BBC
Sandra Noemi Bucu Saz proudly shows off the land she cares for at home in Guatemala
Donald Trump is expected to target undocumented immigrants, most of whom come from Central America, when he takes office next week. What is less known is that migrants from some of these same countries have a legal pathway to work on U.S. farms for a limited time.
Farm worker Sandra Noemi Bucu Saz is happy.
She recently returned from the United States to Guatemala, Central America, where she was picking strawberries in California.
“They paid us $19 (£15.60) an hour,” says Sandra. “We were asked to pick seven boxes per hour, and if we picked more, we were paid a little more.
“It’s so different from what I get in Guatemala, which is about $10 a day, when there’s work.”
Sandra is one of about 5,000 Guatemalans who go to work – legally – in the United States each year, thanks to a U.S. government visa program for temporary agricultural workers from overseas, called H-2A.
This allows U.S. farms that cannot find enough local staff to do the work to bring in foreign staff. Foreign workers can stay for up to 12 months, before having to return to their country of origin.
For people like Sandra, it’s a chance to succeed in life and help her family by sending them part of the money she earns. In Guatemala, there are now around 30 recruitment companies registered with the Guatemalan government to help people find temporary work in the United States via H-2A visas.
On a cold, gray, windy day in southern Guatemala, Sanda proudly shows off the land she rents in a place called Las Tres Cruces, perched in the hills near a town where she lives with her family, called Santiago Sacatepéquez .
She and her relatives grow corn, lettuce, beans and spinach for consumption. And if there are enough left, they sell them at the local market. Sandra’s dream is to save enough money to buy land, so she doesn’t have to rent.
But first she must pay off the rest of the debt she incurred after being scammed when she and her sister first tried to get a visa to the United States.
“We were paying someone $2,000 per person because we wanted to find work in the United States,” she says. “My sister and I thought we needed to do this so we could move forward and achieve our dreams. So we got a loan to get some money, but unfortunately it was a scam and they took our money .”
This is a common practice of fraudsters in Guatemala, who play on people’s desperation to get to the United States and trick them into handing over money.
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Many American farms must rely on migrant workers to harvest their crops.
Cesia Ochoa is the executive director of the Guatemala branch of a legitimate recruiting company called Cierto. A company that also has offices in the United States and Mexico, it is one of around 30 companies officially registered in Guatemala to offer H-2A visas.
“Part of our inspiration for opening an office in Guatemala was to help locals avoid scams,” she says.
When Sandra went to the United States via Cierto, she did not have to pay any fees. Instead, the company is paid by U.S. agricultural companies looking for temporary workers.
Ms Ochoa explains: “For us it is really important that we establish good contact between companies and workers, and that the salaries and contracts they offer are real.”
While the H-2A visa allows Guatemalans to legally find temporary agricultural work in the United States, there are estimated to be more than 675,000 undocumented Guatemalans in the United States, according to the think tank Pew Research Center.
And another 200,000 people attempted to enter the United States without valid documents in the 12 months to September last year. This is the third highest figure behind Mexicans and Venezuelans.
Olga Romero lives near a town called Olopa, in northeastern Guatemala. She has seven children, two of whom work in the United States without a visa.
“It’s a poor area where it’s hard to find work, and families often pay $2,000 to $3,000 to someone called a coyote to bring them illegally to the United States,” Olga says.
A big problem is that to raise this amount of money, many families must take out loans secured against the value of their homes. They can then lose their property if the money is not repaid.
And this is often the case, given that the chances of them reaching the United States are far from guaranteed, with risks of accidents en route or being turned back at the US border.
But the rewards are high. The money that relatives send back from the United States is called remittances and supports Guatemala’s economy. In 2023, the country received a total of $19.8 billion in remittances from abroad, according to a study by the Inter-American Development Bank.
President Donald Trump has vowed to be tougher on undocumented immigrants and is threatening mass deportations.
But it’s not yet clear whether he will take steps to limit, or even stop, H-2A and other visa regimes for temporary foreign workers.
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Trump has pledged to deport illegal migrants, like those who entered the United States last summer.
Vanessa García, executive director of the recruitment organization Juan Francisco Garcia Comparini Foundation, is optimistic that these visas will continue.
The foundation helps send about 200 Guatemalans a year to work in the United States on H-2A visas. They are farm workers who help harvest lettuce, cauliflower, spinach and beans.
“I think the opportunities for Guatemalans to obtain an H-2A visa will continue and perhaps even increase,” she says. “I’m not worried and I think it’s a great opportunity for workers.”
Joe Martinez, founder and CEO of US-based Cierto, says that while he expects the visa system to continue under Trump, foreign workers’ rights could be weakened.
“Cierto is concerned that efforts to streamline and reduce bureaucratic processes will lead to a program with fewer worker protections and less oversight.”
He fears that farmworkers’ wages will fall and their housing conditions on American farms will deteriorate.
Hector Benjamin Xoc Xar
Héctor Benjamín Xoc Xar says he worked in the United States to be able to give his children a good education
Back in Guatemala, Héctor Benjamín Xoc Xar claims to have made two work trips to the United States using the H-2A visa. The most recent saw him working in a greenhouse growing vegetables. He says his inspiration is his family.
“I want them to do better than me academically,” he says. “I left school when I was still young to work in the fields.
“Before I found this job, it seemed like my daughter wouldn’t be able to finish her final year of accounting because we couldn’t afford it, but now I’ve managed to pay for it and pay for it works as an accountant.
