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The undocumented(20 images)

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The undocumented in America.
  • Renanto, an undocumented migrant farmworker from Vera Cruz, Mexico during a lunch break in the fields of rural North Carolina..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work.
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  • Mexican H2A workers weed the tobbaco crop in Greene County, North Carolina..As the national debate over "illegal" immigration continues, it is often forgotten that it is not just an issue that concerns the border states. Undocumented migrant laborers pick the seasonal crops all across the country that put food on all of America's tables. The work is hard and long, the pay miserable, and the living conditions at many of the migrant camps reminiscent of slave plantations. These are jobs that most Americans do not want, and the underground agricultural economy that supplies the migrant labor is the real reason people continue to enter the country illegally-because there is work.
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  • A 13 year old Mexican migrant farmworker passes the time at a labor camp during a slow few days in the harvest when there is no work. As often happens, the migrants become virtual prisoners of the labor camp, with nowhere to go and no way to travel..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work..As the national debate over "illegal" immigration continues, it is often forgotten that it is not just an issue that concerns the border states. Undocumented migrant laborers pick the seasonal crops all across the country that put food on all of America's tables. The work is hard and long, the pay miserable, and the living conditions at many of the migrant camps reminiscent of slave plantations. These are jobs that most Americans do not want, and the underground agricultural economy that supplies the migrant labor is the real reason people continue to enter the country illegally-because there is work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • A migrant labor camp for mostly Mexican workers from Chiapis, in rural North Carolina..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work.As the national debate over "illegal" immigration continues, it is often forgotten that it is not just an issue that concerns the border states. Undocumented migrant laborers pick the seasonal crops all across the country that put food on all of America's tables. The work is hard and long, the pay miserable, and the living conditions at many of the migrant camps reminiscent of slave plantations. These are jobs that most Americans do not want, and the underground agricultural economy that supplies the migrant labor is the real reason people continue to enter the country illegally-because there is work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • On pay day migrant farmworkers stand in line to have their chips counted, each chip representing a farm basket filled in the fields..Rural Sampson County in central North Carolina is one of America's bread baskets. During the summer months, when the vegetable and tobacco crops need to be harvested, thousands of undocumented migrant farm workers from Mexico and Central America arrive to labor in the fields. They live in primitive and isolated work camps, and if the weather allows, work six days a week, often 14 hours a day, for very little pay, picking beans, eggplants, and peppers. .It is estimated that there are between 15 and 20 million illegal immigrants working in America. While Sampson County is a thousand miles from the Mexican border, the local growers know the reality-if immigration laws are actually enforced, the crops will rot in the fields until someone else can be found to work as hard as the "illegal" immigrants.
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  • A young boy shows off his muscles at a migrant labor camp..Rural Sampson County in central North Carolina is one of America's bread baskets. During the summer months, when the vegetable and tobacco crops need to be harvested, thousands of undocumented migrant farm workers from Mexico and Central America arrive to labor in the fields. They live in primitive and isolated work camps, and if the weather allows, work six days a week, often 14 hours a day, for very little pay, picking beans, eggplants, and peppers. .It is estimated that there are between 15 and 20 million illegal immigrants working in America. While Sampson County is a thousand miles from the Mexican border, the local growers know the reality-if immigration laws are actually enforced, the crops will rot in the fields until someone else can be found to work as hard as the "illegal" immigrants.
    migrant_far...JPG
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  • By 6 a.m. migrant farmworkers have boarded a camp bus to take them to the fields, where they will spend the at least the next twelve hours working..Rural Sampson County in central North Carolina is one of America's bread baskets. During the summer months, when the vegetable and tobacco crops need to be harvested, thousands of undocumented migrant farm workers from Mexico and Central America arrive to labor in the fields. They live in primitive and isolated work camps, and if the weather allows, work six days a week, often 14 hours a day, for very little pay, picking beans, eggplants, and peppers. .It is estimated that there are between 15 and 20 million illegal immigrants working in America. In Sampson County, North Carolina, thousands of miles from the Mexican border, the growers know the reality-if immigration laws are actually enforced, the crops will rot in the fields until someone else can be found to work as hard as the "illegal" immigrants..
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  • A crew of migrant farm workers plants yellow squash at family farm in rural North Carolina..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • A migrant labor camp for mostly Mexican workers from Chiapis, in rural North carolina..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work.
    migrant_far...JPG
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  • A Mexican teenager plays soccer at the end of the day..Rural Sampson County in central North Carolina is one of America's bread baskets. During the summer months, when the vegetable and tobacco crops need to be harvested, thousands of undocumented migrant farm workers from Mexico and Central America arrive to labor in the fields. They live in primitive and isolated work camps, and if the weather allows, work six days a week, often 14 hours a day, for very little pay, picking beans, eggplants, and peppers. .It is estimated that there are between 15 and 20 million illegal immigrants working in America. While Sampson County is a thousand miles from the Mexican border, the local growers know the reality-if immigration laws are actually enforced, the crops will rot in the fields until someone else can be found to work as hard as the "illegal" immigrants.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • Rain soaked agricultural fields in Sampson County, North Carolina, the heart of migrant labor camps on the East Coast of America..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • Over a thousand miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border, rural Sampson County in central North Carolina is filled with undocumented migrant workers. During the summer months, when the vegetable and tobacco crops need to be harvested, thousands of "illegal" farm workers from Mexico and Central America arrive to labor in the fields. They live in primitive and isolated work camps, and if the weather allows, work six days a week, often 14 hours a day, for very little pay, picking beans, eggplants, and peppers. .It is estimated that there are between 15 and 20 million illegal immigrants working in America. While Sampson County is thousands of miles from the Mexican border, the local growers know the reality-if immigration laws are actually enforced, the crops will rot in the fields.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • At dawn, workers from a migrant camp board a bus that will take them to a farmer's crop. They will not return to the camp until after dark..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • A traveling preacher delivers a sermon in spanish at a labor camp in rural North Carolina..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • Cable tv in a primitive labor camp kitchen brings a Mexican station to rural Greene County, North Carolina..As the national debate over "illegal" immigration continues, it is often forgotten that it is not just an issue that concerns the border states. Undocumented migrant laborers pick the seasonal crops all across the country that put food on all of America's tables. The work is hard and long, the pay miserable, and the living conditions at many of the migrant camps reminiscent of slave plantations. These are jobs that most Americans do not want, and the underground agricultural economy that supplies the migrant labor is the real reason people continue to enter the country illegally-because there is work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • The young daughter of a contractor of undocumented migrant farm laboers plays in a tobacco field during the late summer harvest in North Carolina..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • Jose Lopez, an undocumented migrant farm worker from Chiapis Mexico, in his dorm room in a farm camp in rural Sampson County, North Carolina..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • Piles of human excrement litter a small patch of woods just behind a labor camp for "illegal" mexican farm workers in rural North Carolina..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • Family photos from Mexico decorate a migrant farm workers mantle..As the national debate over "illegal" immigration continues, it is often forgotten that it is not just an issue that concerns the border states. Undocumented migrant laborers pick the seasonal crops all across the country that put food on all of America's tables. The work is hard and long, the pay miserable, and the living conditions at many of the migrant camps reminiscent of slave plantations. These are jobs that most Americans do not want, and the underground agricultural economy that supplies the migrant labor is the real reason people continue to enter the country illegally-because there is work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart
  • Dawn at a migrant labor camp for mostly Mexican workers from Chiapis, in rural Sampson County, North Carolina..While the debate over illegal immigration, and what to do about it, continues, in America's agricultural heartland, over eighty percent of the nation's crops are harvested by undocumented migrant farm workers, mostly from Mexico and Latin America. They live in impoverished camps, and travel from crop to crop, working ten or twelve hour days in the fields, and often paying off large debts to smugglers who got them into the country. Without transportation, on days when there is no work, they have little to do but sleep and lounge around, waiting for another day's work.
    migrant_far...JPG
    add to lightboxadd to cart