At the last house dinner, the residents of Rose house had the privilege to have a meal comprised of ingredients from local farms and plantations. While the meal was delicious, my favorite part of the day was the information session lead afterwards by Justine Vanden Heuvel and Mary Jo Dudley. The two gave a presentation about the New York state agriculture industry and I learned that New York is actually a leader in growing many different species of produce. While I found this all very interesting, the part of the presentation that resonated with me the most regarded the people who actually worked on these farms. Agriculture is a 5.7 billion dollar industry, its workers being primarily undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala. Immigration reform is an issue I hold of upmost importance and this presentation really shed a light on how some undocumented immigrants live. As a first-generation America, the fact that my parents came to this country in search of opportunity has always been a motivating force for me. Every year, thousands of people seek to come to this country with the same hope for opportunity that my parents had; however, our current immigration system simply isn’t capable of accommodating for everyone. In my senior year of high school, I did my senior thesis on the immigration reform bill that was in congress at the time. In my research I specifically remember the bill expanding the amount of unskilled workers visas the country allotted, which directly refers to these farm workers. Additionally, the bill outlined a path for citizenship for individuals currently in the country illegally. This bill never actually passed the House of Representatives and our immigration system remains broken. With the presidential election looming, immigration reform has been a hot topic for candidates- however the issue is that the problem becomes subject to party politics and the immigrants are the ones who suffer as a result. This presentation really gave me a perspective of how some undocumented farm workers in America live and their journey for opportunity. As an ILR student, I hope to specialize in immigration labor studies and immigration reform policy overall; as I continue my education I will keep the livelihoods of these farm workers in mind in an effort to provide a clearer path to citizenship for them and a chance for opportunity.