1
00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:11,840
Speaker 1: Futuro Investigatsuro Investila. When Diego and Mario planned their escape,

2
00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:13,720
Speaker 1: they knew they'd have to do it in the middle

3
00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:14,320
Speaker 1: of the night.

4
00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:16,040
Speaker 2: The city.

5
00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:22,680
Speaker 3: Stamenos Bhilao or Los car de la Casa.

6
00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:25,000
Speaker 1: When the bosses were less vigilant and when all the

7
00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:30,360
Speaker 1: other workers were in their rooms sleeping. It was a

8
00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:33,839
Speaker 1: warm night in May twenty eighteen, in a town near Raleigh,

9
00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:37,680
Speaker 1: the capital of North Carolina. It was eerily quiet. As

10
00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:40,760
Speaker 1: they each packed a single bag, they couldn't carry much

11
00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:43,320
Speaker 1: on their long walk in the dark, so they only

12
00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:45,199
Speaker 1: took some of the clothes they had brought with them

13
00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:45,800
Speaker 1: from Mexico.

14
00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:51,120
Speaker 3: Na Massa Ramovlo in Dispensalle, but Noya mar La Tenion

15
00:00:51,159 --> 00:00:51,640
Speaker 3: de Tolos.

16
00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,160
Speaker 1: Diego and Mario had only walked the dirt road out

17
00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:58,760
Speaker 1: of the camp once before, and it was during the day.

18
00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:01,400
Speaker 1: It could be risk getting out to the main road

19
00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:04,759
Speaker 1: at night. Two guys alone who were not from there,

20
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:06,600
Speaker 1: they could seem suspicious.

21
00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:08,039
Speaker 4: They were terrified.

22
00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:15,560
Speaker 3: Salimo Como poquel Espuru Campo.

23
00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:19,160
Speaker 2: Caminas assisting lamp.

24
00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:22,520
Speaker 1: They walked in the dark, using their cell phones to

25
00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:26,160
Speaker 1: light up the way. Scraggly brambles with thorns lined their path,

26
00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:30,440
Speaker 1: taking every step with trepidation, knowing that the snakes they'd

27
00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:32,040
Speaker 1: seen before could be nearby.

28
00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:35,200
Speaker 2: Jack Uando.

29
00:01:39,240 --> 00:01:42,600
Speaker 3: Esperan moment position Timosella.

30
00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:45,520
Speaker 1: Once they were close to the main road, they spotted

31
00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:48,600
Speaker 1: the getaway car. The people who had promised to help

32
00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:52,800
Speaker 1: them escape were actually there. Diego and Mario were overcome

33
00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:55,279
Speaker 1: with relief. They were finally safe.

34
00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,720
Speaker 2: For in Salimos Cilos.

35
00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:05,960
Speaker 1: They had walked away from the nightmare they experienced working

36
00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:15,600
Speaker 1: in a US farm as part of a government program

37
00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:19,880
Speaker 1: from Futuro Investigates and Latino USA in collaboration with PRISM,

38
00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:24,280
Speaker 1: am Fernando echavarri in for our host Marie Jjosa. For

39
00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,680
Speaker 1: the next two episodes, I, along with Tina Vasquez, editor

40
00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:30,720
Speaker 1: at Large at PRISM, will tell you about the increasing

41
00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:35,400
Speaker 1: and systematic abuse of temporary migrant laborers who are critical

42
00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:36,639
Speaker 1: to the US economy.

43
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:44,960
Speaker 5: We're talking about the hundreds of thousands of farm workers

44
00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:47,760
Speaker 5: who come to work our fields every year with work

45
00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:51,160
Speaker 5: visas under the US government's H two a program, a

46
00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:55,639
Speaker 5: program where Diego and Mariosa expectations don't match reality.

47
00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:57,359
Speaker 2: That is a NASA.

48
00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:02,399
Speaker 5: It's the back own of our agricultural industry, and yet

49
00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:06,639
Speaker 5: these workers we desperately rely on are constantly mistreated.

50
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,960
Speaker 1: In a recent and very extreme case of abuse, an

51
00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:12,760
Speaker 1: official from the Department of Justice called what happened to

52
00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:18,480
Speaker 1: workers quote modern day slavery. The structure is certainly akin

53
00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:20,400
Speaker 1: to indenture servitude.

54
00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:25,160
Speaker 6: There's a pretty glaring disparity between the program on paper

55
00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:26,760
Speaker 6: and what happens in practice.

56
00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,640
Speaker 5: Are we going to just keep on this path because

57
00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:31,800
Speaker 5: farmers are saying they need the labor.

58
00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:36,480
Speaker 4: You're literally buying people to come do terrible work.

59
00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:37,600
Speaker 7: Terrible work.

60
00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:42,440
Speaker 1: In the simplest of terms, Here's how the HTA program

61
00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:47,680
Speaker 1: works us farmers. And this can be a mom and

62
00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:52,040
Speaker 1: pop citrus orchard or a massive corporation harvesting tons of cherries.

63
00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:54,880
Speaker 1: They go to the Department of Labor and they say, hey,

64
00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:57,160
Speaker 1: I can't get you as workers to do this very

65
00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:01,080
Speaker 1: physically demanding jobs, so I need permission to I don't know,

66
00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:05,200
Speaker 1: one hundred foreign workers. Then the Department of Labor says, okay,

67
00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:07,560
Speaker 1: if you promise to pay them what the DL and

68
00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:10,320
Speaker 1: what your state require, and you give them a place

69
00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:12,240
Speaker 1: to live, you can have those visas.

70
00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:16,479
Speaker 5: The employer hires a recruiting company or a labor contractor,

71
00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:18,680
Speaker 5: or they just reach out to folks they've worked with

72
00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:21,240
Speaker 5: in the past to hire the workers they need. The

73
00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:25,120
Speaker 5: employer files some paperwork with US Citizenship and Immigration Services,

74
00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:27,120
Speaker 5: and then things move pretty fast.

75
00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:29,720
Speaker 1: The number of H to A workers has more than

76
00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:32,920
Speaker 1: tripled in the last decade. Just last year, more than

77
00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:35,920
Speaker 1: three hundred thousand workers came to the US in this way.

78
00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:40,000
Speaker 1: About ninety percent of them are from Mexico, and the workers,

79
00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:43,720
Speaker 1: mostly men, get their visas in Mexico right before they

80
00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:47,159
Speaker 1: get on a packed bus that takes them north. The

81
00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:50,080
Speaker 1: trip can take days, and their employer in the US

82
00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:53,839
Speaker 1: should reimburse them for that travel. The job usually lasts

83
00:04:53,839 --> 00:04:55,880
Speaker 1: six to nine months, no longer than a year.

84
00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:58,640
Speaker 5: There's something about the employers that I want you to

85
00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:02,680
Speaker 5: keep in mind. As a work visa, the HTWOA visas

86
00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:06,240
Speaker 5: tie workers to their employer. So if their employer isn't

87
00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:09,400
Speaker 5: paying them or is offering them inadequate housing or no food,

88
00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:12,480
Speaker 5: the worker can't go find a better job because quitting

89
00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:15,839
Speaker 5: means not only losing their visa, but their ability to

90
00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:18,640
Speaker 5: legally remain in the United States. In the case of

91
00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:23,640
Speaker 5: the HTOA program, losing The visa also strips workers from housing, meals,

92
00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:26,680
Speaker 5: basic stuff. A worker can pretty much end up in

93
00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:27,280
Speaker 5: the streets.

94
00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:30,520
Speaker 1: For years now, this program has intrigued TENA and I

95
00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:36,280
Speaker 1: because of its complexity. On one hand, it is beneficial

96
00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:39,920
Speaker 1: for entire families in Mexico. Workers can make double or

97
00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,320
Speaker 1: triple what they would make on a Mexican farm, and

98
00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:45,040
Speaker 1: they don't have to risk crossing into the US own lawfully.

99
00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:49,080
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, the program is exploitative and

100
00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:53,680
Speaker 1: full of dangerous power dynamics. Employers have pretty much all

101
00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:54,320
Speaker 1: the control.

102
00:05:55,880 --> 00:05:59,440
Speaker 8: Once the visa expires, the laborers are required to return home.

103
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,400
Speaker 5: At least one hundred immigrant workers were freed from conditions

104
00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:04,800
Speaker 5: in which two people died.

105
00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:11,839
Speaker 1: In theory, workers have some protections against retaliation, but in practice,

106
00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:16,279
Speaker 1: if they complain, they can easily get fired. There's this

107
00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:20,400
Speaker 1: unspoken expectation of the workers, put your head down, do

108
00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:22,000
Speaker 1: the work, don't complain.

109
00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:31,400
Speaker 5: Over the years, we've spoken with workers on both sides

110
00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:32,240
Speaker 5: of the border.

111
00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:34,960
Speaker 3: And Lakaye there spoils that can ascore.

112
00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:37,679
Speaker 1: You know, travel to Mexico to see where it all begins.

113
00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:43,080
Speaker 5: Investigated in Washington State and North Carolina.

114
00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:46,360
Speaker 6: We're headed to I guess it's near North Carolina and.

115
00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:49,239
Speaker 1: Spoke to government officials about exploitation of the program.

116
00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:53,240
Speaker 4: They are stuck, absolutely stuck.

117
00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:56,800
Speaker 5: We uncovered crucial documents. I just wanted to let you know,

118
00:06:57,240 --> 00:06:59,080
Speaker 5: but I got some records.

119
00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:02,839
Speaker 1: Back, records that show, oh, how the US government holds millions, yes,

120
00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,680
Speaker 1: millions of dollars in wages owed to h to A

121
00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:09,720
Speaker 1: workers and yet has no clear plans or timeline for

122
00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:12,720
Speaker 1: how to pay them back. And despite all of the

123
00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,640
Speaker 1: issues with the H two A visas, the Biden administration

124
00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:19,920
Speaker 1: is in talks to expand the program. We'll get into

125
00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:22,160
Speaker 1: it in our two parts special head Down.

126
00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:31,600
Speaker 3: Oh.

127
00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:37,120
Speaker 1: We met Diego and Mario last summer. These are not

128
00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:40,400
Speaker 1: their real names. They've asked us to protect their identities

129
00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,120
Speaker 1: because even though they're no longer h to A workers,

130
00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:46,840
Speaker 1: they still fear retaliation from people associated with the program.

131
00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:49,360
Speaker 1: So if we sound a little vague on certain parts

132
00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:53,760
Speaker 1: of the story, that's why Madio is thirty six and

133
00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:56,880
Speaker 1: Diego is twenty nine. They have been close friends for

134
00:07:56,960 --> 00:07:59,760
Speaker 1: over a decade. They met working at a bakery in

135
00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:00,720
Speaker 1: Sea othern Mexico.

136
00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:06,840
Speaker 3: Join us Intestava and Prepa.

137
00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:09,760
Speaker 5: Diego says he was still in high school when he

138
00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:12,520
Speaker 5: learned how to bake bread from Mario. They're more than

139
00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:21,640
Speaker 5: friends at this point, they're like brothers really. Diego is

140
00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:25,320
Speaker 5: an extrovert who loves electronic music and dressing like famous

141
00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:29,160
Speaker 5: soccer players with flashy tennis shoes and skinny jeans. He

142
00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:32,320
Speaker 5: also has a remarkable memory, a detail that would be

143
00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:35,960
Speaker 5: key to their escape. Mario is more serious and shy

144
00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:38,600
Speaker 5: one of the two, but when he opens up, he

145
00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:42,880
Speaker 5: gets easily emotional. They come from indigenous communities and they're

146
00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:47,840
Speaker 5: both the eldest of three siblings.

147
00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:52,560
Speaker 9: Only news.

148
00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:56,000
Speaker 5: Mario comes from a remote area where Spanish is not

149
00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:59,480
Speaker 5: the predominant language in his hometown. The nearest school was

150
00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:02,280
Speaker 5: a two hour walk away from his home, so instead

151
00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:04,880
Speaker 5: of getting an education, he had to start working as

152
00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:06,520
Speaker 5: a child.

153
00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:13,120
Speaker 10: Estuyadio dos est Mario wanted his kids to have a

154
00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:15,720
Speaker 10: different life, so he moved with his wife and their

155
00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:17,199
Speaker 10: two children to a bigger city.

156
00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:21,600
Speaker 5: That's where he met Diego at the bakery. Mario wasn't

157
00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:24,319
Speaker 5: earning much, just enough to build a small house out

158
00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:32,680
Speaker 5: of sheet metals. One night in early twenty eighteen, Mario

159
00:09:32,679 --> 00:09:36,319
Speaker 5: and his wife had a very serious conversation. They were

160
00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:39,720
Speaker 5: frustrated because heavy rains flooded their home and their kids

161
00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:40,679
Speaker 5: kept getting sick in.

162
00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:51,640
Speaker 9: The cold Lady me and sposas, so.

163
00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:54,200
Speaker 5: He asked his wife, could we ever live in a

164
00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:57,440
Speaker 5: better house? The only option they can think of at

165
00:09:57,440 --> 00:09:59,800
Speaker 5: the time was to seek work in the United States.

166
00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:03,120
Speaker 5: Mario knew a guy in a nearby town who recruited

167
00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:05,760
Speaker 5: men to legally work in the fields. He thought it

168
00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:08,679
Speaker 5: sounded like a good idea, so he tried to get

169
00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:09,640
Speaker 5: Diego interested.

170
00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:12,200
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, mera tengos.

171
00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:19,880
Speaker 3: The plan is kiro ji yai formase the ira combisa

172
00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:21,240
Speaker 3: contra talos.

173
00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:24,800
Speaker 5: Diego had never really thought about leaving Mexico. He had

174
00:10:24,840 --> 00:10:27,679
Speaker 5: a wife and a five year old daughter, but he

175
00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:29,440
Speaker 5: only made sixty dollars a week.

176
00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:31,960
Speaker 4: Although he really liked his job at the bakery.

177
00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:35,800
Speaker 5: Like Mario, Diego also dreamed of building his own house

178
00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:38,880
Speaker 5: one day and maybe even owning a bakery, so he

179
00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:44,480
Speaker 5: got on board with the idea the.

180
00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:50,520
Speaker 3: Campo.

181
00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:53,800
Speaker 5: The recruiter told them that men from rural areas did

182
00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:56,440
Speaker 5: well because they knew how to work the land. Both

183
00:10:56,480 --> 00:10:59,520
Speaker 5: Diego and Mario grew up harvesting coffee and corn, so

184
00:10:59,559 --> 00:11:03,280
Speaker 5: they checked that box, and like most HTAY workers, Diego

185
00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:07,520
Speaker 5: and Mario were also in the prime of their lives, young, fit, healthy.

186
00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:10,640
Speaker 5: They now just needed to get a Mexican passport, which

187
00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:12,079
Speaker 5: they had never done before.

188
00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:21,160
Speaker 3: Josovia Kenrato kJ Tempo de Travajo the ins almost para Mexico.

189
00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:24,120
Speaker 5: What appealed to them about this plan was that they

190
00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:26,640
Speaker 5: could come back home to Mexico. It was a six

191
00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:29,560
Speaker 5: month job, so they figured why not. But there was

192
00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:37,160
Speaker 5: one problem. Mario needed twenty five hundred dollars or thirty

193
00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:41,000
Speaker 5: thousand pesos, because the recruiter claimed these funds would quote

194
00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:44,240
Speaker 5: save their seats and put their name on a list.

195
00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:47,240
Speaker 5: And if twenty five hundred dollars sounds like a lot

196
00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:51,040
Speaker 5: of money to you, it's an inconceivable amount for someone

197
00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:56,040
Speaker 5: in rural Mexico. By the way, this fee is completely

198
00:11:56,520 --> 00:11:59,520
Speaker 5: illegal and not how the program is supposed to work

199
00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:02,280
Speaker 5: at all. But this I need money to save your

200
00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:08,800
Speaker 5: seat thing, it happens all the time. Diego and Mario

201
00:12:08,880 --> 00:12:11,960
Speaker 5: didn't know that what the recruiter was demanding was illegal.

202
00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:19,240
Speaker 3: Diebemana buscano aken' in pel.

203
00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:20,600
Speaker 1: So.

204
00:12:20,640 --> 00:12:24,800
Speaker 5: Mario spent a week trying to borrow twenty five hundred dollars. Finally,

205
00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:27,800
Speaker 5: some relatives loaned him the cash with interest.

206
00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:29,720
Speaker 4: Of course, same with Diego.

207
00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:33,360
Speaker 5: They both figured, once we get paid US dollars, we'll

208
00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:38,640
Speaker 5: quickly pay back the loans. They were set to leave

209
00:12:38,679 --> 00:12:42,199
Speaker 5: for a place they'd never even heard of before, North Carolina.

210
00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:47,160
Speaker 2: Is que.

211
00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:49,319
Speaker 11: Es.

212
00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:54,600
Speaker 5: This is Valaria, Diego's wife. That's not her real name.

213
00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:58,560
Speaker 5: We're also protecting her identity. She's petite and wears her

214
00:12:58,559 --> 00:13:00,320
Speaker 5: black hair pulled back in a pony tail.

215
00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:02,320
Speaker 4: She's almost always smiling.

216
00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:05,680
Speaker 5: She says that just days before Diego was about to

217
00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:10,559
Speaker 5: leave for the US, the month she started feeling sick.

218
00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:12,040
Speaker 5: So she goes to the doctor.

219
00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:17,120
Speaker 4: Nick Amasa, you go.

220
00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:20,600
Speaker 5: And the doctor tells her that she's pregnant.

221
00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:28,240
Speaker 4: Always guess they were conflicted.

222
00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:32,480
Speaker 5: Diego is headed to North Carolina to finally make good money,

223
00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:35,320
Speaker 5: the kind of money he needed more than ever now

224
00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:38,439
Speaker 5: that his family was expanding. But he didn't want to

225
00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:40,440
Speaker 5: leave Valeria pregnant and alone with their.

226
00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:46,200
Speaker 4: Daughter in Lelo per Puis contract.

227
00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:51,160
Speaker 5: Valeria told Diego they couldn't pass in on opportunity like this.

228
00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:54,160
Speaker 5: They were just going to have to push through the

229
00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:55,959
Speaker 5: next six months apart.

230
00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:04,520
Speaker 1: Around that time. In twenty eighteen, when Diego and Mattio

231
00:14:04,559 --> 00:14:06,959
Speaker 1: first entered the h to A program, there was a

232
00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:11,319
Speaker 1: historic growth taking place. Data shows that from twenty sixteen

233
00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:14,640
Speaker 1: to twenty nineteen, during the Trump presidency, the number of

234
00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:18,760
Speaker 1: h TOA visas spiked by forty five percent. This may

235
00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:22,040
Speaker 1: be in part because of Trump's immigration crackdown and workplace

236
00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:25,600
Speaker 1: rates that targeted undocumented workers. Employers turned to the h

237
00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:27,840
Speaker 1: to A program out of fear that their farms could

238
00:14:27,880 --> 00:14:31,600
Speaker 1: be raided. At a rally in twenty eighteen, Trump spoke

239
00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:35,680
Speaker 1: about protecting American jobs, and then he said that farmers

240
00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:37,160
Speaker 1: were going to get workers.

241
00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:38,480
Speaker 9: They're going to be guest workers.

242
00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:39,880
Speaker 11: They're going to come in, they're going to work on

243
00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:42,000
Speaker 11: your farms. We're gonna have a lot of things happening.

244
00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:44,040
Speaker 2: But then they have to go out. Then they have

245
00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:44,600
Speaker 2: to go out.

246
00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:47,560
Speaker 1: The crowd only cheered when they heard that the workers

247
00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:50,600
Speaker 1: would have to leave. It's kind of like, hey, we

248
00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:54,840
Speaker 1: want workers. We don't want families or parents or students.

249
00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:58,040
Speaker 1: We don't want them in our communities. We just want workers.

250
00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:06,000
Speaker 1: This disposable way of talking about migrant workers was not

251
00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:08,760
Speaker 1: just a Trump thing. It's kind of baked into how

252
00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:12,880
Speaker 1: the h TOA program has and continues to operate. According

253
00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:16,720
Speaker 1: to h TOA workers advocates and decades of data addressing

254
00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:21,160
Speaker 1: stolen wages, horrible living quarters, and dangerous working conditions, it's

255
00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:24,240
Speaker 1: just not a priority for the program. The real focus

256
00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:27,800
Speaker 1: is getting employers the workers they need, no matter the cost.

257
00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:32,800
Speaker 1: To illustrate just how much we rely on these temporary workers.

258
00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:36,200
Speaker 11: Thousands of people are self quarantining at home after they

259
00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:38,320
Speaker 11: may have come in contact with the coronaviruce.

260
00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:41,600
Speaker 6: Across the country, health officials are rapidly trying to ramp

261
00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:43,680
Speaker 6: up their testing and contain the spread.

262
00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:47,240
Speaker 1: When the pandemic hit in early twenty twenty, when the

263
00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:51,560
Speaker 1: United States closed its borders, there was one major exception.

264
00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:56,080
Speaker 1: The US not only continued issuing h TOWA visas, it

265
00:15:56,240 --> 00:15:58,840
Speaker 1: made the process of getting them easier.

266
00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,080
Speaker 11: They're going to come in and they're going to be

267
00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:04,440
Speaker 11: given a certain pass, and we're going to check them

268
00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:07,800
Speaker 11: very very closely, especially over the next month. I've given

269
00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:10,160
Speaker 11: the commitment to the farmers they're going to continue to come.

270
00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:15,400
Speaker 1: We couldn't eat without them. We still can't. It's been

271
00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:18,160
Speaker 1: like that for decades, Ever since the US needed to

272
00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:20,640
Speaker 1: address labor shortages during World War Two.

273
00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:23,640
Speaker 12: It isn't easy to find men willing to take on

274
00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:28,240
Speaker 12: such undesirable kinds of work. Understandably, then the American farm

275
00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:32,640
Speaker 12: labor supply falls short and is supplemented by Mexican citizens.

276
00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:36,440
Speaker 1: This has become the way of farming in the United States.

277
00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:40,120
Speaker 1: We've spoken with farmers, growers, and leaders in the agriculture

278
00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:43,640
Speaker 1: industry who say this is the only legal means they

279
00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:46,960
Speaker 1: have to secure the labor they need to harvest their fields.

280
00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:50,440
Speaker 7: I speak with growers around the country. They have had

281
00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:52,680
Speaker 7: to leave apples on the trees to rot because they

282
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:54,440
Speaker 7: couldn't get enough workers to harvest them.

283
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:58,160
Speaker 1: That's Jim Blair, president of the US Apple Association.

284
00:16:58,360 --> 00:17:03,120
Speaker 7: Using the h toa program. Even it's cumbersome and expensive

285
00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:06,760
Speaker 7: and difficult to navigate, they're willing to do it just

286
00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:11,240
Speaker 7: because of the certainty of knowing that their labor supply

287
00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:13,760
Speaker 7: is legal and it's not going to put the grower

288
00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:15,880
Speaker 7: in any kind of legal jeopardy.

289
00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:22,120
Speaker 1: Well, we know that there are many instances in which

290
00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:26,639
Speaker 1: workers and agricultural employers both benefit from these temporary visas.

291
00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:31,840
Speaker 1: Diego and Mario faced terrible conditions that are not that uncommon.

292
00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:35,000
Speaker 1: They were supposed to fall in line with those that

293
00:17:35,119 --> 00:17:37,920
Speaker 1: came before them. Keep your head down, do the work,

294
00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:52,320
Speaker 1: don't complain, but they didn't. After the break, we traveled

295
00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:55,200
Speaker 1: to the epicenter of this temporary visa program in Mexico

296
00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:58,040
Speaker 1: and learn about one of the most nefarious players in

297
00:17:58,119 --> 00:18:02,040
Speaker 1: the program. That's coming up next on Latino USA. Stay

298
00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:51,240
Speaker 1: with us. Hey, we're back. I'm Fernando Chavarri in for

299
00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:54,960
Speaker 1: Marino Josa. It was twenty eighteen when Diego and Mario

300
00:18:55,119 --> 00:18:57,120
Speaker 1: left their small town in Mexico to go to North

301
00:18:57,160 --> 00:19:00,959
Speaker 1: Carolina with their new guest worker visas. That year, there

302
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:04,320
Speaker 1: were a record number of h TWA visas issued. This

303
00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:08,240
Speaker 1: is the only category of temporary work visas without a limit,

304
00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:11,359
Speaker 1: and there were hints of just how this program was

305
00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:14,560
Speaker 1: exploding when I was in Monterrey, also in the spring

306
00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:17,080
Speaker 1: of twenty eighteen, about a month before Theegu and Madio

307
00:19:17,119 --> 00:19:23,080
Speaker 1: were instructed by their recruiter to travel there. Monterrey is

308
00:19:23,119 --> 00:19:25,280
Speaker 1: about three hours south of the US border in the

309
00:19:25,359 --> 00:19:28,320
Speaker 1: state of New Boleons, which has the third largest economy

310
00:19:28,359 --> 00:19:31,919
Speaker 1: in Mexico. It is the hub for h to A visas.

311
00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,480
Speaker 1: The epicenter of the program. That's where workers usually go

312
00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:38,840
Speaker 1: to their appointments at the US consulate and then head north.

313
00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:40,280
Speaker 2: Those are workers.

314
00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:43,879
Speaker 1: We're just driving through this not very busy street, and

315
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:48,879
Speaker 1: there are dozens and dozens and dozens of men, some

316
00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:53,240
Speaker 1: with suitcases, yes, just kind of hanging out outside of

317
00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:56,359
Speaker 1: a hotel and then on the street. Even though I

318
00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:00,800
Speaker 1: knew that every year thousands and thousands of temporary agricultural

319
00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:03,800
Speaker 1: workers traveled to the US, it was still shocking to

320
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:07,760
Speaker 1: see it like this. That April in twenty eighteen, according

321
00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:10,720
Speaker 1: to the State Department, more than thirty two thousand, h

322
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:13,479
Speaker 1: TWA visas were issued in Mexico, and most of them

323
00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:16,919
Speaker 1: were granted right here in Monterrey. That's about an average

324
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:19,760
Speaker 1: of seven hundred and fifty workers getting a visa each

325
00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:23,239
Speaker 1: day during that month, and since then the program has

326
00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:27,000
Speaker 1: only gotten bigger. In April of last year, more than

327
00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:29,840
Speaker 1: forty two thousand of these visas were issued in Mexico.

328
00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:32,720
Speaker 1: That's about a thirty two percent increase from when I

329
00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:38,680
Speaker 1: was there four years prior. I walked to the plaza

330
00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:41,120
Speaker 1: where many of the workers gather after doing their morning

331
00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:45,680
Speaker 1: interviews with consulate officials. This is where they get their

332
00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:47,040
Speaker 1: prized visas.

333
00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:47,480
Speaker 4: From their recruiters.

334
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,879
Speaker 1: The recruiters show up with these big plastic bins like

335
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:53,359
Speaker 1: where you would store Christmas decorations, and they are just

336
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:56,520
Speaker 1: packed with passports. They start pulling them out and calling

337
00:20:56,640 --> 00:21:00,119
Speaker 1: Kose Juan Luis, and the men just come up, have

338
00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:03,119
Speaker 1: their passports with the rolling suitcase in hand, and they

339
00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:05,600
Speaker 1: walk straight to one of the greyhound like buses that

340
00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:08,359
Speaker 1: are about to take them to the US. It happens

341
00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:12,000
Speaker 1: that quickly. Some of the first timers that I talked to,

342
00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:14,560
Speaker 1: I didn't even know where in the US they were going.

343
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:18,119
Speaker 1: When I asked them where they were headache. They had

344
00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:20,560
Speaker 1: to pull out their passport and flip it over just

345
00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:23,440
Speaker 1: so they could read this text on this little white

346
00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:27,439
Speaker 1: sticker that said Oklahoma or Florida. Some of them were

347
00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:30,840
Speaker 1: clearly nebies because they were wearing skin tight jeans to

348
00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:35,400
Speaker 1: be on a bus ride for days. And while twenty

349
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:38,600
Speaker 1: eighteen seems like a lifetime ago, some things remain the

350
00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:42,119
Speaker 1: same today. Monterrey is still the world's hub for H

351
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:44,959
Speaker 1: two A workers, and the large majority of those workers

352
00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:48,920
Speaker 1: are still men from Mexico. But the pandemic did change

353
00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:49,520
Speaker 1: a few things.

354
00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:51,120
Speaker 4: There's a really.

355
00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:56,000
Speaker 8: Stark contrast between the scene in Monterey prean post.

356
00:21:56,080 --> 00:22:02,879
Speaker 1: COVID works with the biinational nonprofits Centro the Los re

357
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:06,320
Speaker 1: Jos Miante or CDM, which in English would be centered

358
00:22:06,359 --> 00:22:09,159
Speaker 1: for migrants rights. She says that it's become a lot

359
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:10,680
Speaker 1: harder to reach workers now.

360
00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:15,440
Speaker 8: Workers are no longer getting their fingerprints taken or their

361
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:17,879
Speaker 8: photos taken up the government office.

362
00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:21,560
Speaker 1: For years, CDM had done know your Rights presentations to

363
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:24,360
Speaker 1: workers near the plaza while they waited outside the US

364
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,960
Speaker 1: government office where they got their photographs and fingerprints taken.

365
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:31,040
Speaker 1: But now the workers don't have to go there because

366
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:33,000
Speaker 1: the US has waived that requirement.

367
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:34,240
Speaker 4: That means that we.

368
00:22:34,359 --> 00:22:36,920
Speaker 8: Needed to go to hotels to reach out to them.

369
00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:40,480
Speaker 1: And the US government didn't just stop requesting fingerprints and photos.

370
00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:44,720
Speaker 1: They also waived the in person interviews at consulates abroad.

371
00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:47,680
Speaker 1: Evi says that while this made sense at the start

372
00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:50,720
Speaker 1: of the pandemic three years ago, it makes no sense

373
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:54,240
Speaker 1: to not have face to face interviews with consulate officials today.

374
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,600
Speaker 8: Costular officers would awesome if they had paid fees or

375
00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:02,600
Speaker 8: face of the recruitment abuse. This means that there are

376
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:05,600
Speaker 8: hundreds of thousands of workers who are traveling to the US,

377
00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:08,920
Speaker 8: many of them for the first time, don't know what

378
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:09,719
Speaker 8: their rights are.

379
00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:13,560
Speaker 1: According to CDM, fewer than ten percent of the workers

380
00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,720
Speaker 1: are doing in person visa interviews right now, something that's

381
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:21,280
Speaker 1: incredibly unusual for the US immigration system. And this void

382
00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:24,639
Speaker 1: of information from government officials leaves room for recruiters to

383
00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:26,280
Speaker 1: take advantage of workers.

384
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:31,960
Speaker 8: The US government's EASTOP requirements to make it easier for

385
00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:36,200
Speaker 8: employers and recruiters to hire workers, but they didn't increase

386
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:39,399
Speaker 8: protections or workers. They did it at the expense of

387
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:41,639
Speaker 8: workers were putting their lives on the line.

388
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:46,760
Speaker 1: We asked a State Department official at the consulate in

389
00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:49,639
Speaker 1: Monterey for the percentage of workers who are getting in

390
00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:52,880
Speaker 1: person interviews, but he wouldn't tell us. He would only

391
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:55,880
Speaker 1: say that the workers are quote coming in every day

392
00:23:55,920 --> 00:24:01,200
Speaker 1: for interviews based on quote certain criteria. Mexico and Central America,

393
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:04,520
Speaker 1: like in the US, the pandemic brought massive unemployment, so

394
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:08,119
Speaker 1: an already desperate population of workers became even more so,

395
00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 1: and that resulted in recruiters charging even higher fees.

396
00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 4: So let's talk about those recruiters.

397
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,119
Speaker 1: Recruiters are a critical part of the system because they

398
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:26,200
Speaker 1: hold so much power, they basically get to say who

399
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:28,440
Speaker 1: gets to apply for a visa and who does it.

400
00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:32,159
Speaker 1: I remember in twenty eighteen, my sources warned me to

401
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,439
Speaker 1: be careful when I went to Monterrey because recruiters don't

402
00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 1: like to see anyone asking their workers' questions. I mean,

403
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:42,640
Speaker 1: are from Minos's visas, even without a presid or any

404
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:45,600
Speaker 1: of my recording equipment. When I, a five foot tall

405
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:49,120
Speaker 1: Mexican woman, casually approached a group of workers, they didn't

406
00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:51,600
Speaker 1: want to talk to me. When some of them did,

407
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 1: they told me everything was great and that they didn't

408
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:58,520
Speaker 1: pay a recruiter for anything. Essentially that mentality I was

409
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:01,000
Speaker 1: talking about, of put your head down, do the work

410
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:05,199
Speaker 1: and don't complain. It starts here in Mexico, far from

411
00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 1: US farms and away from US government's oversight. And Diego

412
00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:16,240
Speaker 1: and Mario, the best friends from rural Mexico, they saw

413
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 1: this firsthand.

414
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 5: Diego said that back in twenty eighteen, they were in

415
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 5: a hotel in Monterey with the recruiter and about three

416
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:24,880
Speaker 5: hundred other workers.

417
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:29,280
Speaker 3: Uno de los patrone jego a ya Monterrey Esperanos in

418
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:31,879
Speaker 3: a hotel Paraos casi.

419
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:34,119
Speaker 2: They said, nosbro copeno.

420
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:36,760
Speaker 1: S S. S.

421
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:41,879
Speaker 5: Diego calls him the boss. He was Mexican American, about

422
00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:44,919
Speaker 5: thirty years old and had sort of a makeshift office

423
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:47,520
Speaker 5: set up in the hotel. He called all the men

424
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 5: to a meeting and told them not to worry, that

425
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:51,520
Speaker 5: he was going to make sure that they got a

426
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:55,120
Speaker 5: work contract with a US farm. But the recruiter also

427
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:57,359
Speaker 5: said something that was unsettling to.

428
00:25:57,400 --> 00:25:59,720
Speaker 2: Diego, Miss Monosier.

429
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:05,120
Speaker 4: As they prepare to go to their.

430
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:08,880
Speaker 5: Interviews at the US Consulate, the recruiter instructs the group

431
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:11,919
Speaker 5: not to tell US officials that they had given him

432
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 5: any money, to say that.

433
00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:14,920
Speaker 4: They hadn't paid him a fee.

434
00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:16,880
Speaker 10: Que.

435
00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:26,960
Speaker 5: Diego says that's when the real fear kicked in. He

436
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,239
Speaker 5: was nervous, so he did what the recruiter told him.

437
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:33,800
Speaker 2: He lavisa.

438
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,960
Speaker 5: During the interview at the US Consulate, Diego was asked

439
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 5: if it was his first time coming to the US.

440
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,159
Speaker 5: He answered yes. He was then asked if he had

441
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:49,160
Speaker 5: ever crossed the border without authorization. He answered no, both true. Finally,

442
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 5: he was asked if he paid for the H two

443
00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:53,080
Speaker 5: A visa as instructed.

444
00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:54,119
Speaker 4: He answered no.

445
00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 5: Later that day, Diego and Mario got their visa. Says

446
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 5: they felt a huge sense of relief.

447
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:06,760
Speaker 2: Know them those gen.

448
00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:11,160
Speaker 3: Canzilmentar, kipps Algusta Aman.

449
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:13,280
Speaker 4: Everything seemed legit.

450
00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,680
Speaker 5: Diego says he was about to start legally working in

451
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:19,880
Speaker 5: the US as part of a government program. It would

452
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 5: have never occurred to him to even think that things

453
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:26,600
Speaker 5: would be so bad that he and Mario would have

454
00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 5: to escape.

455
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:38,639
Speaker 1: A core issue with the H two A program is

456
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 1: the lack of oversight in general, but especially when it

457
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:45,080
Speaker 1: comes to recruiters. There is no public database of recruiters,

458
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 1: and recruiters don't have to register with any government agency,

459
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:49,399
Speaker 1: not in Mexico and not.

460
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:50,000
Speaker 4: In the US.

461
00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:55,440
Speaker 1: This is how it usually goes. Farmers in the US

462
00:27:55,640 --> 00:28:00,439
Speaker 1: get labor contractors, often Mexican nationals, who hire recruiters in Mexico.

463
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:04,440
Speaker 1: Advocates warned that this process ends up preventing farmers from

464
00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:07,960
Speaker 1: facing direct liability in case of wrongdoing during the recruitment

465
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:10,720
Speaker 1: process in Mexico, because the employers here in the US

466
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,640
Speaker 1: can say, well, I hired a third party to get

467
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:22,480
Speaker 1: me the workers. I didn't do anything wrong. So on

468
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:26,000
Speaker 1: the recruitment side, it all seems very informal. Even though

469
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:29,439
Speaker 1: all US employers are required to sign a statement from

470
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:33,760
Speaker 1: the US Department of Labor acknowledging that recruiter fees are prohibited.

471
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 1: This lack of transparency and accountability leaves workers extremely vulnerable

472
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:44,400
Speaker 1: to abuse. In twenty eighteen, Diego and Madiu's recruitment fees

473
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:47,960
Speaker 1: of twenty five hundred dollars were considered outrageous, but we

474
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:50,960
Speaker 1: discovered that there are recent cases in which workers have

475
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 1: paid up to six thousand dollars in illegal recruitment fees.

476
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,840
Speaker 1: The State Department official in Monterrey's consulate told us that

477
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:01,959
Speaker 1: the illegal recruitment fees they hear about most frequently are

478
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 1: about two thousand dollars, but they can go up to

479
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:07,280
Speaker 1: five and that there are these other extreme cases of

480
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:11,240
Speaker 1: fraud when a recruiter takes money from someone and there's

481
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 1: actually no age to a job for them. The State

482
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 1: Department said they've heard of people losing as much as

483
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:22,200
Speaker 1: eight thousand dollars as part of these elaborate schemes. And

484
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 1: to make matters worse, there's, of course the internet.

485
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 4: SPECIALIFA and RAT.

486
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:35,960
Speaker 1: While I was reporting in Monterey, I came across this

487
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:40,800
Speaker 1: video from a Facebook profile called Cervisius Migratorius USA Migratory

488
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 1: Services USA a page that advertises visa processing services. It

489
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 1: says that they can get people who have been deported

490
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:52,160
Speaker 1: a pardon and a temporary worker visa, which is impossible

491
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: because one of the requirements for people to get h

492
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:56,480
Speaker 1: to a visas is to not have been in the

493
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 1: US illegally. The woman in this video sounds like a

494
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 1: computer generated voice with an accent from Spain.

495
00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 2: Books.

496
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:08,720
Speaker 1: The page advertised visa fairs in different cities across Mexico.

497
00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:11,400
Speaker 1: One of them was in a hotel in the northern

498
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 1: city of Durango. So we called the hotel to ask

499
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 1: ol I want to.

500
00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:19,600
Speaker 4: Start this Estoria mandover in Casalon.

501
00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 1: The man at the front desk who answered the phone

502
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:25,600
Speaker 1: told us, oh, miss, you're like the sixth person that's

503
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,880
Speaker 1: called asking about this, but nothing is booked here. We

504
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 1: don't even have a conference room in this hotel where

505
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:33,960
Speaker 1: this could happen. He also told us that he had

506
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:37,880
Speaker 1: gotten a call from someone inquiring about possibly setting up

507
00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:40,280
Speaker 1: a table in the lobby, but the hotel told them no.

508
00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:44,240
Speaker 1: So naturally we sent someone to check out this quote

509
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 1: unquote visa fair, and it turns out that it was

510
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 1: just two women sitting in the hotel restaurant with a

511
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 1: laptop collecting five hundred pisos about twenty five dollars from

512
00:30:53,240 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 1: the people who had made appointments via Facebook, and today

513
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 1: that Facebook page isn't active, but we found others like it.

514
00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: And Ibipena with the Migrant rights group CDM told us

515
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 1: that since the pandemic, the amount of scams in fraud

516
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: taking place online is worse than she's ever seen. Some

517
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,200
Speaker 1: advocates say that creating a bi national framework for their

518
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:22,600
Speaker 1: recruitment process is necessary, otherwise you end up with scams,

519
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:28,000
Speaker 1: false promises, labor trafficking threats. Meanwhile, Mexico and the US

520
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:32,200
Speaker 1: keep throwing the hot potato around. Mexico says, oh, it's

521
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,200
Speaker 1: a US company doing this in Mexico, so Mexico has

522
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:38,640
Speaker 1: no responsibility, or the US says, well, this is happening

523
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:41,480
Speaker 1: in Mexico, so there's no place for us to investigate.

524
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 1: It's important to note that there are big recruitment agencies

525
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 1: used by farmers and growers that are legitimate businesses. They're

526
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:53,280
Speaker 1: hired by US companies and they don't charge illegal fees

527
00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:55,600
Speaker 1: to the workers because they make their money from the

528
00:31:55,760 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 1: US companies that hire them. It's also worth mention that

529
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:02,600
Speaker 1: I've met with Mexican officials at a couple of state

530
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 1: government agencies who are trying to educate communities about visa

531
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:09,160
Speaker 1: fraud so that they don't fall victims and end up

532
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:12,640
Speaker 1: in debt. But that's simply not enough. As one official

533
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: told me, they're constantly playing catch up. These bad apples

534
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:20,640
Speaker 1: are popping up everywhere, and this is especially troubling because

535
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,160
Speaker 1: the program's rapid growth means that there are more opportunities

536
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: for fragilent companies to scam.

537
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 9: Workers see quent Taos.

538
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:34,320
Speaker 1: Before I left Monterey, I stopped by a small shelter

539
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 1: not far from the main plaza. This was a place

540
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:39,440
Speaker 1: where men who ran out of money could go while

541
00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:44,479
Speaker 1: they waited for their visas. I talked to workers who

542
00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 1: were doing this for the third or fourth time. They

543
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 1: seem to know what they were getting into. Two of

544
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:51,200
Speaker 1: them told me that they made thirteen dollars an hour

545
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 1: in Louisiana and that it was good money even after taxes,

546
00:32:54,680 --> 00:33:01,200
Speaker 1: but leaving their families was extremely painful. Will Then, as

547
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:03,520
Speaker 1: I was walking out, a soft spoken man said he

548
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 1: wanted to be interviewed.

549
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:10,600
Speaker 4: Garcia.

550
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 1: Omar, like the other two men I talked about the shelter,

551
00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:16,680
Speaker 1: had gone to his interview at the US Consulate that morning,

552
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 1: but they denied his visa because he admitted that he

553
00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:27,760
Speaker 1: had previously lived in the US without status is to

554
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 1: be That's something that disqualifies you from this program. And

555
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 1: the recruiter should have known this information, but he still

556
00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:42,440
Speaker 1: told Omar to travel to Monterey. This is yet another

557
00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:46,240
Speaker 1: way that recruiters scam people by setting them up to

558
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:47,800
Speaker 1: fail and taking their money.

559
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:52,760
Speaker 2: It's the from Castigo.

560
00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:53,480
Speaker 5: Okay.

561
00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:57,960
Speaker 1: Then Omar was devastated to be stuck in Monterey, far

562
00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 1: away from home, with the money he had saved, then

563
00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:05,520
Speaker 1: borrowed gone. But what said in him was not that

564
00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:07,800
Speaker 1: he didn't get to go to the US. It was

565
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:11,880
Speaker 1: that there aren't real opportunities here in such a beautiful country,

566
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 1: he says. Coming up on Latino, USA, we continued Diego

567
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:43,960
Speaker 1: and Mario's journey as they arrived in the nightmare that

568
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:44,960
Speaker 1: was North Carolina.

569
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:46,960
Speaker 6: I mean, if I were Diego Mario, I don't know

570
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:48,799
Speaker 6: what I would have done. I think that they had

571
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:51,320
Speaker 6: kind of they were pretty desperate.

572
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:54,640
Speaker 1: That's after the break stay with us.

573
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:41,399
Speaker 4: Hey, we're back.

574
00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:45,319
Speaker 1: I'm Fernande Chavarri in for Mari, Nojosa and Tina. I'd

575
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 1: like for you to take us back to Diego and

576
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:47,760
Speaker 1: Mario story.

577
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,680
Speaker 5: It's twenty eighteen and Diego and Mario are headed to

578
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 5: their first official jobs as h two A workers. Getting

579
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:57,880
Speaker 5: there takes almost two days, and they're traveling on a

580
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:02,040
Speaker 5: cramped bus that takes them from to North Carolina. All

581
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:04,320
Speaker 5: they know at this point is that they've been promised

582
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 5: well paying jobs and room and board, But soon after

583
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:12,759
Speaker 5: they arrive, things start to fall apart. Before their new

584
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:15,439
Speaker 5: employer takes them and other workers to the labor camp,

585
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,799
Speaker 5: there's this sort of unexpected off site meeting.

586
00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:21,840
Speaker 7: In No.

587
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 2: Si Ali and uh kias caparse kera imposile.

588
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:34,400
Speaker 5: The bosses very clearly threatened Diego, Mario and the hundreds

589
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:38,080
Speaker 5: of other workers there. If you dare leave this job,

590
00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:41,200
Speaker 5: we will inform immigration authorities and they will come to

591
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:42,680
Speaker 5: get you wherever you are.

592
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:49,440
Speaker 3: Thenmos marel talondo the substam rambozostamos.

593
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:52,600
Speaker 5: Right then and there, workers were required to sign a

594
00:36:52,719 --> 00:36:56,719
Speaker 5: document falsely confirming that the employer reimbursed them the money

595
00:36:56,760 --> 00:36:59,920
Speaker 5: they spent for their visa and travel expenses from Monterrey

596
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:05,960
Speaker 5: to North Carolina. This is illegal, of course, the H

597
00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:09,720
Speaker 5: two A program's rules are very clear. The employer pays

598
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:14,200
Speaker 5: for all costs, including travel, visas and housing in the US.

599
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 5: Later that day, when Diego and Mario arrived at the

600
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:21,480
Speaker 5: labor camp, things got even worse.

601
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:32,240
Speaker 2: They said, well, come see nice to Nakasa. Nice in Nagasa.

602
00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:34,840
Speaker 5: Diego still remembers the house they were going to live in,

603
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:40,200
Speaker 5: abandoned and filthy with dirty mattresses. His first impulse was

604
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:41,400
Speaker 5: to take pictures with his.

605
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:42,239
Speaker 4: Cell phone.

606
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:45,160
Speaker 2: Personas and.

607
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:50,200
Speaker 5: The house was already occupied by forty other workers. When

608
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 5: Diego and Mario arrived. There was no hot water, the

609
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,440
Speaker 5: bathrooms didn't have any doors, and there was a bucket

610
00:37:56,520 --> 00:38:00,359
Speaker 5: in the shower. The fridge was the only working aplacellance

611
00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:06,279
Speaker 5: in the house, just one fridge for forty men. If

612
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:09,000
Speaker 5: the awful labor camp wasn't enough for Diego and Mario,

613
00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:12,800
Speaker 5: there was also the issue of food. Someone from the

614
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 5: farm took the workers to the grocery store, but it

615
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:20,239
Speaker 5: only happened twice in eight days. Diego and Mario bought

616
00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 5: ingredients to make ham and cheese, sandwiches. But after that

617
00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:27,040
Speaker 5: they were basically out of money that they borrowed in Mexico.

618
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:32,200
Speaker 4: And Mexico, and they weren't alone.

619
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:35,200
Speaker 5: Some workers at the camp pulled their money together to

620
00:38:35,239 --> 00:38:39,560
Speaker 5: buy food they were starving. Others walked the main road

621
00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:43,120
Speaker 5: near the camp, stopping cars and offering to work in

622
00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:52,120
Speaker 5: exchange for food. And there was even this one time

623
00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 5: when food vendors arrived in the labor camp with freshly

624
00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:59,120
Speaker 5: made towards us. Diego and Mario thought they were finally

625
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,520
Speaker 5: going to eat a warm meal, but the food was

626
00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:05,840
Speaker 5: for sale and they had no money, And then they

627
00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:07,840
Speaker 5: realized that there was not a lot of work to do.

628
00:39:11,239 --> 00:39:14,239
Speaker 5: The whole point of being in North Carolina was to work.

629
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:17,320
Speaker 5: But Diego and Mario heard from men who arrived before

630
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:19,440
Speaker 5: them that they hadn't even worked.

631
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:20,040
Speaker 4: In two weeks.

632
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:25,880
Speaker 2: Dijonas Manos, manas Ajos, p.

633
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:34,000
Speaker 5: Ian and Masi, the recruiter in Mexico, had assured Diego

634
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:36,600
Speaker 5: and Mario that they would receive an hourly wage.

635
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:38,399
Speaker 4: This was another lie.

636
00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:41,719
Speaker 5: Once at the farm in North Carolina, they were told

637
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:44,480
Speaker 5: they'd be paid by the volume of blueberries they picked.

638
00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:51,200
Speaker 5: A full bucket of fruit was worth two dollars and

639
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:54,800
Speaker 5: fifty cents illegal, but who's counting.

640
00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:58,280
Speaker 4: Adding to all of this chaos.

641
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:01,040
Speaker 5: The blueberries they were there to pick weren't even ready

642
00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:04,439
Speaker 5: to be harvested, so it was impossible to make money.

643
00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:05,400
Speaker 1: Ye go on.

644
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:11,000
Speaker 5: After a long day of work that started at five am,

645
00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:15,480
Speaker 5: Diego earned ten dollars. In four days, he made around

646
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:18,440
Speaker 5: forty five dollars less than what he made at the

647
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:19,080
Speaker 5: bakery at.

648
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 4: Home if there was time.

649
00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:26,239
Speaker 5: The workers spent standing around waiting for work that was

650
00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:28,680
Speaker 5: supposed to be compensable time. They were supposed to get

651
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:33,160
Speaker 5: paid for that, but that didn't happen. And remember, Diego

652
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:38,720
Speaker 5: and Mario went into debt for this job. When Mario

653
00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:41,319
Speaker 5: told his wife about all of this, she said there

654
00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:42,239
Speaker 5: wasn't much that they.

655
00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:46,800
Speaker 3: Could Doosa loke sam obibian.

656
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:50,120
Speaker 5: She basically resigned herself to the idea that Mario had

657
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:52,359
Speaker 5: to endure all of this because they were poor.

658
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:54,680
Speaker 2: Book is almost Both Diego and.

659
00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:58,280
Speaker 5: Mario were furious, and they were also starting to get desperate,

660
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:01,080
Speaker 5: so they called the recruit were back in Mexico to

661
00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:04,040
Speaker 5: ask what was going on. The recruiter explained that they

662
00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:06,920
Speaker 5: were promised hourly wages because that was the only way

663
00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:12,759
Speaker 5: the US Consulate would approve their visas. Reality was really

664
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 5: starting to set in. Now they had thousands of dollars

665
00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 5: to pay back, and it was clear that they weren't

666
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:20,360
Speaker 5: going to make the wages they were promised.

667
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:23,160
Speaker 4: They started to regret everything.

668
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:26,360
Speaker 2: Do you guys say, come on?

669
00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:34,840
Speaker 5: Diego says that even though they never had much in Mexico,

670
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:39,080
Speaker 5: this this was the first time they were going hungry.

671
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:48,719
Speaker 2: And i'll, i'll.

672
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:53,120
Speaker 4: They felt like prisoners and.

673
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 5: If they didn't do what they were told to do,

674
00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:58,839
Speaker 5: the bosses threatened to take away their passports to keep

675
00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:01,680
Speaker 5: them from running away like other workers in other camps.

676
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 9: Lo this is most Dama.

677
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:22,000
Speaker 5: Five years later, it's still hard for Diego and Mario

678
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:25,960
Speaker 5: to bring up these memories. How could this have happened

679
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:28,840
Speaker 5: to them under a US government program?

680
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:33,520
Speaker 6: Okay, so we got gash, I gave you the receipt right.

681
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:33,960
Speaker 2: Yes.

682
00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:40,040
Speaker 5: It's October fifth, twenty twenty two, and I'm an Aaron

683
00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:44,000
Speaker 5: Jacobson's car about to leave Raleigh. Aaron Jacobson is a

684
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:47,520
Speaker 5: supervising attorney for Legal Aid of North Carolina's farm Worker Unit,

685
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:50,160
Speaker 5: and he's also one of Diego and Mario's lawyers.

686
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:54,160
Speaker 6: There's there's some camps down like in far southeast.

687
00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:55,799
Speaker 5: That are like, probably he's driving us to get as

688
00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:58,320
Speaker 5: close as we can to the labor camp where Diego

689
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:02,400
Speaker 5: and Mario escaped. Aaron doesn't really fit the stereotype of

690
00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:05,320
Speaker 5: what an attorney looks like. He has a long beard

691
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:08,320
Speaker 5: and long gray hair that he ties back. He was

692
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:12,239
Speaker 5: a farm worker organizer before becoming a lawyer. Aaron was

693
00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 5: instrumental in Diego on Mario's escape. He still remembers the

694
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:17,960
Speaker 5: day he first learned what was going on at the

695
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:19,840
Speaker 5: labor camp. In May of twenty eighteen.

696
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:21,359
Speaker 6: We can get a call for a worker. We got

697
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:23,920
Speaker 6: a call from a sister organization that said you need

698
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:26,359
Speaker 6: to get out of his labor camp, like and soon.

699
00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:29,040
Speaker 6: The report we got from them was that there were

700
00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 6: farm workers walking the streets begging to work for food.

701
00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:34,680
Speaker 6: And we were like, like, what.

702
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 5: Those were Diego and Mario's co workers who had begged

703
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:41,600
Speaker 5: for food. So Aaron and his team drove out there.

704
00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:45,520
Speaker 5: Employers don't allow farm worker advocates like him to talk

705
00:43:45,560 --> 00:43:48,160
Speaker 5: to workers in the fields, so he goes to their

706
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:49,600
Speaker 5: housing and so.

707
00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:53,319
Speaker 6: A lot of times we'll learn about abuses, but very often,

708
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:57,400
Speaker 6: workers still will not want to take any action because

709
00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:01,320
Speaker 6: I think they're just doing like a call benefit analysis

710
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:03,360
Speaker 6: in their heads, and like, you know, I could report this,

711
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:08,839
Speaker 6: but then I could get fired. I get fired. That's

712
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:09,960
Speaker 6: going to be a hardship.

713
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:14,320
Speaker 5: And this is where the power imbalance between employer and

714
00:44:14,440 --> 00:44:18,040
Speaker 5: worker gets even worse. If you get fired and don't

715
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:22,879
Speaker 5: leave the country immediately, you would become undocumented. So what's

716
00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:26,160
Speaker 5: to stop an employer from retaliating against you by calling ice.

717
00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:30,040
Speaker 5: Aaron is used to farm workers not wanting to speak up,

718
00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:33,799
Speaker 5: and that's how it was at the blueberry farm. As

719
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:36,359
Speaker 5: he told the workers how the program was supposed to work,

720
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:41,400
Speaker 5: no response. Mario remembers, no one wanted to say anything.

721
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:50,560
Speaker 6: So then Mario's got up in the middle of the room.

722
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:52,960
Speaker 6: He said, I'm probably getting in trouble for saying this,

723
00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:56,319
Speaker 6: but that's not what's going on here, and that's kind

724
00:44:56,360 --> 00:45:01,320
Speaker 6: of like almost unheard of, and so I remember, I

725
00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:03,000
Speaker 6: leave it. I bet we're going to get a call

726
00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:03,399
Speaker 6: from him.

727
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:07,280
Speaker 5: Diego and Mario scheduled an in person meeting with Aaron,

728
00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:09,759
Speaker 5: but it was going to be difficult to pull off

729
00:45:09,880 --> 00:45:13,400
Speaker 5: because they were always being watched. So They said they

730
00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:15,400
Speaker 5: were going to go out and buy some food, and

731
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:17,960
Speaker 5: that's when they met up with Aaron. They were still

732
00:45:18,120 --> 00:45:21,480
Speaker 5: a little unsure about him, could they really trust him.

733
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:24,480
Speaker 5: It was only when they were sitting with Aaron in

734
00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:27,080
Speaker 5: a truck stop by the side of the road that

735
00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:32,000
Speaker 5: Diego and Mario began to fully understand this massive illegal

736
00:45:32,200 --> 00:45:38,720
Speaker 5: scheme they'd been funneled into. In reality, Mario and Diego

737
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:42,719
Speaker 5: had been trafficked. They were brought to the US through deception.

738
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:46,080
Speaker 5: The fees were illegal, They were lied to about their contracts.

739
00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:48,960
Speaker 5: They were forced to as sign documents that falsely stated

740
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:53,240
Speaker 5: the employer had reimbursed them for fees, hotel, transportation, and food.

741
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:56,880
Speaker 5: The conditions they were housed in were legal. Being paid

742
00:45:56,920 --> 00:45:59,920
Speaker 5: a severely low wage by the buck instead of hourly

743
00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:05,160
Speaker 5: also illegal. Aaron explained that they had a strong case

744
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:08,040
Speaker 5: and that they could sue their employer for labor trafficking,

745
00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:10,720
Speaker 5: but first they had to escape.

746
00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:14,440
Speaker 6: I said, look, right now, she might be eligible for

747
00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:18,040
Speaker 6: immigration remedy based on the labor trafficking you've survived. However,

748
00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:20,400
Speaker 6: if you want to pursue that remedy, you have to

749
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:24,279
Speaker 6: stay in the country, So it takes you know more

750
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:24,680
Speaker 6: than a year.

751
00:46:25,080 --> 00:46:27,840
Speaker 5: That's the real crux of the problem with this program.

752
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:32,839
Speaker 5: Even though they were fling starvation, labor trafficking and everything else,

753
00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:36,080
Speaker 5: it was Mario and Diego who had the most to lose,

754
00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:42,000
Speaker 5: not the employer, not the recruiter, the victims. They could

755
00:46:42,040 --> 00:46:45,080
Speaker 5: apply for a visa for victims of trafficking, but they'd

756
00:46:45,160 --> 00:46:47,640
Speaker 5: have to wait in the US without any legal status.

757
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:51,399
Speaker 5: So forget about working and providing for their families back home,

758
00:46:52,280 --> 00:46:56,760
Speaker 5: forget about meeting your newborn. Despite the risks and the heartbreak,

759
00:46:57,600 --> 00:46:58,680
Speaker 5: they decided to do it.

760
00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:10,400
Speaker 6: I mean, if I were Diego Mario, I don't know

761
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:12,319
Speaker 6: what I would have done. I think that they had

762
00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:14,840
Speaker 6: kind of they were pretty desperate.

763
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:19,440
Speaker 5: Aaron knew that if Diego and Mario stayed around for

764
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:23,160
Speaker 5: another day and waited until payday, that they could prove

765
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:26,800
Speaker 5: wage theft on top of everything else that happened, and

766
00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:28,239
Speaker 5: that they'd have a stronger case.

767
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:31,480
Speaker 4: So the evening after payday.

768
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:34,920
Speaker 6: Diego was like, what's happened to me? Like at eleven

769
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:38,800
Speaker 6: pm Saturday night. He was kind of like the evidence

770
00:47:38,880 --> 00:47:41,480
Speaker 6: collector of the group, So he had got everyone's pay

771
00:47:41,520 --> 00:47:45,040
Speaker 6: stubs and took photos.

772
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:49,759
Speaker 5: That night Diego and Mario walked down the dirt path

773
00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:52,719
Speaker 5: out to the main road. An advocate who worked with

774
00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:57,200
Speaker 5: Aaron picked them up. They'd only been in the US

775
00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:11,359
Speaker 5: for eight days and their lives were totally derailed. Being

776
00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:14,600
Speaker 5: there now, all these years later, I tried to imagine

777
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:18,280
Speaker 5: what it was like for them. I feel like anxiety

778
00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:20,360
Speaker 5: in my chest, Like I'm really worried that somebody is

779
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:22,080
Speaker 5: going to come out of one of these trailers and be.

780
00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:24,200
Speaker 4: Like, what are you doing kind of thing.

781
00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:27,000
Speaker 5: I mean, this is the South, after all, a lot

782
00:48:27,040 --> 00:48:30,080
Speaker 5: of people have guns and they don't really take kindly

783
00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:32,200
Speaker 5: to strangers trespassing on their property.

784
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:34,279
Speaker 4: After two weeks at.

785
00:48:34,239 --> 00:48:37,839
Speaker 5: The Blueberry farm, Mario and Diego escaped the labor camp

786
00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:41,439
Speaker 5: around midnight in May of twenty eighteen, and they didn't

787
00:48:41,440 --> 00:48:43,560
Speaker 5: even know the name of the North Carolina town that

788
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:47,600
Speaker 5: they were in. We're getting close to the labor camp

789
00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:49,319
Speaker 5: where Diego and Mario were kept.

790
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:51,400
Speaker 6: I think this is okay.

791
00:48:52,239 --> 00:48:54,160
Speaker 1: This is busier than I thought.

792
00:48:54,280 --> 00:48:56,360
Speaker 5: Like there's stuff closer than I thought there would be.

793
00:48:57,560 --> 00:49:01,239
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of little houses. Yeah, I

794
00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:03,440
Speaker 6: guess there's no like stores really nearby.

795
00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:06,360
Speaker 4: This is the road that workers were walking on asking

796
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:06,839
Speaker 4: for food.

797
00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:07,960
Speaker 6: I think that's great.

798
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:11,560
Speaker 4: Damn. The main road is very busy.

799
00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 5: Cars whiz by constantly, and right around where we stop

800
00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:17,880
Speaker 5: we can see a church and an elementary school in

801
00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:20,800
Speaker 5: the distance. But Diego and Mario were housed in a

802
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:25,879
Speaker 5: remote area off this main road. Standing there, I knew

803
00:49:25,920 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 5: that I would never think of labor trafficking the same Again,

804
00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:33,920
Speaker 5: this was all happening right in our backyards. Aaron advised

805
00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:36,080
Speaker 5: us not to get much closer to the labor camp.

806
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:39,920
Speaker 5: We couldn't even access it by car, so we decided

807
00:49:39,960 --> 00:49:40,279
Speaker 5: to leave.

808
00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:49,360
Speaker 1: Diego and Mario are just two of the thousands of

809
00:49:49,400 --> 00:49:51,880
Speaker 1: workers who fall victim to abuse and fraud in the

810
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:55,520
Speaker 1: H twoa program every year. Remember just last year, more

811
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:59,160
Speaker 1: than a quarter million workers came here this way, expected

812
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:01,640
Speaker 1: to put their heads down, do the work, and not.

813
00:50:01,719 --> 00:50:07,400
Speaker 3: Complain the Formacon Coles Public.

814
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:11,359
Speaker 1: Dico says there's a need for government officials in both

815
00:50:11,400 --> 00:50:15,319
Speaker 1: countries to use social media, the radio, TV, any means

816
00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:19,160
Speaker 1: necessary to educate folks about their rights. If they did that,

817
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:23,040
Speaker 1: he says, maybe there'd be less abuse. While there are

818
00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:26,400
Speaker 1: government officials who oversee the program, and there are avenues

819
00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:29,680
Speaker 1: to report abuses. It is far from enough, and we're

820
00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:31,480
Speaker 1: going to get to all of that in the next episode.

821
00:50:32,640 --> 00:50:37,600
Speaker 6: There's a pretty glaring disparity between the program on paper

822
00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:39,040
Speaker 6: and what happens in practice.

823
00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:43,080
Speaker 5: Aaron says recently he's gotten more calls about stories like

824
00:50:43,160 --> 00:50:44,160
Speaker 5: Diego and Mario's.

825
00:50:44,520 --> 00:50:47,160
Speaker 6: It's kind of alarming. We're hearing more accounts that are

826
00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:52,759
Speaker 6: very similar to that, involving password confiscation, threats of deportation.

827
00:50:52,800 --> 00:50:55,360
Speaker 5: Threats like the ones Diego and Mario received from the

828
00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:57,640
Speaker 5: recruiter even after they escaped.

829
00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:03,920
Speaker 3: Then Darle mazin Neto in tempos Perian been tissing Camil

830
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:06,800
Speaker 3: Pesos mass but Nilo.

831
00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:13,120
Speaker 5: They were threatened twice. First, right after they escaped, the

832
00:51:13,239 --> 00:51:16,360
Speaker 5: recruiter demanded that they pay thirteen hundred dollars as a

833
00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:22,000
Speaker 5: quote penalty fee. Diego and Mario refused, and then months

834
00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:25,880
Speaker 5: later the recruiter popped back up again, this time threatening

835
00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:28,960
Speaker 5: to hurt Mario's wife. In part, that's why we're not

836
00:51:29,120 --> 00:51:32,440
Speaker 5: revealing more details about their identities and why we're not

837
00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:36,040
Speaker 5: saying the name of the recruiter. It's been almost five

838
00:51:36,120 --> 00:51:40,160
Speaker 5: years since Mario and Diego escaped from North Carolina, Mario

839
00:51:40,239 --> 00:51:42,960
Speaker 5: says he'd rather not think about it. It's best to

840
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:45,120
Speaker 5: put the bad memories of what happened behind.

841
00:51:44,920 --> 00:51:57,680
Speaker 3: Himlo Algo Tristeno, Algo Triste is Sally Mosasi Coriendo is Capando.

842
00:51:58,480 --> 00:52:01,600
Speaker 5: Diego and Mario, with help from Aaron, brought a lawsuit

843
00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:04,840
Speaker 5: against their former employers and the recruiter, which was settled

844
00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:08,000
Speaker 5: last year. As a result, they each got paid a

845
00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:11,399
Speaker 5: little over ten thousand dollars. Of course, they used part

846
00:52:11,400 --> 00:52:14,279
Speaker 5: of this money to pay back their loans. They're still

847
00:52:14,320 --> 00:52:17,680
Speaker 5: in the US and they still work together now it's

848
00:52:17,719 --> 00:52:18,480
Speaker 5: at a restaurant.

849
00:52:19,680 --> 00:52:22,879
Speaker 1: All the evidence Diego collected helped the workers win their case.

850
00:52:23,560 --> 00:52:25,680
Speaker 1: He says he knew that those pictures would come in

851
00:52:25,800 --> 00:52:29,680
Speaker 1: handy in Diego and Marius case. Both the recruiter and

852
00:52:29,840 --> 00:52:33,640
Speaker 1: the employer were included in the lawsuit. In twenty twenty one,

853
00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:36,600
Speaker 1: the h to a labor contractor was debarred for two

854
00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:40,040
Speaker 1: years from participating in the program, but Aaron says that

855
00:52:40,200 --> 00:52:43,399
Speaker 1: the contractor was active in the program during that time

856
00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:46,880
Speaker 1: and in our reporting we found another lawsuit against the

857
00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:50,719
Speaker 1: same labor contractor, and it was filed a month before

858
00:52:50,760 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 1: Diego and Marius.

859
00:52:53,960 --> 00:53:11,280
Speaker 3: Allah heloila. Thank cousin. M Le Miko, let Miko.

860
00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:13,840
Speaker 1: It's a hot and humid afternoon in the summer of

861
00:53:13,920 --> 00:53:17,560
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Diego sitting on a park bench surrounded

862
00:53:17,600 --> 00:53:20,320
Speaker 1: by luscious trees. He's on a video call with his

863
00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:32,399
Speaker 1: wife and young child, No No Sali. No, Diego's son

864
00:53:32,560 --> 00:53:36,040
Speaker 1: was born in late twenty eighteen, about six months after

865
00:53:36,120 --> 00:53:37,520
Speaker 1: he escaped from the labor camp.

866
00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:40,200
Speaker 4: They've never met.

867
00:53:41,080 --> 00:53:42,640
Speaker 1: They've had to bond over the phone.

868
00:53:43,160 --> 00:53:52,400
Speaker 3: Mayako the ghetto, Bye, Mayaka, Mucho mu Mucho.

869
00:53:53,719 --> 00:53:54,640
Speaker 11: My my.

870
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:03,800
Speaker 1: Diego and Mario have been granted special immigrant visas for

871
00:54:03,960 --> 00:54:07,279
Speaker 1: victims of trafficking. That means that they should now be

872
00:54:07,360 --> 00:54:12,080
Speaker 1: able to legally bring their families to the US. Diego

873
00:54:12,320 --> 00:54:14,240
Speaker 1: can finally meet his little.

874
00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:17,319
Speaker 4: Boy, hug him for the first time.

875
00:54:29,640 --> 00:54:33,080
Speaker 1: Coming up on episode two of head Down, we bring

876
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:35,880
Speaker 1: you the results of our investigation into how millions of

877
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:39,000
Speaker 1: dollars in stolen wages owed to farm workers end up

878
00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:41,320
Speaker 1: in the hands of a US federal agency.

879
00:54:41,640 --> 00:54:43,000
Speaker 5: When starts.

880
00:54:48,719 --> 00:54:51,360
Speaker 1: An announcement that the US promises to pay back that

881
00:54:51,480 --> 00:54:55,680
Speaker 1: money with the help from Mexican authorities, they.

882
00:54:55,640 --> 00:55:01,440
Speaker 5: Come up Rotejimos alos Achos travadors.

883
00:55:00,960 --> 00:55:03,600
Speaker 1: A big promise, especially in a program known for its

884
00:55:03,640 --> 00:55:10,160
Speaker 1: inefficiency and wage theft. You'll also meet two brothers who

885
00:55:10,280 --> 00:55:16,680
Speaker 1: protested in Washington State after a fellow H two A

886
00:55:16,800 --> 00:55:20,680
Speaker 1: farm worker died. We'll look back at the racist history

887
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:22,480
Speaker 1: behind temporary foreign.

888
00:55:22,239 --> 00:55:26,120
Speaker 12: Labor, Why bring in foreigners to work on our farms

889
00:55:26,280 --> 00:55:27,000
Speaker 12: makes no sense?

890
00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:31,560
Speaker 1: And ask how can the H two A program be fixed?

891
00:55:51,000 --> 00:55:54,080
Speaker 1: Head Down is an original production by Fututo Investigates in

892
00:55:54,160 --> 00:55:58,279
Speaker 1: collaboration with Latino USA and Prism. I'm Fernande Chavarri in

893
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:01,279
Speaker 1: for our host and executive producer Marin j Josa. This

894
00:56:01,400 --> 00:56:05,120
Speaker 1: episode was reported and produced by Patricia Suvaran, Tina Basquez,

895
00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:08,520
Speaker 1: and Me, with assistance from Rosanna Aguire. It was edited

896
00:56:08,560 --> 00:56:12,040
Speaker 1: by Andrea Lopez Cruzado and Ni Penilee Ramirez is the

897
00:56:12,120 --> 00:56:16,960
Speaker 1: executive producer of Futuro Investigates. Music and scoring by Jacob Rossadi,

898
00:56:17,360 --> 00:56:20,520
Speaker 1: fact checking by Amy Tardiff. This episode was mixed by

899
00:56:20,600 --> 00:56:23,959
Speaker 1: Julia Caruso and gabriel A Bias. Nancy Rujillo and Raoul

900
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:28,120
Speaker 1: Perez are Futuro Investigates project managers. Reporting was made possible

901
00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:31,440
Speaker 1: with support from the w K. Kellogg Foundation, the McGraw

902
00:56:31,520 --> 00:56:35,000
Speaker 1: Center for Business Journalism, the Craig Newmark Graduate School of

903
00:56:35,080 --> 00:56:38,480
Speaker 1: Journalism at the City University of New York, the TAO Foundation,

904
00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:42,120
Speaker 1: and Michelle Mercer and Bruce Golden. Early support for this

905
00:56:42,280 --> 00:56:45,839
Speaker 1: reporting came from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Special thanks

906
00:56:45,880 --> 00:56:50,960
Speaker 1: to Avram Basquez, Sophia Sanchez, Elizabeth Lowenthal, Torres, Nina Alvarez,

907
00:56:51,360 --> 00:56:53,759
Speaker 1: Diane Silvester, and the farm workers.

908
00:56:53,480 --> 00:56:54,759
Speaker 4: Who shared their stories with us.

909
00:56:55,160 --> 00:56:59,080
Speaker 1: The Ratino USA team also includes Deacy Contreras, Mike Sargent,

910
00:56:59,200 --> 00:57:03,520
Speaker 1: Marta Martinez, Victoria Strada, and Renaldo Lanos Junior. Our editorial

911
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:07,800
Speaker 1: director is Fernande Santos. Our engineering team also includes Stephanie

912
00:57:07,880 --> 00:57:11,520
Speaker 1: Leveau and JJ Carubin. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna.

913
00:57:11,719 --> 00:57:15,080
Speaker 1: Our theme music was composed by Senia Rubinos. For more,

914
00:57:15,280 --> 00:57:18,720
Speaker 1: visit Futuro Investigates dot org and Prison Reports dot org.

915
00:57:19,160 --> 00:57:21,240
Speaker 1: Join us again next time, and in the meantime, you

916
00:57:21,320 --> 00:57:22,680
Speaker 1: can find us on social media.

917
00:57:23,000 --> 00:57:31,920
Speaker 4: Shao Latino USA is made possible in part by W. K.

918
00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:37,200
Speaker 4: Kellogg Foundation, a partner with Communities where Children Come First,

919
00:57:37,640 --> 00:57:41,160
Speaker 4: the TAU Foundation, and Michelle Mercer and Bruce Golden.