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Speaker 1: Futuro Investigatesaturo Emestida. Hey, today's episode is the second in

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Speaker 1: our two part special head Down, so we recommend that

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Speaker 1: if you haven't listened to part one, you press pause

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Speaker 1: right now, go back to your feed and listen to

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Speaker 1: episode one. In November twenty twenty one, the Department of

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Speaker 1: Justice revealed the results of a three year investigation in

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Speaker 1: Southeast Georgia. It was called Operation blooming Onion.

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Speaker 2: Two dozen people have been indicted up for the FEDS

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Speaker 2: busted what they call a modern day slavery ring.

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Speaker 3: The defendants are accused of forcing Mexican and Central American

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Speaker 3: migrant workers to dig for crops barehanded at gunpoint.

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Speaker 2: The workers were held in cramped, unsanitary quarters and fenced

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Speaker 2: work cams with little or no food, limited plumbing, and

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Speaker 2: without safe water.

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Speaker 1: The government alleged two migrants died and others were raped.

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Speaker 1: They were legally working here. Prosecutors said that the migrants

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Speaker 1: had been recruited and enslaved by US employers who took

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Speaker 1: advantage of them through a government program for temporary workers.

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Speaker 1: The program that gives them visas, called H to eight,

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Speaker 1: is supposed to have oversights in place to keep these

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Speaker 1: things from happening, but according to prosecutors, the labor contractors

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Speaker 1: turned criminals fraudulently obtained tens of thousands of these H

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Speaker 1: to A visas for workers in a period of five years. Allegedly,

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Speaker 1: in addition to all of the horrendous physical and emotional abuse,

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Speaker 1: the workers got little to no pay and in many

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Speaker 1: cases they were sold. Yes you heard that right, they

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Speaker 1: were sold to work in other farms.

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Speaker 3: The construct of slavery may have been taking a new form,

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Speaker 3: but stories such as these out of South Georgia or

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Speaker 3: a stat reminded that slavery is still alive today.

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Speaker 1: This case is extreme and rare, but we found that

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Speaker 1: the H two A program is actually plagued with systematic problems,

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Speaker 1: and even people who work in the government admit it,

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Speaker 1: like migrios from the Department of Labor.

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Speaker 4: If you have half a brain, you can see that

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Speaker 4: the H two A program literally is the purchase of

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Speaker 4: humans to perform difficult work under terrible conditions, sometimes including

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Speaker 4: subhuman living conditions.

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Speaker 1: From Futuro Investigates and Latino USA in collaboration with PRISM,

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Speaker 1: I'm Fernande chavarri In for our host Marie no Jossa.

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Speaker 1: Today we bring you part two of head Down, where

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Speaker 1: we'll take a closer look at how from its very beginning,

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Speaker 1: the H to A Visa program was largely set up

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Speaker 1: to fail foreign workers. For years, Tinavaskiz, editor at Large

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Speaker 1: at PRISM, and I have been looking into the federal

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Speaker 1: H to A program.

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Speaker 5: We've been following its explosive growth and reporting on the

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Speaker 5: abuse that often happens inside of it.

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Speaker 1: Last week, we brought you the story of two former

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Speaker 1: migrant workers and friends who came here as part of

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Speaker 1: the program and ended up being trafficked. It was so

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Speaker 1: bad they had to escape their labor camp in North Carolina.

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Speaker 1: We also went to Mexico to the hub for h

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Speaker 1: to A visas and investigated the role that the recruiter plays,

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Speaker 1: a very sketchy middleman between the migrants and the farms.

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Speaker 5: For this episode, we'll bring you the results of our

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Speaker 5: investigation into millions of dollars owed to farm workers and

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Speaker 5: why these funds end up in the US government's hands.

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Speaker 1: We'll tell you the story of two brothers who spoke

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Speaker 1: up against unsafe working conditions and suffered grave consequences, and.

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Speaker 5: You'll hear from government officials close to the program, who

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Speaker 5: are surprisingly candid about what the US is doing wrong

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Speaker 5: and could do better.

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Speaker 1: All of this as the Biden administration is preparing to

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Speaker 1: expand the h to a program without fully reforming it. First,

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Speaker 1: before we go any further, let's have a quick refresher

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Speaker 1: on how the program works. It has become a lifeline

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Speaker 1: for US farmers. It is thanks to migrant workers coming

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Speaker 1: every year that we get enough labor supply to have

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Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables on our tables. Why migrant workers, Well,

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Speaker 1: it's grueling work, spending hours under the scorching sun, vending

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Speaker 1: your back over and over and over again, at times,

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Speaker 1: working for less than minimum wage, exposing your body to

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Speaker 1: pesticides and extreme weather, all in an industry known for

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Speaker 1: dangerous working conditions and lack of regulations. So, as you

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Speaker 1: can imagine, for a very long time, I know US

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Speaker 1: citizens have been avoiding this type of work.

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Speaker 6: It's been a challenge for many farmers in Eerie County

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Speaker 6: to hire workers to collect strawberries and all other kinds

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Speaker 6: of fruits and vegetables. But some farmers, like John Mason,

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Speaker 6: owner of Mason Farms, won't have too much of a

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Speaker 6: struggle because he's using plamb hiring Temporary agricultural foreign workers,

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Speaker 6: also known as H two A.

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Speaker 7: I get yelled at when people know that we have

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Speaker 7: Mexicans working for us, that they say, you know you're

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Speaker 7: stealing American jobs. Now we're filling jobs that Americans refused

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Speaker 7: to work at anymore.

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Speaker 1: So, the US government tried to make farmers' lives easier

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Speaker 1: by facilitating a process in which foreign workers could come here,

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Speaker 1: and that's how the HJOY program was created in nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty six. Fast forward to today, the US is issuing

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Speaker 1: more H TOA visas than ever before. In Mexico, where

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Speaker 1: ninety percent of H to A workers come from, A

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Speaker 1: staggering quarter of a million visas were issued just last year.

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Speaker 1: So those jobs that US citizens don't want to do,

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Speaker 1: Mexicans are doing more and more.

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Speaker 5: In theory, employers must comply with specific laws and regulations,

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Speaker 5: like providing workers housing and meals, paying for their visas,

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Speaker 5: and basic wages. But in practice these laws are regularly violated.

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Speaker 1: And here's something else. Lately, members of Congress have talked

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Speaker 1: about expanding the age to A program to deal with

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Speaker 1: issues like inflation.

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Speaker 8: Farmers and ranchers have been telling them that they don't

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Speaker 8: have enough farm workers in the United States that is

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Speaker 8: heavily contributing to the increase in food prices. The bipartisan

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Speaker 8: group of law makers proposes expanding the H two A

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Speaker 8: visas which allow employers.

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Speaker 1: They want to make the program bigger to stop inflation,

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Speaker 1: and the White House wants to expand it to curb

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Speaker 1: migration and reduce human trafficking. Here's Vice President Kamala Harris

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Speaker 1: and Guatemala during an official visit in twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 9: When we see some of the most vulnerable in our

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Speaker 9: communities being take advantage of being sold for being abused,

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Speaker 9: it should be a priority for all of us who

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Speaker 9: care about the human condition and humanity.

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Speaker 1: Except we know that there is human trafficking in the

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Speaker 1: H two A program. Remember Operation Blooming Onion at the

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Speaker 1: top of the episode.

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Speaker 3: The documents also alleges their migrants were repeatedly raped. As

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Speaker 3: if that's not enough, the conspirators often sold and traded

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Speaker 3: the one hundred plus workers amongst themselves.

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Speaker 1: And all of this is connected to something deeper our

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Speaker 1: country's history.

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Speaker 10: Muslemle Vangard a fifteen hundred Mexicans drops of estates by

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Speaker 10: the farm security at middles.

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Speaker 1: Lad Most are laborer.

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Speaker 10: All of them are bachelor.

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Speaker 1: Foreign workers have been building and feeding this country for centuries,

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Speaker 1: but there's a specific moment in history that directly connects

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Speaker 1: with the H two A program as we know it today.

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Speaker 1: The Brasero program created in nineteen forty two.

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Speaker 10: The term most commonly used is brasseros in Spanish. This

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Speaker 10: means a man who works with his arms and hands.

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Speaker 5: The US and Mexican governments signed an agreement to bring

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Speaker 5: young laborers to US fields during and after World War Two.

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Speaker 10: All such farm jobs, which are top, dirty, or unpleasant,

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Speaker 10: are generally referred to as two labor. It isn't easy

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Speaker 10: to find men willing to take on such undesirable kinds

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Speaker 10: of work.

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Speaker 5: Understandably, they came to replace the millions of men who

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Speaker 5: were deployed to the war. Yes Mexican workers doing what

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Speaker 5: Americans couldn't do.

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Speaker 1: Between nineteen forty two and nineteen sixty four, four point

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Speaker 1: six million contracts were signed through this barseido program. In

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Speaker 1: the decades after the program ended, braselos shared their stories

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Speaker 1: of wage theft and abuse. The man.

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Speaker 11: Para pasadad on the Nazivana Jumigar and jumigrados e total.

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Speaker 1: That's Pigdr Alimann speaking for the Brasselo Project, which document

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Speaker 1: oral testimonies from former gracios. He described the humiliation he

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Speaker 1: felt at the hands of US officials at the border.

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Speaker 1: They forced workers to strip at processing centers before crossing

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Speaker 1: and spread them with pesticides that are now considered carcinogens.

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Speaker 1: Fast forward to nineteen eighty six, when the h to

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Speaker 1: A program was created. Much of the basis for it

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Speaker 1: came from the Brasido program. Here's former President Ronald Reagan

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Speaker 1: speaking to farmers that year.

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Speaker 12: We'll be giving farming back to the farmers. So while

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Speaker 12: times may be tough, the future for American farmers, your future,

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Speaker 12: I think, looks bright.

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Speaker 1: But to really understand the legacy of racism and exploitation

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Speaker 1: in the US agricultural industry, we need to go even

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Speaker 1: further back to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which became

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Speaker 1: law nearly a century ago when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president.

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Speaker 13: God will attempt the gift to the industrial workers of

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Speaker 13: the country. They weight returns to prevent cut competitions, to

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Speaker 13: prevent unduly lang hours and labor at the same time,

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Speaker 13: to encourage each industry.

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Speaker 1: This law fundamentally changed working conditions in the US. It

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Speaker 1: gave us a minimum wage, a forty hour workweek, overtime pay,

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Speaker 1: you know, the good stuff. But these benefits didn't apply

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Speaker 1: to farm workers, who at the time in the South

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Speaker 1: were overwhelmingly black. In fact, you can draw a straight

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Speaker 1: line from slavery to the Fair Labor Standards Act to

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Speaker 1: the conditions we continued to see in agriculture today. Nearly

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Speaker 1: a century later, farm workers across the US, mostly Latino immigrants,

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Speaker 1: now are still denied even the most basic federal protections,

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Speaker 1: such as water breaks or access to shade.

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Speaker 14: In extreme heat.

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Speaker 1: For many families, the effects of these racist exclusions are real.

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Speaker 14: They're tangible.

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Speaker 1: On the day we were setting up to record this episode,

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Speaker 1: Tina brought up her uncle.

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Speaker 5: My uncle Salvador. He died pretty young of cancer, and

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Speaker 5: I didn't put it together until later that it might

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Speaker 5: have been related to the work that he did. But

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Speaker 5: all that is just to say, so I have this

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Speaker 5: cousin and I started to report on this story around

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Speaker 5: the time that she and I were reconnecting again a lot,

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Speaker 5: and we were able to verify that her dad was

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Speaker 5: in the Brasero program. Oh wow, So I always had

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Speaker 5: a lot of questions, like how did that happen?

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Speaker 14: Do you have memories of your uncle?

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Speaker 13: Said mother.

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Speaker 5: I just remember him coming over I don't know on

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Speaker 5: the weekends, I think, and having these like huge crates

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Speaker 5: of grapes. And they were giant grapes, the kind that

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Speaker 5: had like a lot of seeds in them. But he

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Speaker 5: would bring us these huge crates and I had no

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Speaker 5: idea why, Like, I don't think I put it together

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Speaker 5: as a kid, like, oh he picked these, you know.

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Speaker 1: The first person I ever met that worked in the

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Speaker 1: bracado program was when I was a rookie reporter for

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Speaker 1: a local newspaper in southern Arizona in like two thousand

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Speaker 1: and nine. It was when the Mexican government, finally, after

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Speaker 1: years of litigation, agreed to give money back to the

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Speaker 1: workers that Mexico had kept ten percent of their wages

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Speaker 1: for decades. That was the sort of incentive for the

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Speaker 1: workers to come back, right, go to the US, do

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Speaker 1: this work. And then Mexico said, we'll keep ten percent

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Speaker 1: of your wages for when you come back and then

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Speaker 1: we'll give them to you. Well, that didn't happen. The

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Speaker 1: workers didn't see those pesos. You know, for decades and decades.

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Speaker 1: There was an older Mexican man that had been a brassido,

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Speaker 1: and I remember going into his home and he was

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Speaker 1: sitting there talking to me, and I could just see

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Speaker 1: how his hands were the hands of a working man,

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Speaker 1: of a man that worked the fields, that gave his youth,

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Speaker 1: that gave his life two harvesting our vegetables and our

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Speaker 1: fruits here in the United States. And I and I

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Speaker 1: think about him when when we're talking about the HTE

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Speaker 1: program today.

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Speaker 14: I always think about.

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Speaker 1: Him, the stolen wages, the mistreatment. It's easy to see

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Speaker 1: that not much has changed the emphasis. When I first

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Speaker 1: met the two brothers from Juanajuato in the spring of

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Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, they asked me to keep my audio recording

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Speaker 1: equipment packed up. They wanted me to be discreet because

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Speaker 1: they didn't want their neighbors in their small town to

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Speaker 1: know that they were talking to reporters. They also asked

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Speaker 1: that we protect their identities out of fear for their livelihoods.

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Speaker 15: Sukymus you mean, and the.

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Speaker 1: Oldest is in his late thirties. He's soft spoken and

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Speaker 1: super polite. The youngest is in his early thirties and

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Speaker 1: much chattier.

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Speaker 14: He has a wife and two kids.

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Speaker 1: They started working in the fields in their hometown in

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Speaker 1: their late teens when they had to stop going to

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Speaker 1: school to bring money home. They did that for over

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Speaker 1: a decade, so they were skilled farm workers by the

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Speaker 1: time they first traveled to the United States through the

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Speaker 1: H to A program to do similar work but at

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Speaker 1: a much higher pace.

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Speaker 14: In twenty seventeen. They ended up in the.

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Speaker 1: Pacific Northwest working for the biggest blueberry producer in the country.

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Speaker 1: But their time in the H two A program didn't

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Speaker 1: end well. They didn't fall in line with the unspoken

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Speaker 1: rule that farm workers keep their heads down, do the work,

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Speaker 1: and don't complain.

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Speaker 14: They spoke up.

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Speaker 1: The brothers arrived in Washington State's picturesque town of Sumas,

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Speaker 1: near the Canadian border, just at the start of the

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Speaker 1: blueberry picking season. Was it what you expected? What you

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Speaker 1: were promised?

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Speaker 9: I asked, no.

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Speaker 16: No mosques in Les de la Comida is the starvin Ayai.

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Speaker 1: The details of what the brothers say happened to them

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Speaker 1: that summer in Washington were alleged in a class action

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Speaker 1: lawsuit against Sarbannon, the farm where they worked in a

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Speaker 1: related company, Monger Brothers.

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Speaker 17: The expectation was they were to be in the fields

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Speaker 17: every single day working unless they were on their deathbeds.

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Speaker 1: That's Joe Morrison, an attorney with Columbia Legal Services based

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Speaker 1: in Washington State, and.

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Speaker 17: That sent a chilling message to the workers that basically

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Speaker 17: there were no sick days.

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Speaker 1: Joe represented the Brothers in about five hundred other workers

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Speaker 1: in the lawsuit that alleged Sarbonin violated federal anti trafficking

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Speaker 1: laws and used constant threats and intimidation against h.

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Speaker 14: T A farm workers.

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Speaker 1: The workers were mostly from rural areas in Mexico, and

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Speaker 1: according to the lawsuit, when they needed to take a

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Speaker 1: break from the sun or eat a snack, their managers

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Speaker 1: threatened to fire them if they didn't immediately get back

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Speaker 1: to work.

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Speaker 17: Even though it was record temperatures in twenty seventeen, and

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Speaker 17: they were also smoke from a nearby forest fires.

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Speaker 1: And those temperatures would prove deadly.

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Speaker 11: Theamo sayula epis.

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Speaker 1: Coming up on Latino USA. A worker collapses in the

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Speaker 1: fields and his compagneros do the unlikely thing. That's after

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Speaker 1: the break, stay with us. Hey, we're back. I'm Fernande

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Speaker 1: chabarri in for Marieno Jos. Before the break, we heard

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Speaker 1: about a group of temporary foreign workers at a blueberry

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Speaker 1: plant in Sumas, Washington, who were forced to work NonStop.

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Speaker 14: The workers had.

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Speaker 1: Come from Mexico with h two A visas, and in

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Speaker 1: a lawsuit, they alleged that they were expected to get

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Speaker 1: through twelve hour workdays without shade or adequate water. Some

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Speaker 1: of them were starting to feel sick, showing signs of

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Speaker 1: heat stress, but they were too scared to say anything. Then,

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Speaker 1: on August second, twenty seventeen, one of the workers, who

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Speaker 1: was picking berries with the one Ajuato brothers, collapsed on

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Speaker 1: the field.

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Speaker 14: He was taken by.

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Speaker 1: Ambulance to a nearby hospital, where he later died. He

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Speaker 1: was twenty eight years old. About sixty workers, including the brothers,

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Speaker 1: went on strike. One of the workers called the Department

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Speaker 1: of Labor to complain about what happened, and later that

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Speaker 1: day DOL investigators showed up to interview some of the workers.

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Speaker 1: The brothers remember seeing the investigators there and feeling a

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Speaker 1: sense of relief knowing that the government was now getting involved.

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Speaker 14: The next day, the strike.

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Speaker 17: Ended, but when the workers showed up to work, the

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Speaker 17: company lined up all of the workers, all six hundred

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Speaker 17: of them, and called out the workers who were on

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Speaker 17: strike in front of everybody else and fired.

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Speaker 14: Them on the spot. They told him, you have an

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Speaker 14: hour to leave the camp.

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Speaker 17: And this is a place in Sumas, Washington that is

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Speaker 17: right on the Canadian borders, so there's a border patrol.

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Speaker 17: Uh immigration folks are right close by. There's an international

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Speaker 17: crossing point into Canada. And the company tells them, you

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Speaker 17: need to get out of our cabins, out of the

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Speaker 17: labor camp within one hour with all your stuff, or

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Speaker 17: we're going to bring in immigration or the police.

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Speaker 18: This is the.

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Speaker 1: Soft spoken brother told me that the worst part of

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Speaker 1: this whole experience was having to sleep on the streets

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Speaker 1: after they were fired. For his younger brother, it was

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Speaker 1: infuriating knowing that they did a great job, they worked hard,

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Speaker 1: and they were kicked to the curb. And remember, as

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Speaker 1: is the case with other working US visas, if migrant

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Speaker 1: farm workers lose their jobs, they also lose their immigration

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Speaker 1: status because their visas are tied to their employers. In

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Speaker 1: many instances, the employer is required to immediately report the

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Speaker 1: worker to immigration authorities, and while the worker can try

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Speaker 1: to transfer to another employer. They don't really have a

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Speaker 1: lot of time to do so, making their legal stay

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Speaker 1: in the US virtually impossible. That's how they end up

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Speaker 1: jobless and undocumented.

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Speaker 15: Christol contra to thes p.

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Speaker 12: CO.

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Speaker 1: You're tied to that contract, the younger brother tells me.

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Speaker 1: It's like you're a prisoner. His older brother ads so.

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Speaker 1: Even though the employer was accused of breaking pretty much

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Speaker 1: every promise made by not paying the workers enough, providing

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Speaker 1: squalid living conditions, not giving the workers enough to eat,

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Speaker 1: and at times serving them rotten food. Yea, it was

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Speaker 1: the employees who had everything to lose. The brothers and

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Speaker 1: the other workers who were fired for protesting had no

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Speaker 1: connections in Washington. They had no money. For days, they

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Speaker 1: walked around soon As Washington with their rolling suitcases, trying

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Speaker 1: to get some money so that they could make their

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Speaker 1: way back to Mexico. They ended up sleeping in the

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Speaker 1: streets until a Latino family that lived nearby told them

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Speaker 1: that they could set up camp.

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Speaker 14: In their property.

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Speaker 11: Almost German are here.

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Speaker 1: Dozens of men, including the brothers, slept in tents for

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Speaker 1: two weeks as.

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Speaker 11: The themostant campo. That's theres for money Inaye.

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Speaker 1: Members of Familia Sunidas for Lahustisia, a nonprofit in Washington

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Speaker 1: that helps migrants, showed up to the camp. They live

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Speaker 1: streamed on their Facebook page showing the conditions the workers

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Speaker 1: were in and asked for donations.

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Speaker 11: Topism, Paramardas, and as the Castle.

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Speaker 1: Members of the nonprofit called on the government to step in,

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Speaker 1: singling out the Department of Labor Yeah. A few weeks later,

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Speaker 1: most of the workers made their way back to Mexico.

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Speaker 1: The brothers had been home in Guanajuato for about a

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Speaker 1: year when I visited them in twenty eighteen. They were

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Speaker 1: waiting to hear about the class action lawsuit and struggle

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Speaker 1: to make money. Right when I get there, they want

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Speaker 1: to take me to the tomatilla field where they sometimes work.

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Speaker 1: It's one of their only options for making a living here.

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Speaker 1: There are no factories, no big box stores, and the

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Speaker 1: closest city, which is still a small town in comparison

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Speaker 1: to other cities in Mexico, is about an hour away.

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Speaker 1: So for the first half of the year, most locals

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Speaker 1: like them try to work as much as possible and

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Speaker 1: save money for the winter months when not much is

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Speaker 1: growing here. This is hired by the day kind of gig.

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Speaker 1: Every morning, at sunrise, a truck picks up workers at

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Speaker 1: the entrance of their town. Dozens of men and women

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Speaker 1: hop on, and they are packed so tight that they

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Speaker 1: can't even sit down. Sometimes rain or shine, they stand

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Speaker 1: in the back of that truck for about forty five

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Speaker 1: minutes to get to that tomatilla field. It's not even

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Speaker 1: noon and it's already unco comfortably hot and humid. The

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Speaker 1: farm is big, about the size of six football fields.

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Speaker 1: It's muddy and messy, with vines and weeds wrapped around

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Speaker 1: the tomatilla plants, making it hard to see if there's

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Speaker 1: even any walking paths for harvesting. This is tough labor.

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Speaker 1: There are about forty men and women of varied ages

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Speaker 1: quietly working. Some have these little portable radios attached to

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Speaker 1: their belts so that they can listen to music while

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Speaker 1: they work. The brothers tell me they make about ten

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Speaker 1: dollars a day here. They could make that in an

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Speaker 1: hour working for the h to A program in the US.

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Speaker 1: Having years and years of experience working in agriculture makes

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Speaker 1: the brothers prime candidates for recurring h to A work.

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Speaker 1: So why hadn't they been able to go back to

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Speaker 1: work for US farms. The brothers tell me that there's

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Speaker 1: only one person in their whole town that's in charge

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Speaker 1: of recruiting h to A workers. It's a woman that

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Speaker 1: they keep going back to asking if they can get

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Speaker 1: put on these lists, and this woman keeps telling them no,

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Speaker 1: why not. Earlier this year, I called the older brother

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Speaker 1: to see if their circumstances had changed.

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Speaker 14: Akia He tells me.

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Speaker 1: That they tried year after year to get recruited to

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Speaker 1: work on US farms, but since leaving Washington more than

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Speaker 1: five years ago, they haven't been able to get work

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00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:51,520
Speaker 1: in the h to A programs. They strongly suspect their

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Speaker 1: names were given out to other US companies as unwanted workers.

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Speaker 1: And because there is no centralized place for foreign farm

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Speaker 1: workers to apply for US jobs, the recruiters are the gatekeepers.

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Speaker 16: We have an astronomal pre condrata.

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Speaker 1: In late twenty nineteen, there was an agreement in the

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Speaker 1: class action lawsuit. The defendants in the case, Sarbanond, Monger Brothers,

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Speaker 1: and the recruiter agreed to pay three point seven million

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Speaker 1: dollars to settle. However, they all denied any liability or wrongdoing.

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Speaker 1: Over five hundred workers received about forty five hundred dollars each.

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Speaker 1: The workers who protested also received an additional ten thousand each.

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Speaker 1: But there's one thing that hasn't been settled. Nothing in

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Speaker 1: the court order mentions the blacklists is being blacklisted. What's

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Speaker 1: still hurting you, I asked.

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Speaker 14: Le Berjudica. See oh yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: Now remember those Department of Labor officials who showed up

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Speaker 1: to the blueberry farm when the worker died well that

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Speaker 1: day in twenty seven seventeen, they started their own investigation.

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Speaker 1: Two years later, they found that Monger Brothers and two

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00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:08,240
Speaker 1: related companies violated the rules of the h to A

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Speaker 1: program and failed to provide safe housing and proper pay.

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Speaker 1: The Department of Labor ended up ordering them to pay

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Speaker 1: three point five million dollars in back wages and penalties.

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Speaker 1: It also prohibited them from participating in the h to

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Speaker 1: A program for three years.

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Speaker 11: IAMO.

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Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, the brothers from Monto got paid out

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00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 1: of that settlement. About a year later, they got paperwork

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Speaker 1: from the Department of Labor Vias nail mail telling them

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Speaker 1: that they were also entitled to compensation from their investigation.

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Speaker 1: The older brother showed me the documents that he was

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00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 1: asked to fill out and return. He mailed them out

436
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 1: of Mexico in the summer of twenty twenty one, but

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Speaker 1: almost two years later, he hasn't heard a word or

438
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Speaker 1: seen a penny.

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00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 5: According to experts, workers rarely speak up, and if they do,

440
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:20,800
Speaker 5: most of the time they need help navigating the tools

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00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:23,240
Speaker 5: the Department of Labor has in place to protect them.

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00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 5: So Fernanda and I recently set up a virtual meetup

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00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:29,639
Speaker 5: to try those tools for ourselves. Fernanda tried it in

444
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:31,680
Speaker 5: Spanish and I tried it in English.

445
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:34,160
Speaker 1: Let's say I'm a worker and I want to file

446
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,400
Speaker 1: a complaint. Where do I go? What do I do?

447
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:42,720
Speaker 5: I would Google file a complaint DL right.

448
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 14: Okay, let me do the same Google. But in Spanish.

449
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:49,240
Speaker 5: You know, the first things are basic.

450
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 19: Your name.

451
00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 5: But for me, if I'm thinking about this, like as

452
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 5: an H two a worker and the workers that I've

453
00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 5: spoken to, the next couple of things seem complicated to me.

454
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:02,360
Speaker 5: Your address, right, So the first thing I think is

455
00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 5: do I give you the address of my labor camp?

456
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 5: Do I give you address of the place that I'm working?

457
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:13,120
Speaker 5: Do I give you the address of my home in

458
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:14,000
Speaker 5: my home country?

459
00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:16,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm seeing the same thing in Spanish. Okay, it's

460
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:20,360
Speaker 1: pretty text heavy. I gotta say, well, I'm looking at

461
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:22,760
Speaker 1: all of this on my phone.

462
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:25,760
Speaker 14: It's not very mobile friendly, I got to say.

463
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 12: So.

464
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:28,200
Speaker 5: I wouldn't know how to fill this out if I

465
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:30,160
Speaker 5: were an h toayworker. So one of the things that

466
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 5: I think is very odd is it says location of

467
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 5: the company and then in parentheses this may be different

468
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:39,720
Speaker 5: from where you worked. Do you google the name of

469
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,600
Speaker 5: the company that you work for and you're looking for

470
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 5: their corporate address? What if you don't know the name

471
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:48,600
Speaker 5: of the company you work for? Do you put the

472
00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:54,720
Speaker 5: farm online? Complaint form asks for an email address, and

473
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:57,480
Speaker 5: while many h TOAY workers may have one, they don't

474
00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:02,200
Speaker 5: really use it to communicate. Most of themmunication happens via WhatsApp, messaging,

475
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 5: voice or text. That's how we've always talked to the

476
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:08,720
Speaker 5: farm workers. And then there's also the issue of language.

477
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:12,440
Speaker 5: The forms are available in English and Spanish, but many

478
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:16,120
Speaker 5: HTOA workers come from indigenous communities for which Spanish is

479
00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:20,200
Speaker 5: not the primary language. Thankfully, there's a phone number, so

480
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 5: that should be easier.

481
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:26,040
Speaker 14: Should we try to do this instead of doing this online?

482
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 14: Should we try to do this on the phone and

483
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:30,320
Speaker 14: see what that's like. Yeah, let's see, Welcome.

484
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 18: To the US Department of Labor, Wage and our division.

485
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:34,600
Speaker 5: The menu and.

486
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:39,960
Speaker 18: Division enforces the federal minimum wage, over time pay, child labor,

487
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 18: government contracts, agricultural.

488
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 14: Employment and having this is already so much.

489
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 18: On website atl dot. To press one or off of

490
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:53,960
Speaker 18: ours address phone and fact numbers, press two to dial

491
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:59,080
Speaker 18: away the five agoe for your employer's establishment, followed by

492
00:30:59,120 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 18: the pound.

493
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:05,320
Speaker 5: Sign not where I live, but my employer's establishment. I

494
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:09,120
Speaker 5: couldn't even tell you, I'm going to hang up.

495
00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:16,440
Speaker 1: Okay, So not the most helpful phone line, and at

496
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 1: the risk of talking about yet another website, I know,

497
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 1: I know, such fun radio content. We do have to

498
00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:26,920
Speaker 1: mention a Department of Labor site called Workers Owed Wages. Okay,

499
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 1: this one, yeah, sort of on the flip side of

500
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 1: the coin is visually a lot easier to navigate.

501
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:37,480
Speaker 5: Yes, it looks easier. I've spoken to workers who could

502
00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,120
Speaker 5: access this website that it made sense to them what

503
00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:42,960
Speaker 5: they were supposed to do. But the problem for them,

504
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 5: especially for Latino workers, which you know, HA workers are

505
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:50,840
Speaker 5: predominantly Latino workers, is that the problem came with their names,

506
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:55,640
Speaker 5: So either their employer didn't enter in their full name,

507
00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 5: or entered their name in differently than the name that

508
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 5: they use, so they didn't know what that was, or

509
00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:05,640
Speaker 5: they have multiple Spanish surnames and so they didn't know

510
00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 5: which ones to use, or there wasn't space for all

511
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:09,040
Speaker 5: of them.

512
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:12,200
Speaker 1: And that's even assuming that they know this website exists.

513
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:14,560
Speaker 5: The workers that I've spoken to that knew that this

514
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 5: website existed was because they were working with an advocacy organization.

515
00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:20,440
Speaker 7: Yeah.

516
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:22,200
Speaker 1: I spoke to a lawyer who didn't know that this

517
00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:25,920
Speaker 1: website existed, and he works with H TWOA folks, So

518
00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:28,960
Speaker 1: if he doesn't know it exists, then most likely the

519
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:36,640
Speaker 1: workers on the farms have no idea.

520
00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 14: At the end of the day.

521
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:44,440
Speaker 1: For H two A workers, filing a complaint is a

522
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 1: huge effort and most of the time it may not

523
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 1: even be worth it. They end up getting fired and

524
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 1: having to return for their home countries with quite.

525
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:53,560
Speaker 14: A bit of debt.

526
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:56,720
Speaker 5: And when DL finds workers that are owed money, the

527
00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:00,400
Speaker 5: agency has up to three years to locate them years.

528
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,160
Speaker 5: So yeah, most workers have long returned home by then.

529
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:06,600
Speaker 5: And it's not like the US government is going to

530
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 5: send employees to remote areas in Mexico to fine workers.

531
00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:14,320
Speaker 5: So what happens in the end, Their lost wages actually

532
00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:18,120
Speaker 5: end up in the hands of yet another US government agency,

533
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 5: the Treasury Department.

534
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 14: More on this after the break.

535
00:33:25,400 --> 00:34:12,279
Speaker 1: Stay with us, Hey, we're back Afrenande chavarri in for

536
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 1: Marina Josa. Before the break, we told you about stolen

537
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,480
Speaker 1: wages from migrant workers that end up in the Treasury Department.

538
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:22,680
Speaker 1: Once there, the money is placed in a general fund

539
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 1: that the government can use however it wants. We ask

540
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:29,480
Speaker 1: Treasury how exactly is it that that money is spent?

541
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:31,719
Speaker 1: But all they would tell us in an email was

542
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:34,880
Speaker 1: quote H two A is a program administered by the

543
00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:38,440
Speaker 1: Department of Labor. Period for many programs across the government

544
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 1: on use funds revert to the General Treasury end quote.

545
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:45,000
Speaker 1: Remember Joe Morrison, the lawyer who represented the hundreds of

546
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 1: h to A farm workers, including the brothers in Juanajuato. Well,

547
00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:51,360
Speaker 1: when the class action suit settled and the former employers

548
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:54,200
Speaker 1: paid out, Joe's office set out to find them with

549
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:57,200
Speaker 1: the same kind of information. DL usually has the worker's

550
00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:00,719
Speaker 1: phone numbers and addresses, but they added some extra steps.

551
00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:06,400
Speaker 17: He needs multiple staff who are connected with the technology

552
00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:10,640
Speaker 17: that's best reaching people, and searched long and hard for people.

553
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:15,160
Speaker 1: Most of those were on WhatsApp, so they messaged and

554
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:22,279
Speaker 1: message and message, and when people weren't messaging them back,

555
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:24,960
Speaker 1: they would look up the addresses and see who were

556
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 1: their neighbors. They would call those neighbors and try to

557
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:34,239
Speaker 1: reach them that way, and their efforts paid off. They

558
00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:37,120
Speaker 1: got cash from the settlement to ninety eight percent of

559
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 1: the more than five hundred workers. In fact, their success

560
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:44,080
Speaker 1: rate was so high that the Department of Labor investigators

561
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:47,399
Speaker 1: actually reached out to Joe's office to see if they

562
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:50,800
Speaker 1: could share the contact information of the workers. The department

563
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:53,400
Speaker 1: needed to find them because it had money from the

564
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:54,840
Speaker 1: fine it gave the employer.

565
00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,880
Speaker 17: There were very dedicated staffs.

566
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:02,760
Speaker 20: They asked us for help and we made them aware

567
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:07,279
Speaker 20: of how we distributed our funds and how the primary

568
00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:11,439
Speaker 20: communication tool with workers is What's app.

569
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:17,880
Speaker 1: But the department told Joe's office back then that they

570
00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 1: were not allowed to use WhatsApp. We should mention that

571
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 1: during the pandemic, the DL did use the messaging app

572
00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:27,880
Speaker 1: to give back wages. They're no longer using it. Some

573
00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:30,439
Speaker 1: workers who did get the DL money a few years

574
00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:33,799
Speaker 1: ago started spreading the word, which of course made the

575
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:37,560
Speaker 1: other workers who didn't get it feel frustrated, so they

576
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:40,360
Speaker 1: turned to an eight hundred number with you guessed it,

577
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 1: a significant phone tree that ended up turning them away.

578
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:47,120
Speaker 17: So we would communicate with the Department Labor about both issues,

579
00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 17: trying to have a more user friendly call in system.

580
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:53,320
Speaker 1: So while there are good people at the Department of

581
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:56,800
Speaker 1: Labor working very hard to get money back to farm workers,

582
00:36:57,160 --> 00:37:01,800
Speaker 1: they're navigating a broken system of rent tape and bureaucracy

583
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:04,880
Speaker 1: that is simply not working as well as it could.

584
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:08,359
Speaker 5: And now we have a pretty good idea of what

585
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:13,000
Speaker 5: these system flaws look like in practice. In twenty twenty one,

586
00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 5: I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the

587
00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:19,000
Speaker 5: Department of Labor. I asked for a ten year nationwide

588
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:21,560
Speaker 5: breakdown of back wages O to H two A workers.

589
00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:25,520
Speaker 5: A few months later, I get this spreadsheet with names

590
00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:28,480
Speaker 5: of the companies that stole wages and on the final

591
00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:32,120
Speaker 5: page the exact dollar amount that never made it to

592
00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:38,040
Speaker 5: these workers. More than seven million dollars O to H

593
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:41,440
Speaker 5: two A workers ended up with the Treasury for cases

594
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:47,560
Speaker 5: spanning twenty eleven to twenty twenty one. And it's even

595
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 5: more significant when you consider that some of the claims

596
00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:53,359
Speaker 5: that workers filed or for one hundred dollars or two

597
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:57,759
Speaker 5: hundred dollars, they earned this money, they did brutal work

598
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:07,920
Speaker 5: in the fields, and then they never got a penny.

599
00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:12,560
Speaker 4: Seven million dollars. That's just as a shocking number. Obviously,

600
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:16,040
Speaker 4: it also highlights the difficulty that we have in finding

601
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:19,719
Speaker 4: workers so that we may reunite them with their hard

602
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:20,960
Speaker 4: earned wages.

603
00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:26,040
Speaker 5: That's Mike Rios. He's a regional Agricultural Enforcement coordinator at

604
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:28,600
Speaker 5: the Department of Labor. We heard from him at the

605
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:31,480
Speaker 5: top of the show. He has worked at the Department

606
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:33,880
Speaker 5: of Labor for twenty five years, and he spent the

607
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:37,680
Speaker 5: first fifteen years as an investigator before moving up the ranks.

608
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:41,480
Speaker 5: Over the years, he has seen countless violations in the

609
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:43,719
Speaker 5: H two A program and had to put up with

610
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:47,040
Speaker 5: employers claiming they didn't know they were breaking the law.

611
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:51,040
Speaker 4: I will never ever understand folks that say that they

612
00:38:51,080 --> 00:38:54,160
Speaker 4: did not know they needed to do something, especially when

613
00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:57,920
Speaker 4: it comes to something as basic as paying full wages

614
00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:04,440
Speaker 4: or providing meals, or providing decent housing, even if it's

615
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:07,560
Speaker 4: their first year in the H two A program. How

616
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:08,399
Speaker 4: do you not know?

617
00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:12,200
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna lie. I was expecting Mike to be

618
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:16,360
Speaker 5: one of those tight lipped officials who had tidy talking

619
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:20,040
Speaker 5: points instead of really delving into the problems of the

620
00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 5: H two A program. But Mike didn't hold back.

621
00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:26,279
Speaker 4: I mean, you don't have to go too far to

622
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 4: see that, right, if you have a half a brain,

623
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:35,080
Speaker 4: you can see that the H two A program literally

624
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:40,680
Speaker 4: is the purchase of humans to perform difficult work under

625
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:47,280
Speaker 4: terrible conditions, sometimes including sub human living conditions. You're literally

626
00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:53,920
Speaker 4: buying people to come do terrible work.

627
00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:59,759
Speaker 5: That's a government official who actually helps oversee enforcement in

628
00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:02,920
Speaker 5: the H to A program. And here he is admitting

629
00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 5: that the system that we have just isn't working. And

630
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:09,200
Speaker 5: this is a system that brings more than three hundred

631
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:12,439
Speaker 5: thousand temporary foreign workers to the US each year.

632
00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:15,799
Speaker 4: Sounds like a lot to have six hundred seven hundred. Heck,

633
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:18,600
Speaker 4: it sounds like a lot to have one thousand investigators.

634
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:22,240
Speaker 4: But that is just a tiny, tiny, tiny little fraction

635
00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:26,720
Speaker 4: of the amount of people that are covered by our laws.

636
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:33,320
Speaker 5: Because those investigators are not just for temporary foreign workers.

637
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:36,920
Speaker 5: They're not even just for agriculture in general. These are

638
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:40,800
Speaker 5: the same investigators who respond to complaints at a construction site,

639
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:45,480
Speaker 5: a supermarket, a hospital, you name it. And please don't

640
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:48,000
Speaker 5: zone out here because it's hard not to bring up

641
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:52,480
Speaker 5: government budgets. Last year, the Departminentive Labor received fourteen billion

642
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:56,360
Speaker 5: dollars in funding, fourteen billion for the agency responsible for

643
00:40:56,440 --> 00:41:00,960
Speaker 5: protecting all workers in the US. Now compare that to

644
00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:04,560
Speaker 5: the combined budgets for Customs and Border Protection and ICE

645
00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:07,920
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty one, Congress gave them more than twenty

646
00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:11,760
Speaker 5: three billion dollars. And then, as Mike says, the problem

647
00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:15,560
Speaker 5: goes beyond a guest worker program. The problem is how

648
00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:17,960
Speaker 5: the agricultural industry operates.

649
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:21,680
Speaker 4: You can throw a rock and hit a violation in

650
00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:26,800
Speaker 4: the agricultural industry. In fact, I would say that wh

651
00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:49,320
Speaker 4: theft is almost baked into the system.

652
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:44,960
Speaker 5: When it starvice is no part see parent at lantail program.

653
00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:48,680
Speaker 1: On March thirteenth, just as we were wrapping up this story,

654
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:52,360
Speaker 1: high ranking government officials from the United States and Mexico

655
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:54,719
Speaker 1: made a bombastic announcement.

656
00:41:54,800 --> 00:42:00,040
Speaker 4: Sepu is a candida guz this Those same.

657
00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:04,640
Speaker 1: They launched a pilot program to pay back six point

658
00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 1: five million dollars in stolen wages to thirteen thousand former

659
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:14,000
Speaker 1: Mexican h to A workers while is Latarea Manera Counta

660
00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:18,280
Speaker 1: Carlos Poder. The two governments promised to find these workers

661
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:20,759
Speaker 1: by sharing information in order to track them down.

662
00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:24,440
Speaker 5: And if you're wondering whether this six point five million

663
00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 5: has anything to do with those seven million that we

664
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:33,440
Speaker 5: were talking about earlier, we were curious too. We confirmed

665
00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:36,839
Speaker 5: with the Department of Labor that these are the same funds, Yes,

666
00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:40,040
Speaker 5: the same funds that we found in our investigation.

667
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:43,760
Speaker 1: And while the US and Mexican governments characterized this money

668
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:49,040
Speaker 1: as quote unquote recovered, it was never really missing, as

669
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:51,640
Speaker 1: we found that money just moved from the abuse of

670
00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:55,800
Speaker 1: employer to the Department of Labor to then the Treasury Department.

671
00:42:56,840 --> 00:42:59,480
Speaker 1: But the government officials didn't say that at their press conference.

672
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:03,239
Speaker 1: They also didn't give a clear timeline or framework as

673
00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:06,640
Speaker 1: to how or when they plan to return those stolen wages.

674
00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:10,480
Speaker 1: For now, people can go to the worker's Old Wages website,

675
00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:13,040
Speaker 1: remember that one, the one that looks easy to navigate

676
00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:16,200
Speaker 1: but doesn't really read people's last names, right, So as

677
00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:18,759
Speaker 1: much as this announcement sounds like good news and it is,

678
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:21,880
Speaker 1: who knows how easy it'll be for workers to actually

679
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:22,759
Speaker 1: get their money back.

680
00:43:26,719 --> 00:43:32,320
Speaker 4: Honest, well, I canna value that I'm his.

681
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:36,120
Speaker 1: Last month, when I talked with the older brother from

682
00:43:36,120 --> 00:43:39,080
Speaker 1: on the phone, he told me that he used part

683
00:43:39,080 --> 00:43:42,160
Speaker 1: of his settlement money to help his elderly parents. He

684
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:44,400
Speaker 1: also bought a small piece of land where he started

685
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:51,080
Speaker 1: building a home for himself. But it's been tough, yeah,

686
00:43:51,120 --> 00:44:03,160
Speaker 1: I mean yes, he's been burglarized, he doesn't have electricity

687
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:07,080
Speaker 1: or running water. It's been one thing after another. Plus

688
00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:09,279
Speaker 1: he's had some health issues and a surgery that makes

689
00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:11,600
Speaker 1: it harder for him to go work in those tomatillo

690
00:44:11,640 --> 00:44:14,600
Speaker 1: fields where he took me years ago, So he spends

691
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:17,440
Speaker 1: his days as a clerk at a local store. He

692
00:44:17,520 --> 00:44:19,840
Speaker 1: tells me that he's been working with a nonprofit in

693
00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:23,160
Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest that's helping him apply for a tea visa,

694
00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:27,000
Speaker 1: a special US visa for victims of labor trafficking. He's

695
00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:29,400
Speaker 1: going to wait as long as he has to so

696
00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:31,760
Speaker 1: that he can come to the US to legally work

697
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:35,440
Speaker 1: a non agricultural job and send money back to his family,

698
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:45,000
Speaker 1: even after suffering serious consequences for speaking up. He doesn't

699
00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:53,560
Speaker 1: regret taking part in the protest. Yes, he lost his

700
00:44:53,600 --> 00:44:56,920
Speaker 1: opportunity in the US, but at least, he says, people

701
00:44:56,960 --> 00:45:00,880
Speaker 1: will hear that this program is not anything promises.

702
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:05,000
Speaker 16: To be okay.

703
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:30,719
Speaker 1: Looks now, as we come to the end of this

704
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:32,920
Speaker 1: two part special on the H two A program, you

705
00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:35,640
Speaker 1: may be wondering if Congress and or the White House

706
00:45:35,960 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 1: are doing anything to make it better.

707
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:40,840
Speaker 7: You know, we know that safe, orderly, and legal migration

708
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:43,799
Speaker 7: is good for all our economies, but we need to

709
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:47,640
Speaker 7: halt the dangerous and unlawful ways people are migrated in

710
00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:48,720
Speaker 7: the dangerous ways.

711
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:51,799
Speaker 5: Since Biden took office in January of twenty twenty one,

712
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:55,360
Speaker 5: he's turned safe and orderly migration into a kind of mantra.

713
00:45:55,800 --> 00:45:59,280
Speaker 5: He says it all the time, and just in February

714
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:02,120
Speaker 5: of that year, twenty twenty one, the White House assembled

715
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:05,279
Speaker 5: working groups to discuss the H two A program. The

716
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,800
Speaker 5: idea is to divert asylum seekers from the southern border

717
00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:12,319
Speaker 5: and into this program. Here's Biden talking about the plan

718
00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:12,960
Speaker 5: last summer.

719
00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:17,560
Speaker 7: And on this jobs front, our Department of Agricultures launching

720
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:22,279
Speaker 7: a pilot program tulp American farmers bring in seasonal agricultural

721
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:27,600
Speaker 7: workers from northern Central America countries under the H two

722
00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:31,400
Speaker 7: A visa program to improve conditions for all workers.

723
00:46:31,920 --> 00:46:35,040
Speaker 1: Here's the main issue with that. The Biden administration wants

724
00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:37,799
Speaker 1: to offer this temporary worker program to migrants who are

725
00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:41,080
Speaker 1: seeking asylum at our southern border, a program that is

726
00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:44,520
Speaker 1: riddled with abuse and trafficking being offered to people who

727
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:46,440
Speaker 1: are fleeing violence and trafficking.

728
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:48,000
Speaker 21: They're only going to be able to stay in the

729
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:50,480
Speaker 21: United States for six, seven eight months out of the year.

730
00:46:50,680 --> 00:46:53,440
Speaker 21: What happens during those other months of the year, they

731
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:56,000
Speaker 21: have to go back to their home country, and they're

732
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:58,560
Speaker 21: going to be going back to a country that they fled.

733
00:46:59,040 --> 00:47:01,560
Speaker 5: This is Daniel Kost. He's an attorney and he has

734
00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:05,480
Speaker 5: spent many years monitoring cases just like the brothers from Guanajato.

735
00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:09,720
Speaker 21: Maybe because they're being persecuted, somebody in their family was murdered.

736
00:47:10,520 --> 00:47:12,680
Speaker 21: You're going to send them back to that situation, and

737
00:47:12,719 --> 00:47:14,319
Speaker 21: you're going to send them back to that situation with

738
00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:16,400
Speaker 21: dollars in their pocket. Switch I think is just going

739
00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:17,920
Speaker 21: to make them targets for extortion.

740
00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:21,120
Speaker 5: We ask the White House about these working groups and

741
00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:25,279
Speaker 5: about specific details on their strategy to expand the HTA program,

742
00:47:25,600 --> 00:47:28,280
Speaker 5: but by publication time they didn't respond.

743
00:47:31,520 --> 00:47:33,560
Speaker 14: Workers, advocates, attorneys.

744
00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:35,960
Speaker 1: They all want a total overhaul of the H two

745
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:39,759
Speaker 1: A program so that it benefits employers and workers, not

746
00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:43,680
Speaker 1: just employers. Others demand quicker fixes that can be done

747
00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:46,640
Speaker 1: without Congress, like putting some regulatory structures in.

748
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:50,080
Speaker 5: Place, and while there are no major reforms in sight,

749
00:47:50,480 --> 00:47:53,680
Speaker 5: there have been some recent changes to how the program works.

750
00:47:54,320 --> 00:47:55,799
Speaker 14: In January, the Department of.

751
00:47:55,719 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 1: Homeland Security announced that migrant workers involved in labor disputes

752
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:05,000
Speaker 1: now request work authorization and protection from deportation. So in theory,

753
00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:07,080
Speaker 1: this means that if an age to a worker files

754
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:10,839
Speaker 1: a claim against their employer, they should be protected against retaliation,

755
00:48:11,719 --> 00:48:13,960
Speaker 1: but the announcement didn't come with a clear plan for

756
00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:17,520
Speaker 1: educating workers about this new protection, and in.

757
00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:21,839
Speaker 5: Late March, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration also known

758
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:25,920
Speaker 5: as OSHA, was granted authority to certify specific pisis for

759
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:29,120
Speaker 5: immigrant victims of crime, such as the migrant workers that

760
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:30,520
Speaker 5: we met in episode one.

761
00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:34,880
Speaker 1: But the solutions being offered today are strategies for navigating abuse,

762
00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:38,960
Speaker 1: not strategies for ending abuse. The focus is really on

763
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:41,719
Speaker 1: expanding age to a not fully reforming it.

764
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:46,800
Speaker 14: The clerk will report the title of the veil.

765
00:48:46,920 --> 00:48:49,960
Speaker 4: HR sixteen o three, a bill to amend the Immigration

766
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:53,040
Speaker 4: and Nationality Act to provide for terms and conditions for

767
00:48:53,200 --> 00:48:56,279
Speaker 4: non immigrant workers performing agricultural labor or.

768
00:48:56,200 --> 00:49:00,600
Speaker 5: Services, for example, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. It was

769
00:49:00,640 --> 00:49:03,600
Speaker 5: meant to provide some farm workers with a pathway to citizenship.

770
00:49:04,800 --> 00:49:08,240
Speaker 19: This is a bipartisan, balanced solution. It is a victory

771
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:11,640
Speaker 19: for farmers who have struggled with persistent labor shortages for decades.

772
00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:14,120
Speaker 19: It is also a victory for farm workers who have

773
00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:17,960
Speaker 19: worked tirelessly in the field, growing and harvesting food without

774
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:21,120
Speaker 19: proper labor protections or any guarantee that they can remain

775
00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:21,840
Speaker 19: in this country.

776
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:25,200
Speaker 5: In December of last year, it seemed imminent that the

777
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:28,200
Speaker 5: law was going to pass, but when last minute changes

778
00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:30,919
Speaker 5: upset the GOP, the bill died.

779
00:49:31,760 --> 00:49:34,719
Speaker 1: It's worth highlighting that for decades there have been weight

780
00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:37,560
Speaker 1: theft and abuse lawsuits filed by h to A workers,

781
00:49:37,920 --> 00:49:43,680
Speaker 1: along with government and advocacy reports, documentaries, expos as, congressional hearings.

782
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:46,239
Speaker 1: So anyone in a position of power has a lot

783
00:49:46,280 --> 00:49:47,840
Speaker 1: of information about this already.

784
00:49:48,480 --> 00:49:52,280
Speaker 19: Next, we have mister Daniel Costa, director of Immigration Law

785
00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:56,160
Speaker 19: and policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute.

786
00:49:56,480 --> 00:49:59,400
Speaker 5: That's from the summer of twenty sixteen. Daniel Costa is

787
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:02,720
Speaker 5: being introduced by then Attorney General Jeff Sessions to speak

788
00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:04,040
Speaker 5: before Congress.

789
00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:06,319
Speaker 21: Work programs at tire workers to a single employer and

790
00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:09,400
Speaker 21: that permit employers to legally underpay their bonded migrant workers,

791
00:50:09,480 --> 00:50:10,600
Speaker 21: or a recipe for disaster.

792
00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:15,840
Speaker 1: He told Congress this seven years ago. Daniel wasn't the first,

793
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:18,160
Speaker 1: and he certainly won't be the last to discuss the

794
00:50:18,200 --> 00:50:22,040
Speaker 1: program's deep flaws. Of course, many employers in the agricultural

795
00:50:22,040 --> 00:50:25,360
Speaker 1: industry don't see it the same way. Others say that

796
00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:29,239
Speaker 1: it is mutually beneficial for employers and workers. And yes,

797
00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:32,279
Speaker 1: there are generations of Mexican men who have given the

798
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:35,960
Speaker 1: US their youth, their work, and in exchange, they've been

799
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:38,600
Speaker 1: able to make better lives for themselves and their families

800
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:44,320
Speaker 1: in their hometowns. I met an older man in northern

801
00:50:44,360 --> 00:50:47,360
Speaker 1: Mexico who had worked for more than twenty years in

802
00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:50,440
Speaker 1: the tobacco fields of North Carolina, going back and forth

803
00:50:50,520 --> 00:50:53,560
Speaker 1: every year. He told me that he missed so many

804
00:50:53,600 --> 00:50:56,800
Speaker 1: of his children's milestones. But he was able to buy land,

805
00:50:57,080 --> 00:51:00,520
Speaker 1: a truck, start a business. His son and then followed

806
00:51:00,520 --> 00:51:03,480
Speaker 1: in his footsteps. He also became an h to A worker,

807
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:06,880
Speaker 1: and it was now his turn to say heartbreaking goodbyes

808
00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:11,400
Speaker 1: to his little boy.

809
00:51:12,120 --> 00:51:14,719
Speaker 5: There can never really be a full accounting of the

810
00:51:14,880 --> 00:51:16,520
Speaker 5: H two A program's human cost.

811
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:19,919
Speaker 21: I believe there's a growing global consensus among immigrants, rights

812
00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:23,400
Speaker 21: activists and worker advocates the temporary formal worker programs are,

813
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:26,799
Speaker 21: in fact, by their very nature endentured worker programs, in

814
00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:41,239
Speaker 21: other words, that are close to slavery.

815
00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:42,279
Speaker 5: For migrant workers, like the friends we met in part

816
00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:45,759
Speaker 5: one and the brothers we heard from earlier, we can't

817
00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:49,000
Speaker 5: even fully comprehend the extent to which they've been robbed

818
00:51:49,040 --> 00:51:52,800
Speaker 5: by recruiters and employers and failed by the US government.

819
00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:56,319
Speaker 5: So how on earth can we measure the toll on

820
00:51:56,400 --> 00:51:58,520
Speaker 5: their broken bodies and on their spirits.

821
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:02,320
Speaker 1: The goal of the edge to A program has always

822
00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:05,719
Speaker 1: been to address labor shortages for farmers, and now there's

823
00:52:05,719 --> 00:52:08,440
Speaker 1: a new goal to use it to slow migration to

824
00:52:08,520 --> 00:52:13,920
Speaker 1: the southern border. But the workers, their rights, their stolen wages,

825
00:52:13,960 --> 00:52:16,759
Speaker 1: their lives, those don't seem to be a priority in

826
00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:20,279
Speaker 1: the agenda, so for now all they have is the

827
00:52:20,360 --> 00:52:25,680
Speaker 1: unspoken rule put your head down, do the work, don't complain.

828
00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:45,960
Speaker 1: Head Down is an original production by Fututo Investigates in

829
00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:50,520
Speaker 1: collaboration with Latino USA and Prism. I'm Fernande Chavarri in

830
00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:54,280
Speaker 1: for our host and executive producer Mario Josa. This episode

831
00:52:54,320 --> 00:52:57,680
Speaker 1: was reported and produced by Patricia Sulvaran, Tina Basquiz, and

832
00:52:57,760 --> 00:53:01,120
Speaker 1: Me with assistance from Roxana Agire. It was edited by

833
00:53:01,120 --> 00:53:05,000
Speaker 1: Andrea Lopez Cruzsado and Ni Penilee Ramirez is the executive

834
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:09,440
Speaker 1: producer of Futuro Investigates. Music and scoring by Jacob Rossadi,

835
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:13,279
Speaker 1: fact checking by Amy Tardiff. This episode was mixed by

836
00:53:13,320 --> 00:53:15,680
Speaker 1: Stephanie Lebo, Julia Caruso and j J.

837
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:16,360
Speaker 14: Carubin.

838
00:53:16,680 --> 00:53:20,360
Speaker 1: Nancy Trujillo and Raoul Petes were are project managers. Reporting

839
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:23,680
Speaker 1: was made possible with support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation,

840
00:53:24,040 --> 00:53:27,520
Speaker 1: the McGraw Center for Business Journalism, the Craig Newmark Graduate

841
00:53:27,600 --> 00:53:30,279
Speaker 1: School of Journalism at the City University of New York,

842
00:53:30,520 --> 00:53:34,640
Speaker 1: the Tao Foundation, and Michelle Mercer and Bruce Golden. Early

843
00:53:34,680 --> 00:53:37,680
Speaker 1: support for this reporting came from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

844
00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:43,080
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Avram Basquez, Sophia Sanchez, Elizabeth Lowentdal Torres,

845
00:53:43,239 --> 00:53:47,040
Speaker 1: Nina Alvarez, Diane Silvester, and the farm workers who shared

846
00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:50,880
Speaker 1: their stories with us. The Latino USA team also includes

847
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:56,120
Speaker 1: Stacy Contreras, Mike Sargent, Marta Martinez, Victoria Strada, and Renaldolanios Junior.

848
00:53:56,480 --> 00:54:00,520
Speaker 1: Our editorial director is Fernande Santos. Our engineering team also

849
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:04,600
Speaker 1: includes Scabriella Bias. Our marketing manager is Luis Duna. Our

850
00:54:04,680 --> 00:54:08,319
Speaker 1: theme music was composed by Senia Rubinos. For more, visit

851
00:54:08,360 --> 00:54:12,319
Speaker 1: putuu Investigates, dot org and prismreports dot org. Join us

852
00:54:12,320 --> 00:54:14,520
Speaker 1: again next time, and in the meantime you can find

853
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:16,040
Speaker 1: us on social media Choo.

854
00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:25,320
Speaker 5: Latino USA is made possible in part by W. K.

855
00:54:25,640 --> 00:54:31,040
Speaker 5: Kellogg Foundation, a partner with Communities where Children Come First,

856
00:54:31,360 --> 00:54:35,040
Speaker 5: the TAU Foundation, and Michelle Mercer and Bruce Golden