary conditions and suffered labor exploitation…

Shortly after escaping, Diego received a call from the person in Mexico who had recruited him to work on a farm in the U.S. Valeria remembered Diego’s words when he called her. “It was a threat,” Diego said. “I mean, you can leave but then face the consequences.”…

A local reporter told me these trips are an open secret in town. Everyone knows that these men are going north and that the local recruiters decide who will go, although no one answers who these recruiters are, how to contact them, or where…