Caitlyn Jekel, the Employment Security Department's government relations director, has started work implementing the bill, which will go into effect in June. The first survey cycle will start sometime during the 2025 fiscal year, which begins in July.

"The bill is a recognition that we exist and are worth listening to," Guillen said. "It's like you're dignifying us by actually establishing a data collection system that's equitable, and recognizing that we're worth collecting the data from."

"We want to participate in the survey," said Ramón, who wants the government to know he would like access to health care coverage and unemployment benefits in the offseason.

"All we are asking for is access to basic resources and for our voices to be heard," Santiágo said. "We pay taxes, we do essential work, without us there is no food."

Behind the couple, on the walls of the C2C resource center in Mount Vernon, hung colorful posters with slogans for farmworker rights. Delicate origami butterflies dangled overhead from the ceiling. The immigrant community in northwestern Washington strung 10,000 of these winged paper creations in Bellingham City Hall last summer as a visual demonstration of their fight for immigration rights and a community resource center in the city.

Ramón has been a farmworker since he was 8. He relishes the fresh air of open fields, the sounds of nature and the feel of the earth under his fingertips.

"I don't want to do anything else," he said.

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