Blueberry Fields Forever: Visa Dreams, Cash Busts & Motel Horrors

Meet Javier Sanchez Mendoza Jr., 21, ex-college dropout turned labor broker and human Uber for 300 grueling farmworkers headed from northeastern Mexico to the blueberry fields of rural Georgia in 2018. Mendoza sold them a fairy tale via the H-2A visa, promising wages higher than a Mexican week’s haul and pay-in-cash stacks smuggled "on their bodies" to dodge US wire watchers—"don’t get caught," he counseled. The farm boss, train engineer turned blueberry king Charles King, signed off on 300 workers despite only needing 150—Mendoza’s hustle. Single mom Sofi, lured by pink lipstick and egged on by waiving visa fees, ended up watched over like a prison in a dingy motel. Welcome to America’s sweetest labor scheme, where blueberries and bureaucracy meet sweat and exploitation.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

If you needed 150 farmworkers but got 300 hopefuls smuggling $250k cash 'on their bodies' to dodge US spies, congratulations, you've met Mendoza: dropout, labor broker, and unofficial US blueberry cartel boss.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

When your farm’s crop needs 150 workers but your labor broker brings 300 stashing quarter million dollars like it’s a Flintstones episode disguised as a visa scheme.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

Nothing says 'American Dream' like a 21-year-old dropout managing cash-packed buses, pink lipstick hopes, and motel prison breaks in Georgia’s blueberry fields.

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Source: Propublica | Published: 9/13/2025 | Author: by Max Blau, ProPublica, and Zaydee Sanchez for ProPublica, illustrations by Dadu Shin for ProPublica

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