WES Blog - Food Justice for Our Immigrant Neighbors

Gang violence against youth, domestic violence against women and trans people and dire poverty continue to push thousands of migrants to seek a better life in the U.S. In 2018, WES members supported Monika and Carlos in their effort to attain asylum. Now Trump has virtually ended the possibility of asylum for immigrants from Central America and elsewhere.

Our planet is warming, making agriculture in the global south precarious. Brazil’s massive coffee “latifundas” have driven the price of coffee so low that many small farmers in Central Americas are now out of business. Seas are rising. When people have no choice, they migrate. How we treat these people of color: those who are here and those who have yet to arrive, helps define who we are.

The border between Langley Park and Takoma Park is porous but it is ever-present. On the other side of that border, food and essential products have become precious commodities. As Washington Post reporter, Michael Miller put it, “As the coronavirus sweeps across the country, claiming the lives of thousands and crippling the economy, immigrant communities are … among the hardest hit. The pandemic (is)… particularly devastating for Langley Park, a neighborhood just seven miles from the White House where 70 percent of adults are not U.S. citizens — one of the highest rates in the United States — and many are undocumented. Here, countless cooks, construction workers and cleaners are suddenly out of a job without any chance of unemployment benefits or federal stimulus checks. Those who still work often do so in close quarters and at high risk of infection, even as their more affluent neighbors in Takoma Park or Silver Spring telework from the safety of single-family homes.”