Mario first crossed the Mexico-US border in search of work more than 35 years ago, starting a journey that ultimately led him to the farms of California’s verdant central coastline.
“Everything is perfect here,” says Mario. “In agriculture, there is a lot of work. If you want to work from Sunday to Sunday, you can.”
But he says far less work has been done here since Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided farms near the seaside city of Oxnard at the height of the strawberry picking season in June. At least 35 people were swept up, and since then there has been another raid on a nearby legal cannabis farm, in which one person died. “Everything has stopped” since the raids.