Abstract
This chapter explores the history of the exploitation of farm workers in the U.S., beginning with the infamous bracero program and continuing through the more recently enacted H-2 guest worker programs. It recounts the many cases of abuse of human rights associated with these programs and describes the institutionalized slavery that they reflect. Although partial solutions have been adopted, this chapter proposes more systemic and effective reforms that could be accomplished through a bilateral agreement with Mexico as well as by legislation that would bring the U.S. more closely in line with a policy of compassionate migration for farm workers.
I would like to thank Professor Keith Cunningham-Parmeter and the faculty of the Loyola University School of Law for their comments on an earlier draft, which was presented at the LatCrit Critical Constitutionalism Conference. I would also like to recognize with appreciation Benjamin Eckstein, Edgar Diaz, and Samrach Sar, students at Willamette University College of Law, for their assistance.
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Notes
- 1.
A class action lawsuit filed in 2001, but later dismissed, revealed the mismanagement of these funds withheld from the braceros’ paychecks but not returned to the workers, as promised, upon their return to Mexico.
- 2.
“Upon arrival, [workers] are presented with cramped quarters with little or no privacy; moldy, worn-out mattresses; water not fit for drinking; filthy portable toilets or fully exposed and communal toilets; exposure to live electrical wires; and nonfunctional smoke detectors, refrigerators, and stoves.”
- 3.
Mexican farm workers face high rates of toxic chemical injuries, heat stress, dermatitis, influenza, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, pesticide-related illness, and tuberculosis. Migrant farm worker children, in particular, face high rates of parasitic infections, malnutrition, and poor dental health. Few farm workers access health insurance to cover the costs of health care (Guerra 2004, pp. 187–88).
- 4.
“Contrary to popular belief, very few farmworkers use, or are even eligible for, public social services such as Medicare, food stamps, or the Women, Infants, and Children Supplemental Nutrition Program.”
- 5.
They noted that a 2010 study of 150 California women farm workers found 80 percent experienced some form of sexual harassment.
- 6.
“The U.S. Department of Labor, which certifies employers for the H2-A program, has never taken action to end the practice.”
- 7.
See U.S. v. Booker, 655 F.2d 562, 563–64 (4th Cir. 1981).
- 8.
The trafficking laws have been largely codified in three main sections of the U.S. Code: Title 18, Chapter 77 (definitions and penalties for trafficking crimes); Title 22, Chapter 78 (monitoring, investigating, preventing, and combating trafficking into and within the United States); and Title 46, Chapter 136, Part O (trafficking prevention in the United States).
- 9.
22 U.S.C. § 7102.
- 10.
18 U.S.C. § 1589(a) (1)–(4).
- 11.
Ramos-Madrigal v. Mendiola Forestry Serv., LLC, 799 F. Supp. 2d 958 (W.D. Ark. 2011).
- 12.
Nuñag-Tanedo v. E. Baton Rouge Par. Sch. Bd., 790 F. Supp. 2d 1134, 1137 (C.D. Cal. 2011).
- 13.
Camayo v. John Peroulis & Sons Sheep, Inc., 2013 WL 3927677 (D. Colo. July 30, 2013).
- 14.
H.R. 3244, 106th Cong., §107 (e) (1) (C), adding provision (T) to 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a) (15).
- 15.
H.R. 3244, 106th Cong., § 103(8) (2000).
- 16.
One proposal has suggested that “[t]he visas would be distributed by a binational agency managed by the U.S. and Mexican governments, to which aspiring migrants would apply directly, thus getting employers and middlemen out of the self-serving business of labor recruitment and limiting the possibilities for corruption” (Massey et al. 2002, p. 159).
- 17.
See the Fraudulent Overseas Recruitment and Trafficking Elimination Act of 2014, H.R. 4586, 113th Cong. (2014); Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, H.R. 15, 113th Cong. (2013); H-2B Program Reform Act of 2009, H.R. 4381, 111th Cong. (2009).
- 18.
Protect Our Workers from Exploitation and Retaliation Act, S. 3207, 111th Cong. (2010).
- 19.
See H.R. 15, 113th Cong. (2013).
- 20.
Section 210A of the INA, 8 U.S.C. § 1160.
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Carrasco, G.P. (2017). Short-Hoeing the Long Row of Bondage: From Braceros to Compassionate Farm Worker Migration. In: Bender, S., Arrocha, W. (eds) Compassionate Migration and Regional Policy in the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55074-3_6
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