This story was originally published on Civil Eats.

At the end of April, 71 fruit-tree workers at a large orchard in central Washington state were tested for COVID-19. None showed any symptoms of the novel coronavirus, except for four with a mild cough. But more than half tested positive, and the farm turned out to be one of the first confirmed clusters of the virus among agricultural workers.

The laborers were mostly guest workers from Mexico who were brought to