18 Month Investigation Finds Trafficking and Exploitation in H-2A Program
PUBLISHED: Tue, MAY 16th 2023 @ 12:00 pm EDT by Jared Culver
An 18-month investigation by Prism, Futuro Investigates, and Latino USA, is the latest to find horrific abuse throughout the H-2A agricultural temporary worker program. The H-2A visa includes extensive labor protections concerning wages, recruitment, working conditions, and housing, with multiple Federal departments playing a role in approval and oversight. And yet, the stories of abuse are as numerous as the regulations and Federal staff designed to stop it.
The Prism investigation opens with a story of trafficked H-2A workers that is corroborated by anyone who has followed the avalanche of abuse stories in the program:
But shortly after arriving in the U.S. as H-2A workers, Diego and Mario found themselves starving, scared, and plotting their escape from the very jobs they staked their families' futures on. In part, this is why they are using pseudonyms. Not only are they immigrant victims of trafficking, but pursuing justice has proven dangerous. The man who recruited them into the H-2A program in southern Mexico threatened Mario's wife."
Squalid conditions, physical threats, and crippling fear often come up when you listen to the foreign workers who the H-2A program is supposed to be protecting. The abusive employers, mind you, are the same ones decrying worker shortages and demanding more cannon fodder. And they are supported by willing dupes in Congress, including Rep. John Duarte and Rep. Zoe Lofgren.
https://www.numbersusa.com/blog/18-month-investigation-finds-trafficking-and-exploitation-h-2a-program
