Underground America

Narratives of Undocumented Lives

Voice of Witness, Peter Orner

• Publisher: Verso
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781786632272
• eBook ISBN: 9781786632258
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Labour & Industrial Relations
• Index: Social Sciences

They arrive from around the world for countless reasons. Many come simply to make a living. Others are fleeing persecution in their native countries. Millions of immigrants risk deportation and imprisonment by living in the U.S. without legal status. They are living underground, with little protection from exploitation at the hands of human smugglers, employers, or law enforcement. Underground America, from the Voice of Witness series, presents the remarkable oral histories of women and men struggling to carve a life for themselves in the U.S.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: IMMIGRANT LABOR AND
POST-KATRINA RECONSTRUCTION

The rebuilding process following Hurricane Katrina brought an influx of workers into the Gulf Coast. A large number of those workers were undocumented Latino laborers, who were vulnerable to exploitation at the hands of contractors. Reports of poor working conditions, harassment, and wage theft were widespread.

An estimated 25 percent of construction workers in post-Katrina New Orleans were Latino.†

100,000 Latino workers relocated to the Gulf Coast after Katrina.†

28 percent of undocumented reconstruction workers reported having difficulty obtaining payment for their work.†

19 percent of workers reported not being equipped with proper protective gear when working with hazardous substances or in dangerous conditions.†

In September 2005, Immigration and Customs Enforcement dispatched 725 officers to the Gulf for detention and removal of undocumented workers.‡

In 2006, a report issued by the Advancement Project, National Immigration Law Center, and New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition concluded that:

New Orleans is being rebuilt on the backs of underpaid and unpaid workers perpetuating cycles of poverty that existed pre-Katrina, and ensuring their existence in the newly rebuilt city. Exploitation and exclusion are deeply immoral grounds upon which to reconstruct and repopulate the city. The racial fault lines that were revealed during Hurricane Katrina are being drawn even deeper by the continued actions and inactions of government and private institutions that disadvantage communities of color. The structural racism that shapes New Orleans today is the result of a series of policies and practices (public and private) that create, maintain, and worsen inequities faced by survivors and other workers of color.

Hurricane Katrina has created a situation where there is no government or private accountability for the creation and maintenance of these inequities. Displaced voters have no voice back home, while reconstruction workers are either nonresidents or noncitizens. As a result, contractors have free reign to exploit workers, and the government has felt no pressure to ensure that survivor and migrant workers are protected and able to access basic human needs. Progressive reform will occur only when advocates band together—across race, ethnicity, and legal status lines—for the advancement of all workers in New Orleans.

APPENDIX B: CHINESE HUMAN SMUGGLING

Excerpts from “Why Do They Leave Their Homes?” an essay published by the U.S. State Department about the motivations of Chinese immigrants, specifically those from the Fuzhou region of China.

The search for economic opportunity and social pressure are the top two reasons why some Chinese chose to leave their homeland, according to immigration scholars.

International immigration theory describes “push” and “pull” factors: Greater economic opportunity “pulls” immigrants to the United States, while lower wages and unemployment “push” emigrants from China.

Immigrants believe they can become wealthy in the United States, known as “the Golden Mountain,” because wages in the United States are high relative to wages in China. The majority of illegal aliens originate in small villages around China’s coastal cities, especially Fuzhou, in Fujian Province. Workers in China earn twice as much in the average city as in rural areas, and seven or eight times more in large coastal cities, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, than in rural areas.

* * *

It is important to note that workers who leave China tend to come from developed areas that have the infrastructures to provide communication with and transportation to the West. Chinese who choose to enter the United States illegally must have access to significant funds. Smuggling fees run as high as $60,000 and are usually paid with loans from family members and friends. In contrast, most of the 300 million people living in poverty in China have less exposure to the lures of the West and cannot afford to travel—legally or otherwise.

Around the Fuzhou area, emigration abroad is commonly seen as the only possible way for an individual to succeed. In some villages, no industries have developed because the majority of workers between the ages of 18 and 45 have left China. Families will loan money to pay smuggling fees, but will not invest in a relative trying to start a business in China, both because of the difficulties of running a business in China and because of the attitude that more opportunity exists in the United States.

The faith that some communities have in the “American success story” causes them to generate a great deal of social pressure on their members to emigrate abroad. Fuzhounese have a long tradition of sending at least one family member “to make a living abroad.” More recently, having a family member in the United States has become a status symbol. “When people get together they always talk about how their sons or daughters or relatives or husbands or brothers are doing in the United States,” according to Ko-lin Chin, an expert on Fuzhounese immigrants.

* * *

Not only do some Chinese feel that they must go to the United States to be successful, they also feel the need to appear successful after they do. Although they often find themselves crushed by long work hours and financial demands, Chinese illegal immigrants may be embarrassed to admit their condition to family and friends at home. If immigrants do try to talk about their hardships, their families may choose to believe that the immigrants are lazy or “whiners.”

If a husband is unwilling to venture abroad, his wife may threaten to leave him and make the trip herself. Because of the loneliness such separations cause, many illegal immigrants will attempt to help other family members to come to the United States. In addition, the money illegal immigrants send home inspires others to risk being smuggled into the United States.

In addition to pressures from family and friends, Chinese are also encouraged to move abroad by smugglers or “snakeheads.” Sometimes, smugglers advertise work overseas, but most find their customers through connections and by word-of-mouth. Smugglers operating within Chinese communities add to the phenomenon of small areas generating large numbers of illegal emigrants. Snakeheads—much more than the emigrants themselves—profit from illegally sending their clients abroad. Some scholars estimate that human smuggling generates an estimated $8 billion a year worldwide for criminal enterprises.

APPENDIX C: TRAGEDY AT A NEW BEDFORD
FISH PROCESSING PLANT

In his narrative, Abel refers to the death of one of his friends, a fellow fish-processing-plant worker. The story to which he is referring is that of Antonio Ajqui. A native of the Quiche region of Guatemala, Ajqui died in a tragic accident at a fish-processing plant in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1998. At the age of forty, he was crushed to death by a machine that steams and grinds fish into meal, as his nineteen-year-old son, Francisco, watched helplessly.

The two men worked at Atlantic Coast Fisheries, which employed two hundred people at the time of Ajqui’s death. On the morning of his death, Ajqui was cleaning inside a ten-by-twenty-foot vat, when the hose he was using caught on the power switch. Ajqui fell into the machine’s rotating blades and was killed.

Coworkers report that they were never instructed to “lock out” the machine’s power. Safety signs in the factory were written in English, despite the fact that a majority of the company’s employees did not speak English as a primary language.

APPENDIX D: TEMPORARY AGRICULTURAL WORK VISAS

The following are excerpts from the U.S. Department of Labor’s H-2A (temporary or seasonal agricultural work) guidelines for employers.

H-2A Certification for Temporary or Seasonal Agricultural Work

The H-2A temporary agricultural program establishes a means for agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring nonimmigrant foreign workers to the U.S. to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature. Before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) can approve an employer’s petition for such workers, the employer must file an application with the Department stating that there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available, and that the employment of aliens will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers. The statute and Departmental regulations provide for numerous worker protections and employer requirements with respect to wages and working conditions that do not apply to nonagricultural programs. The Department’s Wage and Hour Division, Employment Standards Administration (ESA) has responsibility for enforcing provisions of worker contracts.

“Temporary or seasonal nature” means employment performed at certain seasons of the year, usually in relation to the production and/or harvesting of a crop, or for a limited time period of less than one year when an employer can show that the need for the foreign worker(s) is truly temporary.

Qualifying Criteria

The following general categories of individuals or organizations may file an application:

*An agricultural employer who anticipates a shortage of U.S. workers needed to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature, may file an application requesting temporary foreign agricultural labor certification.

*An authorized agent, whether an individual (e.g., an attorney) or an entity (e.g., an association), may file an application on behalf of an employer. Associations may file master applications on behalf of their members.

An employer who files an application for temporary foreign labor certification pursuant to H-2A regulations must meet the following specific conditions:

Recruitment: The employer must agree to engage in independent positive recruitment of U.S. workers. This means an active effort, including newspaper and radio advertising in areas of expected labor supply. Such recruitment must be at least equivalent to that conducted by non-H-2A agricultural employers in the same or similar crops and area to secure U.S. workers. This must be an effort independent of and in addition to the efforts of the SWA (State Workforce Agency). In establishing worker qualifications and/or job specifications, the employer must designate only those qualifications and specifications which are essential to carrying out the job and which are normally required by other employers who do not hire foreign workers.

Wages: The wage or rate of pay must be the same for U.S. workers and H-2A workers. The hourly rate must also be at least as high as the applicable Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), federal or state minimum wage, or the applicable prevailing hourly wage rate, whichever is higher. The AEWR is established every year by the Department of Labor for every state except Alaska.

If a worker will be paid on a piece rate basis, the worker must be paid the prevailing piece as determined by the SWA. If the piece rate does not result in average hourly piece rate earnings during the pay period at least equal to the amount the worker would have earned had the worker been paid at the hourly rate, then the worker’s pay must be supplemented to the equivalent hourly level. The piece rate offered must be no less than what is prevailing in the area for the same crop and/or activity.

Housing: The employer must provide free housing to all workers who are not reasonably able to return to their residences the same day. Such housing must be inspected and approved according to appropriate standards. Housing provided by the employer shall meet the full set of DOL (Department of Labor) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards set forth at 29 CFR 1910.142 or the full set of standards at 654.404-645.417. Rental housing which meets local or state health and safety standards also may be provided.

Meals: The employer must provide either three meals a day to each worker or furnish free and convenient cooking and kitchen facilities for workers to prepare their own meals. If meals are provided, then the employer may charge each worker a certain amount per day for the three meals.

Transportation: The amount of transportation payment shall be no less (and shall not be required to be more) than the most economical and reasonable similar common carrier transportation charges for the distances involved. The employer is responsible for the following different types of transportation of workers: 1. After a worker has completed fifty percent of the work contract period, the employer must reimburse the worker for the cost of transportation and subsistence from the place of recruitment to the place of work if such costs were borne by the worker. 2. The employer must provide free transportation between the employer’s housing and the worksite for any worker who is provided housing. 3. Upon completion of the work contract, the employer must pay economic costs of a worker’s subsistence and return transportation to the place of recruitment.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance: The employer must provide workers’ compensation insurance where it is required by state law. Where state law does not require it, the employer must provide equivalent insurance for all workers.

Tools and Supplies: The employer must furnish at no cost to the worker all tools and supplies necessary to carry out the work, unless it is common practice in the area and occupation for the worker to provide certain items.

Three-Fourths Guarantee: The employer must guarantee to offer each worker employment for at least three-fourths of the workdays in the work contract period and any extensions. If the employer affords less employment, then the employer must pay the amount which the worker would have earned had the worker been employed the guaranteed number of days.

Other Conditions: The employer must keep accurate records with respect to a worker’s earnings. The...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword: All Stories are Refugees: From Dangerous Lands
• Introduction: Permanent Anxiety
• Editor’s Note
• Note for the 2013 Edition
• Diana
• Mr. Lai
• Saleem, 54
• Roberto
• Liso
• Hector, 42
• Olga
• Abel
• Polo, 23
• Dixie
• El Curita
• Julio, 46
• Lorena
• El Mojado
• Yogesh, 24
• Jose Garcia
• Elizabeth
• Nsombo, 39
• Desiree
• Farid
• Rose, 43
• Adela
• Estrella
• Enrique, 60
• Editor’s Note for the Afterword
• Appendices
• Notes
• Glossary
• About the Editors
• Acknowledgments
• The Voice of Witness Series