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 weekâs haul and pay-in-cash stacks smuggled "on their bodies" to dodge US wire watchersâ"donât get caught," he counseled. The farm boss, train engineer turned blueberry king Charles King, signed off on 300 workers despite only needing 150âMendozaâs 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 Americaâs sweetest labor scheme, where blueberries and bureaucracy meet sweat and exploitation.
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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.
When your farmâs crop needs 150 workers but your labor broker brings 300 stashing quarter million dollars like itâs a Flintstones episode disguised as a visa scheme.
Nothing says 'American Dream' like a 21-year-old dropout managing cash-packed buses, pink lipstick hopes, and motel prison breaks in Georgiaâs blueberry fields.
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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