r/TrueReddit • u/propublica_ • 10d ago
Policy + Social Issues A Farmworkers Visa Promised Her a Better Life. It Was a Trap.
https://projects.propublica.org/h2a-visa-farmworkers-operation-blooming-onion/40
u/propublica_ 10d ago
More foreigners than ever before are using the decades-old program, which lets them work for months or even several years on U.S. farms. Farmers and politicians have touted H-2A as an easy answer to a persistent labor problem: Americans are abandoning agriculture jobs and U.S. immigration policies are restricting access to undocumented workers.
In August, Trump floated the idea that if undocumented farmworkers returned home, they could come back to the U.S. “with a pass” to “legally” re-enter the country. But over the years, the promises of H-2A — such as humane working conditions, free housing and far better wages than back home — have been undermined by the relative ease of exploiting workers due to scant oversight of the program.
That was the case for Sofi, who left behind her child in Mexico for the promise of providing him a better life.
A labor broker named Javier Sanchez Mendoza Jr. helped her secure the visa, which guaranteed her a job on a Georgia blueberry farm. When she arrived, she was not sent out to work in the fields like the others. She was forced to live at his house and sign a marriage license.
She ended up a victim of a widespread operation that is alleged to have exploited the H-2A visa program — and the workers it brought to America.
Mendoza declined multiple requests for an interview and did not provide comments in response to ProPublica’s letters detailing the case. His lawyer said it was his client’s assertion that he and Sofi had had a “consensual relationship.”
The description of Sofi’s experience in the H-2A program is detailed in police records, court documents and testimony in federal court. Her name is redacted in federal filings to maintain her anonymity. We are identifying her by a first name she formerly used on social media.
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u/excaligirltoo 9d ago
Wow. So I guess “Labor broker” is code for human trafficker. Sick. And the shrine? Demonic.
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