That glass of milk you just finished? There’s a good chance it was made possible by an undocumented worker. In Wisconsin alone, over 10,000 undocumented immigrants are the workers of the dairy industry, performing roughly 70% of all labor on our farms. In Manitowoc County, that number is even higher. Estimates suggest between 70% and 89% of that workforce is undocumented.
To understand the human story behind these statistics, The Jim & Rick Show spoke with a woman from Honduras to understand what life is really like traveling to the USA and as an undocumented worker in the heart of America’s Dairyland.
We began by talking about her life in Honduras and the economic realities that pushed her to leave:
“Honduras is known for being an extremely poor country, and we have one of the cities with the highest crime rates in the world. So, there is too much insecurity and too much unemployment, and the jobs we can get are very poorly paid, and the ones that give us a better salary, uh, they require us to have maybe some university level and things like that.”
Her journey to the United States began in Honduras, taking her through Guatemala and Mexico. Near Monterrey, she paid $6,300 to cross the border with hundreds of others seeking a better life. The trip was especially difficult—she was seven months pregnant and carrying her daughter—and as she described it, she began to cry.
“Well, to be honest with you, it was a very hard experience, even more so given my condition, because, well, my belly was already very big, I was already seven months along, and I was carrying my daughter in my arms. On many occasions, we had to walk, and when we crossed the border, we basically had to run.”
“It was very difficult at certain moments when I was too tired and I wanted to give up, and sometimes sleep would overcome me, and hearing the words of those people I was traveling with who would tell me: [clears throat] ‘Ma’am, don’t fall asleep because they’re going to steal your daughter.’ Those were things that were really hard.”
Once in the U.S., she made her way to Manitowoc County and tried to build a safer, more stable life, though it brought its own challenges:
“Well, ever since I arrived here, mmm, it was a bit difficult for me to find a job and the job I found was near, near this area and well, I lived in a somewhat modest apartment, eh, a little far from here, but thanks to my current boss, who has been an excellent person to me, he help– he helped me find a country house in which I am doing very well with my children here in Manitowoc.”
Dairy farming requires grueling, 24/7 labor that many farms struggle to fill with local workers. There is currently no legal year-round visa for dairy workers (the H-2A visa is for seasonal work only), forcing most farms to rely on undocumented employees—an “open secret” that helps keep operations running. Groups like the National Milk Producers Federation and Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative have pushed for policies that would provide permanent legal status to current workers and their families while fixing what they call a broken H-2A system. While Manitowoc County feels safer for her and her family, she said she still lives with constant fear:
“To be honest, my fear is very big, mainly, eh, with my daughter in school. It’s like if I tell you that I go out, let’s say, shopping or something like that and that… well, immigration officers arrest me without me being able to pick up my daughter. Imagine my daughter at school, that they arrest me and simply send me back to my country with my other child too, that, that they try to separate me from him, because I have heard of many cases regarding that and well, my other baby was indeed born here. So, it’s a possibility that terrifies me quite a bit. I’m not afraid of returning to my country, but I’m afraid they will separate me from my children. That is the only thing that scares me a lot.”
Even after traveling so far to support her family, she said she hasn’t let go of her long-term dreams:
“Well, [laughter] really, er, my plans with my family, meaning with my husband and my children, is to be able to, ah, have our own house in our country, er, to have the money to be able to start a business and be able to live off it in our country. Really, no, we don’t plan to stay here, we plan—we really came for the popular American dream, but we want to live it in our country.”
Toward the end of the interview, we asked if there was anything she wanted to say to people in Manitowoc County. She pulled a crumpled piece of notebook paper from her pocket and read an emotional message:
“I would like to tell you all that we are not the way they want to make us out to be, because a legal status does not define people, because a criminal can come from any culture, race, or religion. We risk the most valuable thing we have, which is our lives, and that hard decision is only to have a better life and future for our loved ones and to have a little bit of the opportunities that you all have had since you were born. We do not choose to be born in corrupt countries and with extreme poverty due to a lack of opportunities, and that is why we leave our lives behind and start from scratch in the unknown. These are difficult processes every day away from our country and our families. It weighs on you. Feeling that we do not belong here hurts. We just want to be treated with respect by you and that the lack of a paper does not turn us into fugitives.”
This interview highlights the human story behind a dairy milker through a personal account from this Honduran worker. The need for dairy labor in Manitowoc County is unarguable; Some experts estimate a total loss of this undocumented workforce could nearly double retail milk prices and cause one in eight dairy farms to fail.
You can click here to listen to the full interview from the Jim & Rick Show.
