Advocates for immigrant farm workers went to the New York State Fair to call on the New York Farm Bureau to do a better job protecting immigrant employees.
The Workers Center of Central New York and the Syracuse Immigrant and Refugee Defense Network petitioned at the Fair Thursday. In a letter to the Farm Bureau, advocates and workers asked for more protection against the fear of deportation, as well as better access to healthcare, housing and more stable wages.
The groups emphasized that immigrant laborers, many of them undocumented, help keep dairy products and produce less expensive. They also quoted a state study from 2022 that estimated undocumented immigrants contributed over $3 billion to the New York economy through taxes…