America’s aging farmworkers have no safety net

At least 40 percent of agricultural workers in the United States do not have legal immigration status. Americans are generally unwilling to do backbreaking work in the fields, farmers say.

But many of the undocumented farmworkers who power the country’s agriculture industry can’t stop working even as they approach 70, my colleague Miriam Jordan recently reported.

“Congress’s failure to reach a consensus on how to fix our broken immigration system has left low-wage, aging farmworkers in a particularly precarious situation,” Miriam said. “Many told me they expected to work until they die because they have no safety net.”

You can read Miriam’s full article on the plight of America’s aging farmworkers here.

Miriam, who works on immigration, began researching aging farmworkers after noticing that many people toiling in the fields are in their 60s or older. She found that the average age of foreign-born field workers in the United States is now 41, a figure that has risen in recent years.

Her reporting found that these older farmworkers are largely Mexican immigrants who engaged in circular migration: crossing the border to work in the harvest and then returning to their home countries. They would do it again the following season.

But as successive federal administrations, starting with President Bill Clinton, began erecting barriers along the border, coming and going became more expensive and dangerous. You had to pay a smuggler or sneak across the border on your own, traveling on foot through remote deserts and mountains. Many farm workers gave up the back and forth and settled in the United States. They sent money to families in the old country, or started families here.

But their lack of legal status means many have no retirement plans and no idea how they would live if they stopped working. They are not eligible for Social Security benefits, Medicare and other forms of retirement benefits.

Miriam interviewed farmworkers in California, Oregon, Georgia and Florida, and in almost all cases, she said, they file tax returns and pay income taxes.

“Many of these undocumented workers have paid into Social Security their entire working lives, and they will never receive retirement benefits,” she told me. “These immigrants’ contributions flow into the system, helping keep Social Security solvent and contributing to the well-being of millions of Americans.”

A California law allows undocumented farmworkers to get health care through Medi-Cal, but that’s not the case in most other states. Many farmworkers worry about their ability to afford health care as they age, and decades of exposure to pesticides, extreme heat and grueling physical labor take their toll.

“I feel tired,” one worker, Esperanza Sanchez, said to Miriam. Sanchez, at 72 years old the oldest employee on her team in the Coachella Valley, spends eight hours a day, six days a week, hunkered down picking leafy greens. “I feel like quitting, but how can I?”

Where we travel to

Today’s tip comes from Carol Ann Meme, who lives in Fresno:

“This year we, the lucky people who live in Fresno, were able to start our holiday celebrations with a walk down Christmas Tree Avenue. The course, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, was started by a family who had lost a young child to illness. They decorated the tree in their front yard to celebrate their child. Others joined in and now this street, which is beautiful on a normal day (big beautiful trees, beautiful houses and friendly people walking all year round), attracts thousands of people who can walk along Van Ness Boulevard from December 2 to December 25 or drive. This year I went with my Frenchie (in a stroller so he wouldn’t get trampled or tired), my son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, my daughter-in-law’s parents, and my boyfriend. It was amazing!!!”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We will share more in future editions of the newsletter.

Tell us

As 2023 comes to a close, tell us what the best part of your year was. Did you have a big birthday, start a new job or adopt a pet? Email us at CAtoday@nytimes.com. Please include your name and the city in which you live.

And before you go: good news

Peter Park, a Tulare County resident, became the youngest person in California history to pass the state bar exam at the age of 17. Fox26 News Reports.

Park completed his law exam this summer, but his meteoric academic journey began long before that. At the age of 13, at his father’s suggestion, Park began studying for a series of standardized college-level exams that would allow him to apply to law school without a bachelor’s degree. The Washington Post reports this.

In high school, Park took classes with his peers during the day and enrolled in a four-year online law school program at night. He graduated from high school two years later and received his law degree earlier this year.

Park, now 18, was sworn in as a prosecutor in the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office during a ceremony last week, making him one of the youngest practicing attorneys in the country.

Thank you for reading. I’ll come back tomorrow. — Soumya

PS Here it is today’s mini crossword.

Maia Coleman and Halina Bennet contributed to California Today. You can reach the team via CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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