Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino’s political activism and detainment speak to a larger pattern in immigration policy in the United States. In the United States, political deportations have historically, and presently, served as means of suppressing worker and immigrant activism. In her article, “Against the Deportation Terror: Organizing for Immigrant Rights in the Twentieth Century,” Rachel Ida Buff traces the subaltern past of immigrant rights organizing. She primarily discusses the American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born (ACPFB), which was a multiracial federal organization with a broad national network among foreign-born communities (1). She writes, “Many political deportations target community leaders who represent foreign-born workers. These deportations render workers more vulnerable to exploitative work conditions and unconstitutional practices. In turn, the large sweeps focusing on immigrant workers have often been retribution for political organizing” (526).

Zeferino is an organizer with Familias Unidas por las Justicia, an independant farm worker union of indigenous families located in Washington state, representing over 500 Triqui, Mixteco, and Spanish speaking workers. Zeferino fills a crucial role within this organization. “He is one of the few organizers in the state that speaks Mixteco, English, and Spanish. So, he can communicate with thousands of workers here, and the proof is in how successful the union has been. We passed overtime, got paid rest breaks, past rules for heat and smoke rules. Alfredo had a lot to do because he is not only still working in farms when he’s not organizing, he has direct contact and is always talking to workers about what are the needs in our community. For whatever gains we’ve made in the last couple years, Alfredo has been a crucial part.” (Edgar Franks, the political director of independent farmworkers union, Familias Unidas por la Justicia, from the Democracy Now Video) By targeting organizers with a wide influence, such as Zeferino, the federal administration aims to prevent further worker and civil rights organizing, as well as make greater room for worker exploitation and civil rights violations (2).

Buff connects these goals with the current global economy’s era of neoliberalism, which “is characterized by “free trade,” or increasing economic collaboration across national borders; by the deregulation of industrial, agricultural, and resource extraction; and by declining investments in the social wage through the defunding of public institutions. Economic deregulation means fewer workplace protections and lower wages for workers, while lowered investment in public infrastructure leads to increased economic inequality and declining civil rights protections” (6). In the United States, both presently and historically, these declining workplace and civil rights protections particularly affect Latinx and Asian migrant workers. Many of these people leave their countries of origin due to the effects of the global “free trade,” seeking work in countries like the United States or the UAE. In the United States, many of these people, such as Zeferino, work in the agricultural sector. According to the 2021 USDA farmworker demographic surveys, 6 in 10 farmworkers in the United States were born in Mexico, 75% of all crop workers were Hispanic, and 9% of crop workers were listed as indigenous.

The majority of fresh food consumed in the United States is picked by these workers. Meaning, the majority of people living in the United States rely on the labor of these individuals and communities. However, rather than support and protect the rights of the people who feed the majority of the country, the current administration is strategically and violently policing, detaining, and deporting organizers and workers. This supports a dangerous and volatile environment for workers and their communities, while simultaneously curating a cheaper labor supply, and thus a more profitable model for growers.

Farm Worker Ecologies