Milton Lindsay Photography

There is no limit to how many hours H-2A Farmworkers can work in a given day or week; it usually depends on the time of year. During the height of the season in August and September, farmworkers will typically spend upwards of 80 hours a week in the field, with little concern about how high temperatures will rise.

Crew leaders, or Mayordormos, run day-to-day operations on host farms. Mayordomos are usually the farmworkers with the highest levels of English proficiency and are the primary point of contact between the crew members and the grower. They influence most of the power dynamics and social hierarchy within H-2A crews.

The H-2A Program is a pathway to the Mexican middle class for visa holders, who primarily come from rural Mexico, where the pay for agricultural work is typically $20-30/day. In one season, an H-2A Farmworker can earn up to $25,000, however, across the system average earnings are closer to $15,000, as workloads vary widely from crop to crop. 

Fr. Peter Grace delivers mass to a group of farmworkers at a work camp east of Fayetteville, NC. Despite high levels of spirituality among H-2A Farmworkers, access to religion is extremely limited for this group. Given the heavy workload during the growing season and the remote locations of camps, it is challenging for church officials to reach workers while they are in North Carolina. 

Hugo Alvarado has worked at a tobacco farm in Sims, North Carolina for 10 years. His goal is to leave the program in two years so he can be in Mexico when his 8-year-old son, Cesar, turns 10. 

North Carolina hosts nearly 30,000 H-2A Seasonal Farmworkers each year, which is the fifth-highest population in the country. Across the US, there are over 300,000 H-2A visa holders – 30-40 percent of America’s agricultural workforce. 

H-2A Farmworkers are the latest iteration of imported labor to work farmland in the South – land that has been passed down over the generations predating the American Civil War. 

A group of farmworkers check out a vendor’s merchandise early on Sunday morning at the Brightleaf Flea market in Smithfield, North Carolina – one of the largest in the state. A popular destination for farmworkers and Latino families alike during the growing season, Mexican-run flea markets or, pulgas, have sprung up across Eastern North Carolina in recent years as the state’s Latino population has grown.

H-2A Farmworkers represent 60-80 percent of the agricultural workforce in North Carolina and other states in the American Southeast. These farmworkers are responsible for cultivating large cash crops such as sweet potatoes, cucumbers and tobacco – the backbone of the South’s agricultural economy. While H-2A Visa guarantees a wage of $15-18 depending on the state, farmworkers earn 50 cents a bucket during the harvest, incentivizing farmworkers to pick crops faster. This pay rate has not increased since the 1950s across the Southeast.

The growth of the H-2A Program was due largely to the strict immigration policies during the first Trump Administration. It remains to be seen what impact Trump’s second term will have on Seasonal Farmworkers and the farms that rely on their labor. 

Pascal Martinez enters the Mexican consulate in Raleigh, NC to vote in Mexico’s 2024 Presidential Election – the first election where Mexican nationals could submit an absentee ballot. “I was grateful to play my part in the election for the first time,” said Martinez, who has been in the H-2A Program for 22 years. “It gave me a lot of pride to finally select my representation because it’s our right – one I didn’t have because I was here.” 

Pablo Diosdado, has spent eight years working for a large tobacco and sweet potato farm east of Raleigh, NC. Like thousands of Mexican men from Guanajuato and other central Mexican states, the H-2A Program has helped lift Diosdado and his two sons, Hector and Noé, who work at the same farm, into Mexico’s middle class. 

"When you are going as fast as you can for so long, you start to get a rhythm – that's what keeps you going," said Lucio Rivera. "The stopping is what makes it hard sometimes." 

Mexican-owned catering services often are hired to provide meals to farmworkers in the field. 

Host farms are required to have one shower for every 15 farm workers on the crew, which leads to long waits to bathe after work. 

Pickup soccer games are the primary form of recreation at workcamps on Sunday afternoons. 

"When I cook, I feel closer to my home, [and] I feel closer to my mother," said Adrian Vargas. "She is the one who taught me and I like the memories cooking brings." An H-2A Farmworker for six years, Vargas, a native of Veracruz, Mexico , was recently hired by a Mexican restaurant in nearby Smithfield, NC, as a weekend chef.

Farmworkers live on relative islands as host farms are typically 20 to 30 miles from the nearest town. At smaller camps, workers rarely have their own transport and typically leave their housing for communal trips to buy groceries or to work in the field. 

A couple members of a crew will handle haircuts for the rest of the group, typically charging $5-10 a cut. 

The early sun brings blistering summer heat as Yordi Orozco gets instructions for the workday on a tobacco farm near Wilson, NC. 

Farmworkers are virtually invisible in their surroundings and are most often seen by the outside world when they in the field. 

Farmworkers endure nearly all weather conditions that they encounter in the field. 

Wages are not guaranteed during the growing season and farmworkers must borrow money against their wages to afford groceries during weeks when there is no work.

Old school buses owned by host farms and driven by crew leaders are the primary form of transportation for farmworkers during their time in North Carolina.

Heat and dust consume farmworkers during the sweet potato planting in June and July.