[OliverJones]

For what it's worth, migrant harvest workers have always followed the harvest, in North American moving from north to south in the fall as the frost line moves southward with the season. "Migrant worker" often implies "foreign national", but not necessarily.

It's an inconvenient truth of the scaled up agriculture that produces food for us city folk.

Many European countries have formal guest-worker programs. A big consequence of the EU is easier guest-worker access and better working conditions.

The reason the USA immigration hassle never gets solved by congresscritters is this: it's convenient economically to have an underclass of workers with few rights and no recourse for mistreatment. Congresscritters have to say they're TRYING to solve the problem or they appear to be amoral. But they can't actually solve the problem without antagonizing the 1% who pay their re-election campaign bills. So the issue is a perennial theme of chin music. Both major US parties do this.

[philipodonnell]

As painful as the current political environment is, some of these informal patronage relationships may be upset by Trump's inability to be cool about anything except his own industry (real estate). He'll happily throw the farming industry under the bus if it means a tax break for real estate investors and a few political points for being tough on "illegals".

[thriftwy]

Real estate is usually number two employer for illegals, if not number one. Something doesn't add up.