MARY KELLY, HOST:
that about half the on U.S. dairy farms are . Work on these farms year-round, but there is no year-round visa, so tens of of dairy exist in the . Many live on the farms where they work, in by the farm, and there is no of the of that . North Radio’s Lucy .
LUCY ,: About five years agolive in a farm, a 17-year-old girl came to the U.S. from to work with her on a dairy farm. When he her the tiny where she’d be with him and a few other , this was her .
FARM : ( )?
: “I’m going to live in this house?”
, what she her.
FARM : ( ).
: , that made her break out in hives. We’re not using her name she’s not to work in this and fears being . When she lived on that farm, Marty Fefer and his wife would visit about twice a week to bring food and .
MARTY FEFER: It was more of a shed.
: Fefer says and were .
FEFER: I mean,so much so that you ‘t – you didn’t want to sit down.
: The first nightlive in a farm|Immigrant dairy farm workers live in ina,there was no place for her to sleep. Her gave her his bedcroatia vs tây ban nha live, and he slept on the floor, in to keep warm. She says it her on this . She …
FARM : ( ).
: “This is the for us.”
She there for about a year. Now she’s 23, and she’s in a on farm in New York. She’s been in dairy for half a now. That whole time,she says no one from the has ever come to her . That’s not due to or . In factlive in a farm, there is no state or rule that of the where she’s lived. There is a visa H-2A for . law says H-2A has to be , but dairy aren’t they’re not . They work year-round. And New York law says have to do of or farm , but they don’t have to farm .
is the of the of New York, a group. She says the on dairy farms often has .
: We do see a lot of with . Some of the other we see are,you knowapp live stream china, that aren’t .
: Like any ,farm can to local . But sayslive in a farm,lack of and fear of can get in the way. Rich Stup is an at . He says it’s for dairy in the and the to .
RICH STUP: It’s up to the on how well they that and how good of a that they have with the in that .
: A bill that the House last year could that . It’s the Farm Actlive in a farm, and it would the H-2A visa to year-round .
STEVE : So their , too, would be and to all the .
: That’s Steve from the New York Farm , an . They a year-round H-2A visa it would the labor pool, but some the bill. Emma is an with the of New York. She says a H-2A is not the in the have too power.
EMMA : are tied to a and can be and if they speak out about any sort of or .
: The bill that the House does a pilot for H-2A , which would allow some to move from one to . Right now, the bill’s co- in the House are that its will it for a vote soon. For NPR News, I’m Lucy in New York.
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