Can Rape in the Fields Be Stopped? – Live Chat Wed. 2 p.m. ET

For the women who pick and handle the food we eat every day, sexual assault often comes with the job.

It’s a story that has rarely been reported — largely because many female farmworkers who are undocumented are afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs or being deported.

In Rape in the Fields many of these women risk everything to speak out for the first time.

“These women live in fear, but they were willing to go on camera to tell their stories at great personal risk,” says correspondent Lowell Bergman. “They didn’t want to see it happening to other women.”

Can the rape in the fields be stopped? Are the perpetrators — and their employers — being held accountable? Is any progress being made? Why does this problem get such little media coverage? And what’s the latest on the women in the film?

We’ve asked members of the reporting team behind the investigation to join us in a live chat to answer those questions — and take yours.  They’ll be joined by guest questioner Pamela Silva, Univision correspondent and host of Primer Impacto.

Our panelists include:

Correspondent Lowell Bergman

Producer/director/writer Andres Cediel

Center for Investigative Reporting journalist Bernice Yeung.

You can leave a question in the chat window below, and come by at 2 p.m. ET on June 26 to join the live discussion. We’ll be holding a Spanish-language version of the chat on Sunday at 7pm ET.

Rape in the Fields is a co-investigation from FRONTLINE, Univision News, the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, and the Center for Investigative Reporting. Violación de un Sueño, a Spanish-language version of the film, will air on Univision on Sat. June 29, at 7 p.m.

FRONTLINE would like to thank Univision and the Center for Investigative reporting for partnering with us on this chat.