As crab season arrived in Hoopersville, Maryland, locals began asking where Jose Bronero Cruz was. For two decades, he’d traveled from Mexico to the remote town to pick crab meat, but this spring, he did not arrive. Nor did any of the other foreign workers Janet Rippons-Ruark relies on to process meat from the blue crabs Maryland is famous for, exacerbating a worker shortage that ballooned into a crisis for the eastern US state’s iconic industry.

Stein, C. (2020, October 12). Immigration standoff, pandemic hammer iconic US crab industry. Manila Standard, p. B3.