Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Document Notes
Just one set of examples that show billionaires taking advantage of the poorest people, all through a legal but destructive government visa program.
Highlights
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The H-2A visa program, established in 1986, allows US farm owners to sponsor temporary visas for foreign workers to do seasonal work.
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the H-2A program exposes farm workers to serious and systemic exploitation that enables farm labor contractors to ensnare workers in debt bondage and forced labor through illegal recruitment fees and fraudulent promises about wages and working conditions
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Industry lobbyists defend the H-2A program as an affordability issue, claiming family farms need the tools to address labor supply shortages
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“It’s very enraging to hear that the tracts of land where these folks are employed are owned by these billionaires, because the narrative around H-2A is that it’s justified because it supports struggling farms,” said Fabiola Ortiz Valdez, lead organizer with the Food Chain Workers Alliance, a federation of labor unions and other worker-led food industry organizations.
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Knoepp at the Southern Poverty Law Center likened the H-2A program to a wage-fixing scheme that the rich can use to avoid relying on market forces to tackle their staffing challenges. “Rather than competing for labor, you go to the government and ask for an artificial supply,” said Knoepp. “Why do they support a program that restricts workers’ freedom to move around and work?” he asked rhetorically, noting that some of the billionaires flagged by the Lever “are big time libertarians.”