Sugarcane depends on migrants

Louisiana sugarcane farmers say they
depend heavily on migrant workers from
Mexico
In the late summer heat, the hours move like
molasses.
Still, across the cane fields of South Louisiana,
migrant workers from Mexico brave the sun and
punishing humidity to plant sugarcane. They come
from the mountains of Guanajuato and San Luís
Potosí, or the tropical coast of Veracruz, working the
fields, often up to 70 hours a week.
Their long hours spent in the sun create an
estimated economic impact of $4 billion in Louisiana
annually from sugarcane alone, according to the
American Sugar Cane League. Many return for rice
and crawfish harvests, spending most of their year
in the U.S., separated from their families back home.