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...