MILWAUKEE — A new report from ProPublica this week chronicles the substandard living conditions many migrant dairy farm workers face in both Wisconsin and Minnesota, along with the lack of legal protections they have to try to improve the situation.

"Dairy farm work is year-round and because it's year-round— it's not temporary or migratory in nature— it's excluded from [certain legal protections]," said Melissa Sanchez, a journalist whom, along with Maryam Jameel, wrote the piece for ProPublica titled, "Immigrant Dairy Workers Often Endure Substandard Housing Conditions. The Law Doesn’t Protect Them."

In January, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed suit against one dairy farm in that state and claimed they, in part, engaged in labor abuses, but Sanchez said any similar legal action against egregious dairy farm owners in Wisconsin appears to be, at least for now, a remote possibility.

"[The Wisconsin Attorney General's office] hasn't filed a suit like this before," Sanchez said. "I think it's really hard because workers fear retaliation if they speak up, if they file a complaint anywhere, so I think it's good that our local officials in Wisconsin are more aware of what these conditions might look like, but the really high bar is getting workers to come forward and talk, so I don't know if they'll hear from workers."

Watch the full interview above.