A Little Game of Chance

All the contradictions implicit in the U.S. need for illegal Mexican farm laborers once produced a strange harvest on a truck farm near El Mirage, Ariz. The farm grew a vegetable called broccoli di rapa, a plant that needs lots of irrigation, so the surrounding fields were muddy.

This used to dismay the border patrol officers when they came tramping through the fields about once a week in search of illegal immigrants (they usually seized about five).

According to United Farmworkers Official Lupe Sanchez, who tells the story, the crew boss came up with a proposition: "Suppose I just give you five of them every week, and you don't have to do any running or get your boots muddy?"

A little peculiar, the border guards thought, but why not go along with somebody who wants to help out the law? Then the crew boss went to his workers, explained the deal and said everyone would make more money if work did not have to be interrupted by raids. So the workers drew lots once a week to pick the five who would have to be shipped back to the Mexican border. Before the five victims left, though, the hat was passed for funds to help the unlucky five sneak back north across the border, a trip that usually started the next day.