Migrant workers are arriving in southeast Minnesota to work in canning and packing plants. Many come from the Eagle Pass area of Texas, along the Mexican border. They used to travel to the Red River Valley to work on the sugar beet harvest but mechanization and better farm chemicals mean sugar beet farmers don't need as much labor. In the first report in an occasional series on migrants in Minnesota, Minnesota Public Radio's Brent Wolfe introduces us to one migrant family and what they leave behind.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] BRENT WOLFE: The Saucedo family owns a small novelty store in Eagle Pass just up the street from the border crossing, where border agents rifle through people's cars and luggage. The Saucedos tried to lure shoppers inside with music from a radio station in the neighboring Mexican city of Piedras Negras. Inside, 23-year-old Hector Saucedo opens a glass case to show off one of the store's more popular items.
HECTOR SAUCEDO: This is a watch. That's the alarm ring. You have 12 different sounds. Every hour, it sings the song. We order them from California. They actually-- everything, almost all our items, come from China and Japan. They're very cheap watches, make them pretty. Their costs are 399.
BRENT WOLFE: The economy of Eagle Pass is built on small stores selling consumer goods to people from Piedras Negras who are able to get coveted one-day visas. They buy up watches, toys, and bridal decorations and resell them in Mexico for a profit. But Hector says, the stores have been hurt by recent devaluations of the peso.
HECTOR SAUCEDO: Business is slow right now. Our customers are from Mexico land right now. But the peso and all, it's kind of slow.
BRENT WOLFE: Hector's parents own the store. And he has three brothers and a sister. All of them have worked there at one point or another. But his parents can't afford to pay them for more than about 20 hours a week at minimum wage. Older brother Mario says, that's not enough for him to support his wife and three kids.
MARIO SAUCEDO: There's nothing much going on down here. But I think we're just used to be down here, living down here. And well, when we're down here, we're on the unemployment because it's hard to find a job. You can find a job around here.
BRENT WOLFE: In December and January, when there's little farm work available, unemployment in Eagle Pass runs as high as 32%. Mario and his wife, Leticia, were getting about $430 a week in unemployment until their benefits ran out a couple of weeks ago.
LETICIA SAUCEDO: It's hard here. You don't get a job you have to know somebody on top so they could put you to work someplace. Or you have to have a GED or graduate at least from high school so you can work. Otherwise, you can go make 100 applications around here and you won't have a job.
But if your uncle works in a court, he'll put you in, even if you didn't graduate. That's the thing here. If you know somebody who has money or something in there, they could put you in. Otherwise, you're nobody in here. That's why most of the people around here, they leave. Because there's no work.
BRENT WOLFE: Mario says, life in Eagle Pass without a job can get pretty boring.
MARIO SAUCEDO: Well, we just clean the outside. And that not much-- stay inside, watch TV.
BRENT WOLFE: It's a dry and dusty town, where a tumbleweed wouldn't be out of place blowing across the road. The Saucedos live nearby their families in small but neat mobile trailers. They get together often to share meals. And this week, Mario, and his brother and sister, and their families will drive in two cars for 26 hours to get to Rochester, where they'll work in the Seneca Foods Canning Plant. The pea pack is due to begin June 10th.
Mario dropped out of school after eighth grade. And he's migrated north every summer since then. For the past several summers, he's driven a forklift for Seneca and makes almost $8 an hour and often gets paid overtime. Mario says, if both he and his wife work, they can make about $500 a week. Despite the money and the ease of finding a job in Rochester, he says, he has no intention of making Rochester a permanent home. It's too cold in the winter.
MARIO SAUCEDO: The first year, we started going for-- working for Seneca, they offered me a full time job down there. But we got our home over here. And we got everything down here. We got our family there. And no, I don't think we would stay there down-- up there.
BRENT WOLFE: The biggest challenge Mario and his wife, Leticia, will face when they get to Rochester is finding a place to live. Affordable housing is difficult to find, especially on a short-term basis.
LETICIA SAUCEDO: Right now, we're having-- we're kind of worried because we want to go work. But we need to make enough money for our rent. Because down there, the rent is high for here. Because here, you don't pay that much rent. And well, this year, we heard, we're not going to be able to get help for rent deposit or anything. And it's going to be kind of hard. But hopefully, we'll try to work something out. Because we have to keep going. We can't stay here.
BRENT WOLFE: Changes in Minnesota's welfare laws mean most migrants won't be able to get housing grants until they've been living in the state for 30 days. Mario and his family expect they'll have to spend several days living out of their cars at a Rochester park or rest area before they find a place they can afford. Then they'll begin three months of hard work, packing the vegetables grown in southeast Minnesota. I'm Brent Wolfe, Minnesota Public Radio.