Black Americans Settle Suits Against Farms that Replaced Them with Visa Workers

A group of African American laborers recently settled their lawsuits against two U.S. farms for replacing black workers with foreign H-2A visa workers from South Africa.

The black American farm workers from various farms in the Mississippi Delta filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against their old employers – Pitts Farms and Harris Russell Farms – for firing them only to replace the missing labor with H-2A visa workers.

Breitbart News reports,

The black Americans who filed the lawsuit claimed they were paid $7.25 to $8.25 an hour, while their foreign H-2A visa counterparts were paid nearly $12 an hour.

While the settlement terms have not been publicly disclosed, attorney Rob McDuff stated that he hoped it would send a message to employers looking to discriminate against Americans in favor of foreign visa workers.

McDuff added, “These settlements are an important step and we are going to keep moving forward in an effort to eradicate these abuses throughout the Delta.”

Attorney Amal Bouhabib said, “many other Delta farms are engaging in these unlawful practices,” and she expects “more suits will be coming against those who do not pay fair wages to the local workers.”

“We look forward to continuing this campaign in the Delta and bringing some measure of justice to the workers who have been underpaid and mistreated for many years,” Mississippi Center for Justice President and CEO Vangela Wade said in a statement.

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