The polarization of both the House and Senate has made it largely impossible to pass legislative overhauls without some parliamentary chicanery. Obamacare, Trump’s tax cuts, and Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act were all passed under the budget reconciliation process which allows a simple majority in the Senate to bypass the legislative filibuster. In other words, the … Continued
By Jared Culver
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has a new report examining the free-fall in Department of Labor (DOL) investigations into farmworker abuse, which dropped to a record low of 879. 879 closed cases when hundreds of thousands of H-2A employees are working every year. This continues the trend of “see no evil, hear no evil” of … Continued
Enrique Balcazar, 37, and Elizabeth Balcazar, 21, operators of Balcazar Nature Harvesting, LLC (BNH), were sentenced in Federal court for using the H-2A agricultural visa program to import forced labor. Enrique received 40 months in prison along with fines, and his daughter received time served and fines. BNH was fined approximately $508,000 in restitution to … Continued
By Jared Culver
After The New York Times documented extensive child labor trafficking and exposed that Biden Administration officials both knew about it and tried to cover it up, the Department of Labor (DOL) started a task force to clean up the mess they made. The DOL has now released an update on their work one day after … Continued
Harmanpreet Singh, 30, and Kulbir Kaur, 42, were indicted for conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor, alien harboring for financial gain, and document servitude. The acts were in connection with their gas station and convenience store where, from March 2018 to May 2021, they allegedly forced Singh’s cousin to work. The indictment has all … Continued
Mauritson Farms, a winery, settled with the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) and 21 alien farmworkers for retaliation. The aliens had the audacity to complain to their boss about unfair wages and unsafe working conditions. After working for three years at the winery, the aliens met with Cameron Mauritson, manager at the winery, and … Continued
By Jeremy Beck
Immigration By the Numbers: Catch and Release 40% of migrants released by the Biden Administration never checked in; Another 40% never received a “notice to appear” at all; 82% of migrants released have not been entered into the court docket. Of the 18% who have been entered into the court docket, most will wait years … Continued
On Wednesday, July 26th, 2023, Secretary Mayorkas, head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), testified before the House Judiciary Committee. The 24-page written testimony he submitted for the record says a great deal about his vision for the future of the immigration policy landscape. He wrote about backlogs blocking alien benefit applications, so-called DREAMers … Continued
The child labor boom continues with Monogram Meat Snacks paying a $30,000 fine and agreeing to increased oversight from the Department of Labor (DOL) after being caught hiring teenagers in their dangerous Minnesota facility. This is only the latest meatpacking company to be caught using child labor. Packers Sanitation Services recently paid a $1.5 million … Continued
