MEXICO CITY – Estela Martínez clings to the positive while driving a tractor in the fields of Florida: she knows that her boss needs her to carry out the harvest of cabbage, cucumbers and other vegetables, although this conviction failed to persuade her nephew who is already packing his bags to go as far north as possible, to a less hostile place .
“I’m going to stay,” says Estela in a telephone interview with this newspaper about the reality in the state where the undocumented are about to be targeted by one of the harshest laws against immigration in the United States It will enter into force on July 1.
“I am optimistic that it will not be as bad as it is said, but I am a little scared just like other workers. I realize because the tension is felt on the way to work, the girl who gives us raite goes with the Jesus in her mouth so that they are going to arrest us ”.
The bad vibes began before the entry into force of the bill SB1718 signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on May 10 and that it will force companies with more than 25 employees to verify the legal status of the people they wish to employ in a federal database (E-verify). Hiring a foreigner in an irregular situation will entail fines and sanctions.
Those who do not have a driver’s license from the state will also not be able to take the wheel on the roads of Florida and In public hospitals there will be an admission paperwork that will include a question about immigration status.
Being able to drive his own car not even to move and “break his back” under the inclement sun and humidity of Florida ended the patience of Estela Martínez’s nephew. The 25-year-old boy has no family in the state, but in Chimalhuacán, the suburban area of Mexico City, where the family is from and has no problem leaving.
“On the other hand, I am more complicated,” admits Estela. “My daughter does not want to leave because she was born here and she has been here all her life, she likes the heat and she does not want to go to the cold of Nebraska, where we could go because I have family there.”
The resistance
Florida has a population of about 22.2 million inhabitants, of which, some 772,000 are undocumented migrants whose flight could generate annual losses of around 12.6 billion dollars for the economy due to the lack of labor and consumption and due to the reduction of taxes, according to study centers such as the Migration Policy Institute.
Yesica Ramírez, an activist with the Farm Worker Association of Florida, says that because of this reality, although many politicians have remained silent, the truth is that they have given all their support to the resistance, including mayors and sheriffs, as well as many farm owners. agricultural.
“The other day the owner of a company came to our offices. He was a gringo. I was amazed to see that he asked us to ‘please’ go talk to the (undocumented) people because they were leaving and he didn’t want them to leave,” he says.
“I asked him if he was going to fire them when the law came into force and he said no and that’s when we decided to support him because we don’t want any employer to fire them.”
Those kinds of signals are what give strength to opponents of DeSantis, the 44-year-old Republican governor competing with former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination with radical measures against immigration.
Last year, DeSantis sent two groups of undocumented Venezuelans from the Texas border to Democratic strongholds in the northeastern United States aboard two private planes with budget for a migrant relocation program that this fiscal year will receive $12 million with the entry into force of SB1718.
The battle is not easy, but it is not impossible either, says Yesica Ramírezso the Farm Worker Association of Florida, goes with everything, along with other organizations that have allies in Congress, where two measures that would have expelled the undocumented from the state were removed en masse.
The penalty for renting a house to undocumented immigrants or transporting them within Florida will no longer be possible.
Whats Next?
Estela Martínez is clear that she will not go to live in Nebraska, but neither will she go to Mexico City. At 56 years old, she has to make forceful decisions based on life experiences and these dictate that her country is not the best option even though she has three children there.
“Between 2003 and 2005 I returned after spending two years in the US but the money I earned selling vegetables was not enough for anything.”
That’s why he came back to plant them in Florida. “It is beautiful to see them grow and from time to time I help my children because the economy is not good there,” he summarizes and clings: he will participate in the work stoppage in the state on June 1 called “A day without Mexicans” and other community actions that are being organized.
The Farm Worker Association of Florida, in the voice of Yesica Ramírez, concludes that, for now, the most urgent thing is to combat misinformation and together with the Mexican consulate they hold workshops so that they know their rights and are not guided by rumors or false information that it comes from social networks, from the community itself and even from government offices.
Some days ago, School authorities asked an undocumented mother for a list of requirements to enroll her citizen son in school, including her identification, but they did not clarify that it did not have to be official and the woman panicked. “If I can’t enroll the children in school I have to go,” she complained in alarm.
On another occasion, the organization received several calls from Apopka and its surroundings about the presence of ICE agents, but when the activists went to check the area, they realized that they were forest police officers.
“You have to be very attentive and informed, the most important thing is not to panic,” warns Ramírez.
Keep reading:
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