There’s been plenty of reporting on the inner workings of Maryland’s crab industry (Odyssey of the crab: Inside the 1,100-mile network feeding Maryland’s frenzy, Aug. 11, 2025), but the most essential part of the story is still missing: the people whose labor makes it possible.

Most crab pickers on Maryland’s Eastern Shore are women on temporary work visas who travel here from Mexico. Each year they come for the season, facing gender-based discrimination, low wages, inadequate housing, and lack of access to medical care — abuses that the Baltimore-based organization I founded and direct, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, has documented over the past two decades.

Like other workers who come on temporary work visas, crab pickers’ visas and ability to remain in the U.S. are tied to their employer. Most are reluctant to complain about workplace abuses because they fear it will jeopardize their current work visa status or future prospects of returning on another visa.

Workers are often ignored when it comes to addressing the issues in the industry, with the interests of companies prioritized over the rights of the people who make it possible.

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For instance, lawmakers are pushing bills like the Save Our Seafood Act (S.1292) to expand temporary visa programs without addressing their structural flaws. These measures hand even more control over who can enter the country to corporations, while leaving workers vulnerable to exploitation.

We can’t keep carving out specific industry loopholes or coming up with Band-Aid “solutions” that put workers at further risk of abuse and exploitation. We need to advance an immigration system that respects the human rights of workers, keeps families and communities whole, and reflects the voices and experiences of migrants and immigrants.

Rachel Micah-Jones is executive director of Centro de los Derechos del Migrante

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