Big Sky, I know you're just indulging in a bit of hyperbole, but just for the record, these ag workers make a pretty damn good buck. Probably 2 or three times what the loafers are picking up (not counting crack sales, of course.) Lot of'em have no trouble picking up 35-40K per season!
Dirty Little Secret: Lots of pickers manage to go on welfare when they're not picking. That's what keeps'em here through the winter. You would also be amazed at how many manage to buy property!
Here's another dirty little secret. The ones that I'm aware of that plant and pick sugarbeets during the summer/fall in the Yellowstone and Missouri River Valley here in Montana and potatoes in Idaho, migrate south to pick other crops during the winter months. That's why they're called migrant or seasonal workers.
Some of these ag workers who are legal do pretty much the same thing. I know of this one family farm operation based not far from me, that goes as far south as Texas in the early spring to harvest grain, and they're back here in Montana to harvest their own crop in the early fall, moving northward through Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and southern Montana, harvesting everything from wheat to corn. That's all they do for 8 months out of the year. Harvest.