Every year at the end of March, Farmworker Awareness Week brings nationwide demonstrations and calls to protect agricultural laborers from abuse and exploitation.
In Georgia, over 100 farmworkers and college-age children of farmworkers will meet with lawmakers at the Georgia State Capitol on Friday, unofficially ushering in the start of Farmworker Awareness Week four days later.
Organized for the fifth consecutive year by the Atlanta-based Latino Community Fund Georgia, the “Farmworker Families at the Capitol” event is meant to bridge the gap between remote rural communities and the state’s center of political power.
According to the Latino Community Fund Georgia’s Pedro Viloria, the annual Capitol visit gives lawmakers a rare chance to hear directly from the people who make up the foundation of the state’s agricultural industry.
“They mostly deal with the owners of the farms,” he said.
Conversely, the event gives attendees from rural Georgia — most of whom will come from Tifton and Valdosta, in the southern part of the state — an opportunity to overcome their “alienation” to the political process, and meet their legislators.
Credit: Courtesy of Latino Community Fund
Credit: Courtesy of Latino Community Fund
Viloria said another goal of Friday’s event is to remind legislators of the influence of the agricultural sector in the state’s broader economy.
Agriculture remains the state’s biggest industry, valued at more than $74 billion annually. It is heavily powered by immigrant labor, Viloria noted, including both undocumented workers and foreign nationals who are in the state on temporary work visas. Georgia draws more seasonal farmworkers from Latin America than any other state except Florida, according to national data.
Immigrants’ outsized role in Georgia’s farms and fields will likely make this year’s Capitol visit more resonant than in years past. President Donald Trump’s return to the White House brought a flurry of executive actions that amount to a wide-ranging crackdown on both legal and illegal immigration. Passage of a GOP funding bill earlier this month will give the federal government more resources to ramp up deportations, including a nearly $500 million increase in the budget for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Trump administration’s deportation campaign found a willing partner in Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
Earlier this week, Kemp’s office announced support for training the Department of Public Safety’s 1,100 sworn officers to help ICE identify and detain unauthorized immigrants.
“Our community is afraid because of the changes in policies,” Viloria said. “Workers are not going to the doctor. Workers are not taking their kids to school. And so, we’re seeing a huge retraction of just taking up space. And that’s why this event, I think, also comes in a very crucial time to remind the community that we’re still major contributors to this state and to this country.”
Driving away the state’s immigrant farmworkers could come at a significant cost, Viloria said.
“We’re talking about food on our tables. We’re not talking about, you know, white collar services. We’re talking something as simple as keeping our fridges stocked, keeping our stores stocked. And this is all on the back of migrant workers,” Viloria said.
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