Field Of Needs: Migrant Farmworks Living In Deplorable Conditions

Year after year, thousands of migrant workers come through the Coachella Valley to work on our agricultural fields. Most of them work in the Mecca and Thermal area.

Two-to-three months out of a year, they work on the harvest that will feed thousands of Americans.

But sadly enough, these workers lack food for themselves and a place to live.

?The farm workers come to the Coachella Valley during the grape season, and many of them have no place to live,? said Father Eliseo Lucas ?They have no place to cook, no place to rest and many of them are at risk.”

News Channel 3 witnessed first-hand what Lucas told us: dozens of migrant workers sleeping on the streets, in their cars, on the ground or under a tree.

That’s what we saw.

Here’s what we *didn’t* see.

No bathrooms and no showers for them to use.

Leticia de Lara works with Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit.

“These are people that come to the area, that are working hard in the fields and provide a necessary service,? she said.

They come from all over the world, but 95 percent come from Mexico, according to California Rural Legal Assistance.

In our visit to Mecca, I spoke with Enrique, 66, a migrant worker who had come to California to work since he was 17.

We found him in a parking lot at around 4 a.m.

Here, other migrant workers just like him spend their night trying to sleep next to a noisy intersection.

There’s no other choice.

“It is not very pleasant,? he told us. ?We have to do it because there are no places for us to stay.”

“They face many many problems,? said Elisio. One of them is on the fields where they work. Many times they have no shade. Sometimes they don’t have enough water to drink. They receive a very small salary. They work hard and their money is very little.”

These men make approximately $8-per-hour, or roughly $10,000-to-$12,000-a-year in an industry that makes billions of dollars.

Farmworkers experience much higher unemployment because of the seasonal Nature of their work.

Experts say 10 percent are unemployed at any given time.

“We get criticized being in the U.S. and having to spend the night out on the open,? said Enrique. ?It is not very pleasing.”

“We definitely have a great need for farm workers to be able to pick the harvest. That’s food that’s at our table,” said de Lara.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, there were more than 34,000 migrant or seasonal farmworkers in Riverside County in 2000.

When you include other members of their family, the total rises to more than 62,000.

And, most live and work in conditions similar to Enrique