On Morning Joe investigative journalist and Nation Books author Gabriel Thompson talks about his book, Working in the Shadows, which chronicles the year he spent working undercover in jobs that traditionally use immigrant labor. He describes his book as “an exploration of what the lives of immigrants are like and what the industries that they predominate in are like.”

Thompson cut lettuce for Dole in Arizona fields, tore chicken breasts during the graveyard shift of an Alabama poultry plant and worked in a Mom-and-pop flower shop in Manhattan. Thompson wasn’t out to write a policy piece; rather, he wanted to expose readers to certain industries because despite the amount of talk devoted to immigrants, most Americans “don’t have a very good connection or idea of what those jobs entail.”

—Morgan Ashenfelter

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