Trey Kay Published

Losing It All: Natural Disasters and America’s Immigrant Worker

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Migrant worker "Martin" standing before a cactus that a family member brought from Mexico and planted on a plot of land near a North Carolina tobacco farm. The family has lived here since the 1980s.
Jesse Pratt Lopez/100 Days in Appalachia

We’re in the midst of the 2019 hurricane season, and people in the Bahamas are still digging out from Hurricane Dorian. In 2018 hurricane Florence hit the coast of North Carolina, which left 51 people dead and caused $24 billion in damage in the state. 

Disaster relief programs provide assistance to many, but in the U.S. some people are not eligible for any of that help. Undocumented migrant workers who harvest crops and perform other temporary jobs can lose everything when disaster hits.