BITTER FRUIT Teens' deaths hit migrant workers hard BY FORD TURNER Of The Patriot-News YORK SPRINGS - In the heat of late afternoon, volunteer firefighter Matt Bricker hurried across the street from his Adams County home to a farm pond set amid thousands of fruit-heavy trees. He was too late. He saw the body of a 13-year-old stranger pulled from the water. A man, crying, clutched the body. Bricker, 17, did not know the dark-haired boy was Jose Alfredo Herrera Gongora of Veracruz, Mexico, whose father was a migrant worker, part of the annual wave of a thousand or more traveling laborers who temporarily move to the county to pick fruit. Bricker just knew it was a tragic drowning. And it got worse. A second body, that of Jose's brother, Robert Herrera Gongora, 16, was later pulled from the pond. Police said the brothers drowned Tuesday while swimming. "It is upsetting, to see that," Bricker said. Word of the drownings spread through the temporary labor force of migrant workers who arrive each summer and fall to harvest fruit in the county's orchards. It also focused attention on the presence of migrants in the midstate during a summer of debate across the nation over immigration issues. Fruit growers acknowledged that some migrant workers might be in the U.S. illegally. But they said the contributions of the migrants are indispensable. "If we don't have migrant workers, we aren't going to be able to pick the crop. It's just that simple," said Bonnie Kuntz of Huntington Twp., Adams County. She and her husband, Louy Kuntz, sold their fruit farm of nearly 500 acres three years ago. They employed up to 50 migrant workers. Kay Hollabaugh, co-owner of Hollabaugh Bros. Fruit Farm in Butler Twp., Adams County, said migrants "are a huge part of our industry. ... People forget that they are people just like you and me, and they work very hard at what they are doing." Hollabaugh said her 500-acre farm employs up to 30 migrant workers. She estimated that as many as a thousand or more migrants work in Adams County each year. Bonnie Kuntz said that at one point, she and her husband were forced to leave more than 30,000 bushels of apples on the trees because they could not find enough pickers -- even though they advertised for local help. "There is a shortage of labor for jobs that are hard work," Louy Kuntz said. "Americans just don't want to go out and do the grunt work anymore." Moving with the seasons: Migrant workers live in permanent buildings called "camps," set in clearings in or near the orchards. A spokeswoman for the state Agriculture Department, which inspects the camps, said there are 335 statewide and 79 in Adams County. The workers' arrival at camps often is tied to the ripening of fruit. Peaches, pears, apricots and raspberries provide work for migrants, and apples are a key crop in Adams County. A sign on Route 94 proclaims the county the "Fruit Center of PA" and says there are 20,000 acres of orchards. The Herrera brothers arrived in Pennsylvania on Monday, police said. An acquaintance of the family said they had been in New Jersey picking blueberries before coming here. A typical sequence of work for a migrant family might be to "pick blueberries in New Jersey, and when that crop is finished, they come here and pick apples, peaches and pears, and then when the apple crop is done, they go to Florida to pick oranges," Louy Kuntz said. Migrant workers sometimes pay rent. "Some growers charge a nominal fee of like $5 a week, per person," Kuntz said. "In order to get an adequate supply of labor, we didn't charge rent." The camps are furnished with beds, furniture and appliances. State and federal inspections occur regularly. Bonnie Kuntz said there are government regulations for everything from minimum living space for each worker to minimum ratio of toilets to workers. Pay might start at minimum wage and, for an experienced picker, reach $500 or even $700 a week, according to Louy Kuntz. Federal tax, Social Security and other withholdings reduce the net amount of the paycheck. A hard lifestyle: Fernando Rodriguez of Guanajuato, Mexico, said last week that he made $440 weekly working a farm near the one where the Herreras died. Rodriguez shared a room with another man in a white, one-story camp building that appeared to be a cross between a bunkhouse and college dorm. His room had a concrete floor and stone-block walls. There was a case of Nestea and a pair of dumbbells on the floor. Rodriguez, who said he was 55 and had 10 children, wore a blue Kentucky Wildcats T-shirt. "Twenty years of coming here, I get used to it," he said. Every Friday, Rodriguez said, he sends money to his family in Mexico via electronic transfer. "This is a very hard lifestyle, mainly because you are away from your family. That's what feels really bad," he said. Jose Moreno, who was living in the same camp, said he had dug potatoes in Idaho, harvested fava beans and brussels sprouts in California and picked apples in Pennsylvania for three seasons. Moreno, 41, said he used to work in factories. He found he preferred the mobility and outdoor aspect of migrant work. A day of apple orchard work might entail carrying 200 bags of apples down a ladder from trees, he said. Each bag might weigh 50 pounds, he said. "Going on the ladder with that bag," he said. "It is very heavy." Camps are visited by staffers for a state migrant education program that covers children and adults up to 22 years old. English as a Second Language, or ESL, teachers give English instruction on evenings and weekends. "Most of the kids who come have dropped out or ... are emancipated youths, they do not have a parent or guardian with them," said Minerva Aviles, a program coordinator. Some likely here illegally: Kay Hollabaugh and Louy Kuntz said the migrant workers, over time, become very skilled. They become adept at keeping fruit free of bruises and leaving unripe fruit on trees. "It is not rocket science, but it is not brainless activity," Hollabaugh said. Both acknowledged that some migrant workers were probably in the U.S. illegally. Documents are checked at the time a migrant worker is hired, but forgery of immigration documents has become a big business. Hence, Hollabaugh said, it is impossible for employers to catch illegal immigrants. "We are not policemen. ... They aren't going to say, 'Here is my documentation but oh, by the way, I am illegal,'" she said. On Friday, two members of President Bush's Cabinet -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez -- publicly spoke of plans for sanctioning employers who hire illegal immigrants. Public opinion polls have revealed widespread sentiment against amnesty for working immigrants who are in the country illegally. "There are so many people who want them out of the country. My stand on it is, if all of the immigrants are sent out of the country, the economy is going to collapse," Bonnie Kuntz said. In York Springs, Adams County, home to many Mexican immigrants, local resident Juan Manuel worked behind the counter of a Mexican store this week. On the counter was a makeshift collection box with a photo of Jose and Robert Herrera Gongora on it. The boys had come to Adams County with their father, Manuel said. Their mother had been killed in an auto accident in Mexico. Donations would be used to help send the boys' bodies home to Mexico, Manuel said. "The Mexican community comes together to help," he said. A few miles away, across hillsides covered with rows of fruit trees, the tragedy remained on the mind of Matt Bricker and his mother. She did not want to give her name. But she could see the pond where the teens drowned from her front yard. "It's worse that it's kids," she said. "It is just such a tragedy that it happened to children." MIGRANT WORKERS About 49,500 migrant seasonal farm workers -- who, by state definition, travel "far enough so they can't go home each day" -- are employed each year in Pennsylvania. The state Department of Agriculture inspects each of the 335 migrant worker camps in Pennsylvania twice a year. Although no government estimate was immediately available for migrant workers in Adams County, a veteran fruit farm owner said up to 1,000 or more might be employed in the county each year. |