That Time When Patriotic “Red-Blooded” American Teens Replaced Migrant Workers

My Morning Facebook Scroll

Following my morning ritual of browsing Facebook, I came across a post that left me shaking my head. It was entitled The Year Red-Blooded Patriotic American High School Jocks Replaced Migrant Workers. The post chronicles a failed 1965 effort to replace Mexican field workers with young “red-blooded” American athletes (Arellano, 2018).

The Government’s Solution

Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz proposed what seemed to be a common-sense, win-win solution: send the migrants home and replace the Mexican workers with 20,000 young and healthy high school athletes. This idea led to the launching of a government initiative called A-TEAM (Athletes in Temporary Employment as Agricultural Manpower).

Why not our young and healthy boys? They needed summer jobs. The farms needed the workers. This sounded like a perfect win-win solution.

The program was promoted as a perfect patriotic summer job, but it was anything but perfect. It was hot out there. The work was grueling, and the pay was low. Many quit before the summer ended.

Consequently, the program collapsed after just one season. For those who stayed, like Randy Carter, the experience fostered a deep respect for migrant laborers and lasting lessons in empathy and compassion for all workers who do hard labor that makes life as we know it possible.

Fake Woke

The article is sympathetic in tone and seems to be attempting to inspire respect for migrants who are now under assault. As a descendant of enslaved people who did the same labor, it reeked of condescension to me.

I get annoyed with liberals and their hollow attempts to be “nice” — they use kind words to honor the efforts and hard work of migrants without even discussing the predicament that brings them here or questioning the morality of exploiting the desperation of people who are willing to do the work Americans don’t want to do, for even lower wages and in even more grueling working conditions than the ones endured by these young “red-blooded” American jocks.

I think the author thought he was “woke” and that this was a “nice” tribute to the hardworking migrants who do the jobs Americans don’t want to do.

This is not woke. This is condescending and sad. Being woke means being aware and vigilant, especially about injustice. This is the opposite of woke because it fails to acknowledge the injustices inherent in this entire system.

What color blood does this author think the rest of the world bleeds? Americans aren’t the only ones who bleed red.

My ancestors, enslaved Africans, used to do this work for free because they would be killed if they didn’t. Migrants do this work for low wages and in terrible conditions because they don’t have better options.

In both cases, human beings are doing work that those who have deemed themselves the superior class don’t want to do. And they are doing the work for meager or no wages and in terrible working conditions, out of desperation and a lack of options, not because they bleed another color. They lack better options.

This is exploitation, and we still exploit migrants today.

The average migrant worker with legal status in the U.S. earns only $18.73 per hour (ZipRecruiter, Inc., n.d.), and many farmworker families live on just $25,000 to $30,000 per year, often with no health insurance (National Farm Worker Ministry, n.d.). Many workers aren’t paid hourly wages. They are paid by the weight of the crops they pick, which means that some of them don’t make minimum wage. To add insult to injury, migrant workers have an average lifespan of 49 years while the rest of the population enjoys an average lifespan of 77 years. Meanwhile, their labor fuels an agricultural industry worth over $1.2 trillion a year (Rosenbloom, 2022). The gap between what they give and what they get is disgraceful.

So when people say these jobs aren’t worth paying well, that math isn’t math-in. The work is valuable. We just don’t value the people doing it, and this is the underlying issue I have with all of this. We fail to see people as fully human, to love them as we love ourselves. We imagine they bleed another color, other than red.

What Would It Look Like to Love People Well?

When will we learn? Neither land nor labor is ours to take. The good book says, “Thou shalt not steal.”

I feel complicit in this. I didn’t directly cause this, and I don’t make the decisions, but I support the system and politicians that enable this. I turn a blind eye and act as if it’s not happening, not even considering the real human impact. I have been sleepwalking. Voluntary or not, I am part of the problem. And more than likely, so are you.

If we really want to be woke, we need to see the inhumanity of this and demand that people be paid a fair and livable wage for their work and that their work conditions be safe and humane (American Public Health Association, 2017). We must demand that their human dignity be honored and respected at all times.

There are things that could be done to make this work less grueling. They require effort and sacrifice. They require folks to care.

1. Pay Fair Wages.

Farmworkers today earn about 40% less than workers doing similar jobs outside of agriculture (Costa, 2023). Even a 10–20% wage increase wouldn’t break the bank. It might trim some corporate profits, but companies making billions can afford it. This would still be a profitable business, just not an exploitative one.

2. Guarantee Basic Worker Protections.

Farmworkers often aren’t guaranteed overtime pay or water breaks, even in extreme heat. Some live in unsafe housing or are transported in unsafe vehicles. Enforcing existing safety laws and expanding labor protections — like what California did with Assembly Bill 1066 — could change lives without costing consumers much at all (California Legislative Information, 2016).

3. Adopt Fair Labor Programs.

Programs like the Fair Food Program add just a penny per pound of produce, but that extra cent helps workers earn better wages and work in safer, more humane conditions (Coalition of Immokalee Workers, n.d.) Big companies like McDonald’s and Walmart already participate in some versions of this model (Wikipedia, n.d.).

4. Use Technology to Reduce the Grind.

Mechanical harvesters, cooling systems, and mobile shade structures could reduce physical strain, injuries, and heat-related illness (Huffman, 2012). These are one-time costs, but consider the money saved from time missed from work due to injuries and illness, not to mention the improved productivity that comes from increased worker morale (Marino et al., 2021).

5. Provide a Worker’s Permit and/or a Path to Citizenship for Migrant Workers: Undocumented migrants get exploited. They are paid less, and none of the worker protections are fairly applied to them. Why? The fear of deportation makes them less likely to complain.

It All Comes Down to Love — and Justice

There are things that could be done to make this work less grueling. Perhaps if more care had been given, the A-Team Program would not have failed. We still have not learned the lessons of that experiment: If we don’t want to work in those conditions, why do we assume other people do? It all goes back to refusing to see people as equally human and wanting less for them than we want for ourselves.

It’s a violation of Jesus’ greatest commandment — to love others as we love ourselves. It’s a sin, our society’s most damaging sin. It’s the reason why some of our dear leaders refuse to invest in anything designed to promote upward mobility for poor people, like high-quality education and healthcare. They want desperate, hungry people trapped and without options, who have no choice but to work the low-paying, difficult jobs the overlords don’t want to work themselves.

Honest Work Deserves Honest Pay

It is time to pay people an honest wage for honest work and provide them with a work environment any of us would want to work in. And consumers should not be the ones to foot the bill with increased prices. People who fail to pay their workers fairly usually make grossly high profits, and they can afford to make a little less , more than the average consumer can afford to pay more.

So instead of having 100 houses, they may have to downsize to 75 houses, which is still more houses than they can ever live in. If someone has 75 big houses and the people who toil and sweat for them can’t afford one modest house, they are thieves.

And I know some small, family-run farms may not be able to afford to pay their workers more. Government subsidies and tax incentives should be available to help small farms afford to pay their workers a fair and livable wage. The large agribusinesses and corporate farms, however, which dominate the food supply, often have the resources to pay fairly. They choose not to do the right thing

The real issue isn’t whether it’s possible. The question is whether we are willing to create a system that supports both fair wages and the farmers who are doing right by their workers.

What About Undocumented Workers?

Nearly half of all hired crop farmworkers in the U.S. — about 42% to 50% according to multiple studies — are undocumented (Castillo, 2024). They are doing essential, backbreaking work to feed our country, but often live in constant fear of deportation, retaliation, or losing what little income they have. And now they fear being sent to Alligator Alcatraz or some other remote concentration camp or prison.

Undocumented workers are legally entitled to minimum wage and overtime protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), even if they’re not legally authorized to work (Shaikh, 2024). But many don’t get paid fairly anyway. Why? Because employers know they can get away with it. Fear and threats of deportation and imprisonment keep workers silent.

And across all industries, undocumented workers earn about 42% less than U.S.-born workers on average (Ortega & Hsin, 2019).

So when people say these workers are “taking” jobs or resources, they aren’t being truthful. Migrants are not taking anything. They are being taken from. They are being exploited. These are grown adults raising families. Their efforts are feeding an entire nation, and they are still being paid less, respected less, and protected less — simply because of their immigration status. If these jobs paid more and had better working conditions, perhaps more native-born Americans would be willing to work them.

A nation that is okay with people doing the hardest work for the least pay and living in fear while doing it is severely lacking in morality.

Capitalism Vs. Greed

People call it capitalism and try to make it sound civilized, but this is just human greed. Capitalism encourages human innovation, productivity, and growth. Those are good things, but even good things can be corrupted.

Safeguards and laws that are actually enforced have to be put in place to put a check on human greed because most people aren’t good enough — or wise enough — to do the right thing when they get rewarded and even celebrated for doing the wrong thing.

This is one reason we need comprehensive immigration reform. A sovereign nation has a responsibility to secure its borders and regulate and document who and what enters its country. Legal immigration should be the norm to protect us from people who come here to do us harm, and the drugs and guns they bring. Immigration reform is also needed to protect migrants seeking safety and refuge from being exploited and mistreated.

The laws have not been enforced on purpose. To find the culprits, follow the money and find those who benefit the most from illegal immigration. It isn’t the immigrants, which is why I find it so upsetting that we have suddenly made them the scapegoats for everything wrong in this country.

Redemption and Reconciliation

God sees all of it.

We can fool ourselves into thinking we are entitled to other people’s land and labor, but we can’t fool God. He sees the pride, greed, and arrogance of our hearts — the seven deadly sins run amok.

We haven’t gotten away with anything.

Our greed and failure to love well continue to harm us and bring needless suffering to everyone. But our loving, all-knowing God, who is so rich in grace, patience, and mercy, has also provided us a path to redemption, a way to right our wrongs and learn from our mistakes.

There is always a way to love.

I’m not a rocket scientist, and even I can see a better way forward. Surely those with the greatest minds, who sit in big seats of power, can help us find a more loving and humane way forward.

We should use objects, never people. People deserve to be justly compensated for their work.

We must pay people in proportion to their sweat and effort and the value and profits their labor generates. We must only seek to buy land that landowners want to sell, and pay them what it is worth. Otherwise, we are just thieves and opportunists. Really, this is the behavior of thugs.

We must learn to treat everyone, regardless of what they look like or where they come from, with the same dignity and respect with which we ourselves want to be treated. It is so simple, yet still so hard for some to get right. But we must. We must get this right.

References

American Public Health Association. (2017, November 7). Improving working conditions for U.S. farmworkers and food production workers [Policy brief]. American Public Health Association. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://www.apha.org/policy-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-briefs/policy-database/2018/01/18/improving-working-conditions

Arellano, G. (2018, July 31). When the U.S. government tried to replace migrant farmworkers with high schoolers. NPR. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/31/634442195/when-the-u-s-government-tried-to-replace-migrant-farmworkers-with-high-schoolers

California Legislative Information. (2016). Bill Text — AB 1066: Agricultural workers: wages, hours, and working conditions [Enrolled Bill]. California Legislative Information. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1066

Castillo, M. (2024, November 21). Legal status of hired crop farmworkers, fiscal 1991–2022 [Chart]. Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/chart-detail?chartId=63466

Coalition of Immokalee Workers. (n.d.). Fair Food Program: Consumer-powered, worker-certified. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://fairfoodprogram.org/

Costa, D. (2023, October 5). The farmworker wage gap: Farmworkers earned 40% less than comparable nonagricultural workers in 2022 [Blog post]. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://www.epi.org/blog/the-farmworker-wage-gap-farmworkers-earned-40-less-than-comparable-nonagricultural-workers-in-2022/

Huffman, W. E. (2012). The status of labor-saving mechanization in U.S. fruit and vegetable harvesting. Choices Magazine, 27(2). Agricultural & Applied Economics Association. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-articles/immigration-and-agriculture/the-status-of-labor-saving-mechanization-in-us-fruit-and-vegetable-harvesting

Marino, F., Smeaton, D., Patel, N., & Rosecrance, J. (2021). Cooling interventions among agricultural workers: A pilot study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(1), 173. PubMed Central. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8693251/

National Farm Worker Ministry. (n.d.). Low wages. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://nfwm.org/farm-workers/farm-worker-issues/low-wages/

Ortega, F., & Hsin, A. (2019, July 24). What explains the wages of undocumented workers? EconoFact. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://econofact.org/what-explains-the-wages-of-undocumented-workers/

Rosenbloom, R. (2022, August 30). A profile of undocumented agricultural workers in the United States. Center for Migration Studies of New York. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://cmsny.org/agricultural-workers-rosenbloom-083022/

Shaikh, F. (2024, November 7). The rights of immigrant workers in the U.S. Passage Immigration Law. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://www.passage.law/blog/rights-of-immigrant-workers-in-us/

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Fair Food Program. In Wikipedia. Retrieved July 18, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Food_Program