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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 9h

Typically, it's only when a farmworker dies of heat stroke that the public hears these stories. Carlos survived and his family went public for the first time in the hope that what happened to Carlos doesn't continue happening to other farmworkers. I hope you read his story.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 9h

You can now read Carlos Vargas Moreno's story at The Guardian. Carlos was an H-2A worker who experienced a debilitating heat stroke in 2022 after being subjected to unsafe work conditions by his employer, Florida Orange Gold. Two years prior, another Florida Orange Gold worker died of heat stroke.

theguardian.com

Heatstroke ruined his health. Years before, it took the life of another farm worker at the same company

A farm labor contractor exposed laborers on H-2A agricultural visas to heat-related health hazards, but the contractor is still bringing hundreds of migrant farm workers to North Carolina

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Reposted by Tina Vasquez

Press On @pressonsouth.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

For @prismreports.org, @us.theguardian.com & @enlacelatinonc.bsky.social, our fellowship coordinator, @tinavasquez.bsky.social, investigated Florida Orange Gold’s disregard for the health of their migrant farmworkers in North Carolina and Florida. Read the story at tinyurl.om/farmworkersheat.

Image description from Prism: “Daysi Romero Arellano and Carlos Vargas Moreno inside their home, in Raleigh, N.C., on Sept. 18, 2026. Vargas Moreno, a former farmworker on an H-2A temporary visa, experienced heat stroke while working in a field in 2022 that caused permanent injuries. He relies entirely on his wife for care.”

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Reposted by Tina Vasquez

Prism @prismreports.org · 07/10/2026

After a farmworker died & another became disabled after a heat stroke, their employer keeps sending workers on H-2A visas out to the blistering North Carolina fields. Our co-published investigation by @tinavasquez.bsky.social is up now in @theguardian.com, with photos by Kaoly Gutierrez.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I also LOVE how @pressonsouth.bsky.social's Freedomways fellows approached audience engagement in deeply creative ways. For example, Eden created a zine about Black birth workers in the South. She's also hosting a community panel with birth workers who appeared in her story. We truly love to see it.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

From Louisiana, Edith Romero Velasquez reported this story, published on Monday by @prismreports.org, about the treatment of pregnant people in ICE custody. In her story, Edith also dives into how U.S. immigration law was shaped by eugenics.

prismreports.org

Pregnant women in ICE detention face policies shaped by eugenics

The experiences of detained women show that the American eugenics movement remains an integral part of the system

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Updating this thread to share more brilliant reporting from movement journalists in the South who were a part of @pressonsouth.bsky.social's Freedomways Reporting Fellowship!

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Since this story was published, I've learned of two farmworkers' deaths: a 24-year-old in MS and an H-2A worker in NC. I fear we are getting to a place where we simply accept these deaths each year, as if they aren't largely preventable with better workplace protections.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

On Sept. 29, @prismreports.org published my story about Carlos Vargas Moreno, an H-2A worker with a company called Florida Orange Gold who in 2022 experienced a heat stroke that left him disabled. Two years prior, another Florida Orange Gold H-2A worker died from heat stroke.

prismreports.org

Despite farmworker death and another disabled by heat stroke, employer keeps sending people to fields

Florida Orange Gold has exposed workers on H-2A visas to extreme heat, but continues to bring hundreds of migrants to North Carolina

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Reposted by Tina Vasquez

Prism @prismreports.org · 03/10/2026

Florida Orange Gold is one of hundreds of middlemen contracted by U.S. growers & crop farmers to hire & oversee migrant farmworkers. Even after the 2020 death of a farmworker they employed, Florida Orange Gold continues to expose H-2A workers to heat stress, @tinavasquez.bsky.social reports.

prismreports.org

Despite farmworker death and another disabled by heat stroke, employer keeps sending people to fields

Florida Orange Gold has exposed workers on H-2A visas to extreme heat, but continues to bring hundreds of migrants to North Carolina

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Thank you for reading and sharing, s.e.!

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Reposted by Tina Vasquez

The Flytrap @theflytrapmedia.com · 02/10/2026

Our co-founder @tinavasquez.bsky.social is an excellent reporter. ALWAYS read Tina:

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Reposted by Tina Vasquez

NotMe @princessjemmy.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It’s unconscionable that this could be allowed to happen, including companies like this being able to participate in a Farm Labor Visa Program in the first place.

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Reposted by Tina Vasquez

Andrea Grimes @andreagrimes.com · 01/10/2026

Incredible reporting by @tinavasquez.bsky.social here. A story about how the people who put food on American tables are denied water or even the ability to carry it with them or meaningfully ask for it to be provided, lest they lose their jobs working in oppressive heat.

prismreports.org

Despite farmworker death and another disabled by heat stroke, employer keeps sending people to fields

Florida Orange Gold has exposed workers on H-2A visas to extreme heat, but continues to bring hundreds of migrants to North Carolina

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Reposted by Tina Vasquez

Prism @prismreports.org · 01/10/2026

“Almost nowhere inside this system is an expressed desire to do better, to improve working conditions, to create a heat standard.” Despite farmworker death & another disabled by heat stroke, their employer keeps sending people to blistering fields, @tinavasquez.bsky.social investigates.

prismreports.org

Despite farmworker death and another disabled by heat stroke, employer keeps sending people to fields

Florida Orange Gold has exposed workers on H-2A visas to extreme heat, but continues to bring hundreds of migrants to North Carolina

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Reposted by Tina Vasquez

Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

NEW: H-2A worker Carlos Vargas Moreno experienced a catastrophic heat stroke when his employer, Florida Orange Gold, subjected him to unsafe working conditions. The same company was cited two years prior for the heat-related death of H-2A worker Carmen Sebastian Hernandez Mosqueda.

prismreports.org

Despite farmworker death and another disabled by heat stroke, employer keeps sending people to fields

Florida Orange Gold has exposed workers on H-2A visas to extreme heat, but continues to bring hundreds of migrants to North Carolina

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This is Carlos and Daysi. Their primary motivating factor for going public with their story is the hope that what happened to Carlos will not happen to other workers. [Photo by Kaoly Gutierrez]

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Carlos Vargas Moreno now relies entirely on his wife Daysi Romero Arellano for care and the couple has been separated from their daughter in Mexico for four years as they await word in their pending immigration case.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Neither the state of NC nor federal OSHA has a heat standard that requires employers to establish standards for access to drinking water, rest breaks, and temperature control. With no law mandating these basic protections, employers will continue to subject workers to deadly conditions.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

By the time they arrived at the emergency room, Vargas Moreno was unresponsive, covered in vomit, and had a body temperature of 109 degrees. He remained hospitalized for almost a year. The seasoned farmworker is now permanently disabled.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Rather than putting him in the cab of his air-conditioned, four-door pickup, Gutierrez had workers load Vargas Moreno onto the bed of the truck where he was fully exposed to the sun on the drive to the hospital.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The farmworkers carried Vargas Moreno onto a bus without air conditioning and drove him to the side of a nearby road. Vargas Moreno, now unconscious, was then placed on the ground outside the bus until Gutierrez arrived about 15 minutes later.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Vargas Moreno had a seizure in the field. Again, a worker called Florida Orange Gold’s founder, Jose Gutierrez, who was in another field several miles away. Gutierrez did not instruct workers to call 911, and he did not call 911. Instead, the contractor told the workers to wait for him.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Unlike what's recommended in the heat stress prevention program Florida Orange Gold purportedly implemented, the company did not provide heat stress training to workers, did not cut the work day shorter during dangerous heat, did not offer workers drinks with electrolytes.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It's clear the company learned nothing from the death of Hernandez Mosqueda because Carlos Vargas Moreno collapsed under the same conditions: weeding a field in July during dangerously hot temperatures. When he collapsed, no Florida Orange Gold employee was present and no one called 911.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The company largely treated this as an administrative task, printing "Florida Orange Gold" at the top of a template plan provided by NC DOL and listing Florida Orange Gold's bookkeeper, Gilberto Gutierrez, as the person responsible for implementing it.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Often, companies can lessen their fines if they "abate" the hazard. In this case, the hazard was subjecting H-2A workers to conditions “likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees.” NC DOL told Florida Orange Gold an abatement would be implementing a heat stress prevention program.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

911 was finally called 50 minutes after he first collapsed. The 25 year old died of hyperthermia a few minutes after the ambulance arrived. The North Carolina Department of Labor proposed penalty of $7,000 for the worker's death.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

For some reason, Carmen Sebastian Hernandez Mosqueda was put in a car and driven 14 minutes away to a parking lot, where he was transferred to ANOTHER car. En route to the hospital, he lost consciousness.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Fellow H-2A workers had received no emergency or heat stress-related training from Florida Orange Gold, so they called Florida Orange Gold owner, Jose Javier Gutierrez. Who did not call 911 and did not tell workers to call 911.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

On July 18, 2020, Florida Orange Gold worker Carmen Sebastian Hernandez Mosqueda collapsed while weeding a field in rural North Carolina. There was a dangerous heat warning that week, but Florida Orange Gold H-2A workers still spent between 11 and 12 hours in the fields each day.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

FLCs are the fastest-growing segment of farm employment, and they are the worst violators of federal employment law in agriculture. They require no special training or certification, despite overseeing a highly vulnerable population of workers whose visas are tied to a single employer.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Florida Orange Gold is a farm labor contractor (FLC) allowed by the U.S. government to bring hundreds of migrant farmworkers to the U.S. each year to perform dangerous, seasonal agricultural work.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

prismreports.org

Despite farmworker death and another disabled by heat stroke, employer keeps sending people to fields

Florida Orange Gold has exposed workers on H-2A visas to extreme heat, but continues to bring hundreds of migrants to North Carolina

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Reposted by Tina Vasquez

s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 29/09/2026

Thrilled to announce that I have once again bullied @theflytrapmedia.com media into FLYTRAP FRIDAYS this October: Original spooky features, FOR FREE, every Friday, from The Flyteam! Coming this Friday: I write about vacation towns where everything goes wrong. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!

theflytrapmedia.com

The Flytrap

Feminist cultural criticism against the algorithm

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I’m watching @amylittlefield.bsky.social’s doc about Students For Life President Kristan Hawkins. I love looking up the salaries of anti-abortion leaders. According to last year’s 990s, Hawkins’ salary is over $270K. Don’t let moneyed white women tell you whether abortion is right for you.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I hope you read this reporting. It changed me, and I think it has the potential to change you, too.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It is the first time the former H-2A worker and his family are publicly telling their story. Their primary motivation for coming forward is the hope that it will stop the same thing from happening to other farmworkers.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This week, @prismreports.org is co-publishing my latest investigation with @us.theguardian.com, focused on a farmworker whose employer subjected him to deadly working conditions that resulted in a catastrophic heat stroke. The story will also be published in Spanish by @enlacelatinonc.bsky.social.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

My favorite, dirt cheap thrift store hired a fashionable millennial and now everything is appropriately priced and I’m feeling slightly hateful.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Soon, @pressonsouth.bsky.social's fellows will publish stories about eugenics in the U.S. immigration system, the use of surveillance tech by law enforcement in TN, how doulas are filling healthcare gaps for women in the South, and much more! I'll update this thread when those stories are live.

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Next up is this piece from Mo Viviane about how anti-trans bills coalesce with the Trump administration's Big Beautiful Bill to decimate healthcare for trans people in Kentucky, including those who are incarcerated:

prismreports.org

Trans Kentuckians pay the price as safety net shrinks

Trans people account for less than 1% of the state’s residents, but lawmakers continue to target this already vulnerable population

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Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

As our beloved @pressonsouth.bsky.social fellows begin to publish their work, I thought I'd share some of their excellent reporting here in a thread, starting with this story from G. Samantha Rosenthal about North Carolina being the center of anti-Zionist organizing in the South:

prismreports.org

Jewish anti-Zionism in the American Bible Belt

Southern Jews aligned with the pro-Palestine movement are building “a Judaism of liberation” in the heartland of Christian Zionism

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