EP 21 - ICE raids, farmworkers, & COVID-19 w/ Seth M. Holmes, Miriam Magaña López, and Vera L. Chang

In this episode of Who Belongs? we’re looking at the reality facing undocumented immigrants and migrant farmworkers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We hear from three researchers who discuss some of their recent and upcoming articles that look at ICE raids targeting immigrant communities despite shelter-in-place orders, as well as the conditions of farmworkers who are putting themselves at risk in order to keep the country fed.

For articles mentioned in this episode visit:

1. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/31/ice-raids-coronavirus-n95-masks

2. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/14/will-we-have-food-coronavirus-pandemic

3. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305704

The guests are:

Seth M. Holmes, PhD, MD, is on faculty in the Division of Society and Environment and the Joint Program in Medical Anthropology. A cultural and medical anthropologist and physician, he has worked on social hierarchies, health inequities, and the ways in which such asymmetries are naturalized, normalized, and resisted in the context of transnational im/migration, agro-food systems, and health care. He has received national and international awards from the fields of anthropology, sociology, and geography, including the Margaret Mead Award. In addition to scholarly publications, he has written for popular media such as The Huffington Post and Salon.com and spoken on multiple NPR, PRI, Pacifica Radio and Radio Bilingüe radio programs.

Miriam Magaña López is a first-generation immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico. Miriam has a BA in Anthropology from Macalester College and an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. Currently she works as a Research and Policy Analyst at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, primarily focused on understanding how economic, political and social structures impact the health of immigrant farm workers. Recently, she conducted ethnographic fieldwork among vineyard workers to understand how employment regimes influence vineyard workers’ integration in Sonoma Valley. Miriam is also a volunteer organizer with Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) focused on passing a Driver’s License for all bill and stopping the Hennepin County Sheriff Department from cooperating with ICE.

Vera L. Chang is a UC Berkeley Environmental Science, Policy, and Management Doctoral Student; National Science Foundation Fellow; Clif Bar Family Foundation Fellow; and Berkeley Food Institute Researcher. Vera’s doctoral research focuses on agro-food systems, human rights, and social change. She is currently studying how worker-led movements can create shifts in power within U.S.-based corporate food chains. Vera recently completed a Solutions Journalism Network Fellowship to conduct an investigative reporting project on solutions to rampant sexual violence in U.S. agricultural fields. Her research and journalism have been highlighted by the Aspen Institute, Worldwatch Institute, and Center for Science in the Public Interest.