Special week puts focus on how food gets to Americans' tables -- through farmworkers' labor

(OSV News) -- Farms are in every state in the country, producing fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy and raising animals for consumption. It all makes its way to the nation's dinner tables.
Yet, little thought is given to how the food on your plate got there and who helped feed your family.

With National Farmworkers Awareness Week coming up March 25-31, OSV News checked in on the group that makes up a significant portion of farm laborers, migrant workers, and how the church is ministering to them in a time that immigration crackdowns are taking place.

"This is a fluid community and we use the term 'invisible,'" said Jesuit Father Thomas Florek, executive director of the Catholic Migrant Farmworkers Network, or CMFN. "A lot of parishes and dioceses would say 'Well we don't have any workers.' We say, 'Well you do. You just don't see them.'"

Father Florek said this is "due to their seasonal presence, their multiple categories and the method used to track them."

According to the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, farmworkers are "invisible" in general.

The association and CMFN both say there are about 2.5 million to 3 million farmworkers in the United States. U.S. Department of Agriculture's farm labor statistics list 1.17 million farmworkers through 2023 with Hispanic foreign nationals, almost all Mexican, comprising 63% of farm laborers, graders and sorters.

The USDA figure is based on the Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages, which uses unemployment insurance records. But the figure does not include small farm data, since their employers do not participate in the unemployment insurance system. Father Florek said that among Hispanic farmworkers, he estimates 60% are unauthorized immigrants.

He told OSV News there is a "fear factor" nowadays, as the Trump administration tightens enforcement of immigration policy. He said the network is monitoring detentions, arrests and deportations, but he said that with "indirect media coverage," it is hard to tell who is being picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Father Florek said rumors spread and families "get very afraid," the children skip school and they designate a documented family member to do the grocery shopping and go to the pharmacy.

He said CMFN is carrying out a major information campaign with webinars that focus on "information, preparation and solidarity." Pastoral workers who accompany migrant workers from parishes that belong to dioceses with significant farmworker populations take part in the webinars, and in-person meetings.

"What we're trying to do, at least in the short-run, is give the information and help build up the fact that the Catholic Church is out there, concerned and supporting them," he said.

On March 13, the Department of Homeland Security announced 32,800 arrests in the first 50 days since President Donald Trump took office. The announcement highlighted about 14,000 were convicted criminals, while nearly 10,000 had criminal charges pending.

On March 16 the Trump administration, invoking the 1798 "Alien Enemies Act," has deported more than 200 people it deemed to be members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. The act has been previously invoked only three times in U.S. history: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II.

A federal judge March 17 ordered a temporary stop to the deportation flight to the Center for Terrorism Confinement in LaPaz, El Salvador, but it did not turn around. The Trump administration has argued the order came as the flight entered international airspace. District Judge James E. Boasberg Boasberg has ordered the administration to answer his questions about the timing of the deportation flights.

Because it is early in the year yet for fruit and vegetable harvesting, several dioceses across the country told OSV News they did not know what their Hispanic ministries, especially to migrant farmworkers, would look like in the next months.

Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of Yakima, Washington, is the episcopal monitor of CMFN. He said the end of March is when foreign nationals start going to farms ahead of the harvest to supervise the seasonal work of mainly cherry picking in May, then peaches and apricots in the summer, and apples in the fall.

He said in the diocese, which is 75% Hispanic, 65,000 to 70,000 are farmworkers with seasonal H-2A visas. Though the numbers were less last year, he expected the visa program to continue. But with recent government cuts to departments, he also said there could be potential delays in processing the paperwork. The bishop said there was still a question about migrant workers.

"At this point, President Trump has not deported as many people at this time in his term as President Joe Biden," Bishop Tyson said. "Obviously, what's different is the egregious marring of the dignity of the human person through the language of this administration, (from) both the president, the vice president, the press secretary, the kind of the anti-immigrant rhetoric.

"So we have people voluntarily leaving. We have some parishioners just heading back to Mexico. If they might be undocumented or their kids are not, they want to maintain their families. So we have people leave voluntarily because of the social climate."

He said most of those arrested in central Washington were not violent criminals, but that all who were deported went through a removal process, meaning a procedural judge determined either their asylum requests were denied, they had overstayed visas or they were in the country without authorization, among other factors.

The Diocese of Salt Lake City, which is 80% Hispanic, has seen a mix of parishioners leaving in large numbers or just staying put, according to Father Rogelio Felix-Rosas, a pastor and the diocesan liaison for the Hispanic community and Hispanic priests. He said dairy farmworkers have continued to do their work as always, even under the current crackdown on immigration. Dairy farmworkers work all year round and do not qualify for the seasonal H-2A visa. But he said workers in other sectors such as restaurants have left in fear.

Father Felix-Roxas told OSV News the diocese has always worked closely with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,, the dominant religion in the state, "in protecting the dignity of the person," especially now in the tense immigration environment.

"For sure, there is fear," he said. But he said an attorney spoke with his ministry some weeks ago about Latter-day Saints' efforts to try to ensure churches, schools and hospitals would not be subjected to immigration raids, while still acknowledging the law has to be carried out.

"I think of it as 'Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God," said Father Felix-Rosas, referring to a Scripture passage in which Jesus said taxes should be paid without undermining one's own faith.

In the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan, nearly a quarter of all parishes have a Spanish-language Mass and almost half have Hispanic ministries.

Veronica Rodriguez, associate director of the diocese's Hispanic and migrant affairs ministry, said this is a slow time for her office because the seasonal laborers work mainly in the summer months.

But she said in an email to OSV News, "My impression as I have visited the parishes, in the Hispanic community in general, there is a sense of tension and fear."

The Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina, is also expecting seasonal workers mainly for the tobacco harvest, but Deacon Joshua Klickman, diocesan human dignity and life coordinator, told OSV News it would be hard to tell whether there would be a drop in the number of workers. He also noted fear among the Hispanic community, not only with the migrants but also with generations-long American Hispanics.

Deacon Klickman described himself as a Republican but still, he decried the language of the Trump administration's reference to immigrants.

"The policies don't begin with the language of dignity. They don't begin with the inherent dignity that everybody has. Starting with the language of invasion, it just automatically starts distracting from any sense of dignity that all humans have, as taught by Jesus," he said.