New Regulations Demonstrate H2 Visas Need Real Reform

By Jared Culver

Both the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) have noticed new regulations designed to protect foreign workers from the explosion of exploitation within the labor market. While the attempts to stop the exploitation should be applauded, the new regulations are correctly understood as mere Band-Aids on deep … Continued

Secretary Mayorkas Oversight Testimony Leaves Out American Workers

By Chris Chmielenski

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

Two Senators are Shocked to Hear of Exploitation in H-2A

By Chris Chmielenski

Senators Bill Cassidy and Ted Budd have expressed outrage over the idea that there is worker exploitation in the H-2A visa program. They claim besmirching the H-2A program is demonstrating a bias against farmers. The disconnect from reality exposed by Senator Cassidy and Senator Budd is great proof of the problem faced by those trying … Continued

18 Month Investigation Finds Trafficking and Exploitation in H-2A Program

By Chris Chmielenski

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 … Continued

Class Action Alleges Forced Labor Through the H-2A Program

By Chris Chmielenski

Another day, another story of slavery in the American immigration system. Here, MBR Farms is alleged by class plaintiffs to have been using the legal H-2A program for agricultural workers as their personal trafficking pipeline. MBR Farms owners and operators have been indicted for labor trafficking and an assortment of other crimes, as well. The … Continued

More Forced Labor in H-2A as Congress Works to Expand the Program

By Chris Chmielenski

The owner of Los Villatoros Harvesting (LVH) pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit forced labor on Tuesday in the latest example of slavery in the H-2A agricultural temporary worker program. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said after the plea, “The scheme these defendants employed trapped the victims through fear of serious harm if they did … Continued

New Lawsuit Alleges “Permanent Indentured Servitude” in Immigration Program

By Chris Chmielenski

A lawsuit was filed in Nevada this week alleging dreadful labor conditions for alien workers in the United States. The case is Alvarado v. Western Range Association, and it alleges what is effectively a racket by ranchers conspiring to artificially deflate wages for both foreign and domestic shepherds. The visa program being used to import … Continued

Work Visa Programs Diminish Black Labor Prospects

By Lisa Irving

As Black unemployment persists at high rates, data mounts on how visa programs work to keep Americans, and Blacks in particular, un- and under-employed. Pamela Denise Long and Miriam Jordan took on this troubling reality in recently published articles. Long asks “Should Black Americans Champion Immigration?” for her October Newsweek opinion piece 一 then probes … Continued

Black American Agriculture Workers Being Displaced in the Mississippi Delta

By Admins

New York Times correspondent Miriam Jordan wrote “Black Farmworkers Say They Lost Jobs to Foreigners Who Were Paid More,” about longtime field laborer Richard Strong and five other displaced black farmworkers in the Mississippi Delta {text} against Pitts Farm Partnership (PFP) claiming “that the new foreign workers (mostly white South African farmers on H-2A visas) … Continued