Today, International Migrants’ Day, marks exactly 1,000 days since migrant worker women alongside CDM and dozens of other organizations submitted a complaint under the US Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) against the United States for sex-discrimination in guestworker programs.
On this meaningful day, we celebrate the strength of these migrant worker women and the positive ripple effects created by their courageous complaint. By the US government’s own recognition, the women behind the USMCA complaint are to thank for many recent wins for migrant workers: a program to return owed wages to H-2A workers and an MOU between the Mexican and US governments that specifically references migrant women’s concerns, to name a few.
I am in awe of migrant worker women and everything they’ve achieved. And we are especially proud to have supported them, alongside you and many other organizations and academics, in their fight for justice. I am absolutely certain that this is the way forward to a just labor migration system: all of us working together with migrant workers leading the way.
Advancing migrant justice is a collective effort. As Daria Hernandez, a Migrant Defense Committee leader, implored government officials at the launch of Labor Rights Week, “every one of you has in your hands the power to do something to better the lives of migrant workers like me. We are hoping that you choose to do so.”
Thank you for being a part of this fight for a world where migrant worker rights are respected and laws and policies reflect their voices and experiences.
We just closed the third “The Future of [Guest]Work” summit in Atlanta, Georgia. The summit brought together workers on TN visas from across industries and states to build power and strengthen connections with allies.
Over the past three days, TN workers representing different industries, joined by Migration that Works members, developed an advocacy agenda that reflects the experiences and priorities of TN workers: an agenda that will guide our efforts throughout the year and beyond.
Migrant workers on TN visas identified the following advocacy priorities during this week’s summit:
Facilitating access to justice by eliminating barriers that hinder their access to legal services.
Eliminating unjust clauses in contracts which tie TN workers to abusive employers and limit their freedom to change jobs.
Increasing data transparency which will help us learn more about the industries and states where TN workers are located and reach out to them with rights information and resources.
If you are not familiar with the TN visa, you’re not alone. TN is a little known and underregulated work visa category created when NAFTA went into effect in 1994. And although it has grown exponentially since its creation –+250% increase over the past decade alone –little information is published about the visa, the employers and industries that use it, or the conditions under which TN visa holders labor.
But this year we are going to change that. Together with allies, and with your support, we will continue to build TN worker power and fight for justice with TN workers.
Here is a recap of all the action that took place during the three productive days of the summit:
Day one. We spent the first day getting to know each other and specifically hearing about workers’ individual experiences with the TN visa in varied industries and geographies. Afterwards, we noted the parallels between workers’ different stories and built a shared narrative that shed light on the common abuses that many workers faced and started articulating a collective vision to advance worker justice.
Enrique, a veterinarian who experienced abuse as a TN worker, shared that “after 6 years of living with pain, discrimination and harassment, all I want is being able to choose a job, without fear of being lied to and put to work on different activities than the ones originally offered, or without just pay.”
Day two was all about teamwork. Migration that Works members CDM, Polaris, The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and Justice in Motion, as well as The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), joined TN workers to analyze advocacy challenges and opportunities, identify priorities, and outline a path toward change. Workers opened the day by presenting a collective statement about their priorities for reform of the TN visa category. Workers and allies discussed the current state of TN visa regulations, reviewed data trends, and conducted context and priority-mapping activities to set the groundwork for collaborative action.
On Day Three, workers and organizational allies met with representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor and the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta to share their priorities and demand justice for workers recruited for employment in the United States with TN visas. Adriana Barberena, a TN worker and Migrant Defense Committee Member, was chosen by TN participants to read the collective statement detailing worker priorities identified throughout the summit, including prevailing salaries, information transparency, access to justice, and protections against discrimination and retaliation.
Two workers also shared their experiences working with TN visas. Rosalinda Soriano, an autoworker, explained: “I was offered an engineering position, but I was put to work as a “picker,” carrying heavy autoparts. Job, pay, housing, transportation: nothing was like they said. When I became pregnant, and I couldn’t carry heavy objects anymore, my employer fired me. I speak out today to share my story in the hope that others won’t have to go through what I went through.”
Representatives from the Mexican Consulate and from the Department of Labor listened to workers’ testimonies, shared available agency resources, and committed to maintaining dialogue with workers and advocacy organizations to ensure that all those recruited for work under this visa category had the necessary resources to defend their rights.
This summit marked a critical step in developing an advocacy plan to address persistent labor abuses and structural flaws in the TN visa program. We look forward to building together toward a shared vision for the future based on TN workers’ articulated needs and priorities.
Just a few hours ago, the Department of Labor announced new protections for migrant workers! The historic, worker-protective rule reflects decades of courageous advocacy by migrant workers,CDM, and allied organizations. The rule has the potential to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of migrant agricultural workers in the U.S. H-2A visa program.
Some of the hard-fought protections in these regulations include:
Employers can’t retaliate against workers for speaking out against abuse by firing them. Workers have stronger protections against being fired without cause.
Workers must have access to safe transportation and seatbelts.
Workers won the right to invite guests (including us!) to visit them in their employer-provided housing.
Workers have stronger protections against recruitment fraud and trafficking. Employers can’t take worker’s documents to limit their mobility.
These are basic protections that all workers should have. And now, thanks to these new DOL regulations, agricultural guestworkers will have them too. After more than 18 years of advocacy by CDM and migrant workers, this is a win worth celebrating together.
CDM has supported migrant worker leaders to speak directly with the Department of Labor, sharing their experiences of retaliation, wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and abuse in the H-2 programs. Many migrant workers also submitted comments highlighting the need for worker protective rules. Their voices and experiences shine through in this rule. CDM’s advocacy team and Migration that Works also fought for this rule in the face of well-organized, low-road employer attacks, submitting brilliant comments in defense of the rule after consulting with migrant worker leaders to shape it.
Today, we celebrate these new regulations that will hopefully go a long way in ensuring that no other workers experience the abuse experienced by those who went before. We hope these protections will help keep workers healthy, safe and able to access justice. And we hope you’ll join us in celebrating this victory. Your generous support enables us to engage deeply with migrant workers, centering their experiences and voices in our advocacy and all that we do.
After hearing about this momentous victory, Eleazar Guevara, one of the migrant leaders of the Comité de Defensa del Migrante, and a former H-2A worker himself, shared this reflection: “These protections benefit all workers. They are long awaited and very necessary… I hope they improve working conditions for migrant workers. I hope they help all of us shake the fear of defending our rights”.
Imagine leaving your home behind to pursue what seems to be an incredible professional opportunity abroad only to experience fraud, abuse, discrimination, wage theft and more at the hands of your employers. This is exactly what happened to our clients — Rosa Linda and Jimmy, two engineers from Mexico.
Today, I am proud to announce we are representing Rosa Linda and Jimmy in a class action lawsuit against their employers, GFA Alabama and Hyundai Glovis, for the fraudulent and abusive working conditions they endured while working in the United States with TN visas. Centro de los Derechos del Migrante’s unique transnational advocacy model means that we can stand with Rosa Linda, Jimmy, and other Mexico-based workers in their fight for justice.
Rosa Linda’s and Jimmy’s stories follow the same pattern we’ve seen before in the Hyundai and Kia supply chains: recruiters in Mexico promised them engineering jobs in the United States—jobs that would advance their professional development. But, once in the United States, their employers put them to work doing backbreaking manual labor, carrying autoparts and electrical appliances for 12 hours a day. Their responsibilities, working conditions, and pay were nowhere near what they were promised. When they spoke out, they were threatened and retaliated against.
In Rosa Linda’s case, GFA and Hyundai Glovis also failed to modify her duties to accommodate her pregnancy and ultimately fired her for advocating for her health.
This is the second class action lawsuit we’ve filed in partnership with three law firms against employers in Georgia. These employers are defrauding Mexican professionals and the US government by taking advantage of the poorly regulated TN visa category. CDM has also supported four other TN worker suits in Georgia and Alabama.
We are proud of Rosa Linda, Jimmy, and all TN workers who have come forward to speak out against unethical and abusive business practices. And we are thankful for our co-counsel at Radford Scott LLP, Beal, Sutherland, Berlin & Brown LLC and Hall & Lampros, LLP who are committed to right the abuses faced by our clients and other TN workers.
I am sure that working together we will ensure these and all migrant workers get justice. I hope to share exciting updates with you soon!
A few weeks ago, 17 State Attorneys General, growers and big-time farmers filed a suit against the U.S. Department of Labor to stop the new farmworker protection rule from going into effect. We cannot let this happen.
Today, we filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit to ensure that our organization and migrant agricultural workers have a seat at the table as the court decides the future of the rule. We are seeking to enter the suit in two different roles: as an organizational defendant-intervenor and also as counsel for Candelario and Jorge, two migrant H-2A farmworkers who are speaking out in defense of the new farmworker protections.
We’re proud to co-counsel with and be represented by Adam Pulver of Public Citizen, and grateful to Dan Werner of Radford Scott LLP, who serves as local counsel.
By intervening we are fighting to ensure that workers can welcome organizations like ours in their employer-provided housing without fear of retaliation. We are fighting for seatbelts and safe transportation and for all the protections against recruitment fraud, retaliation and trafficking included in the H-2A rule.
Both Candelario and Jorge faced retaliation for standing up for themselves and their coworkers to demand better working conditions –self-organizing activities that would be protected under the new rule. They too are fighting to ensure that they and other workers are better protected in future H-2A employment and can demand better working conditions.
Stronger farmworker protections are necessary and long-overdue. We’re determined to see the new farmworker protections implemented as soon as possible. And we are committed to ensuring migrant worker voices are front and center during the upcoming proceedings. If our motion to intervene is granted, we will be in a great position to do so.
It’s been a whirlwind of a week —I have so much to share with you! Here are three exciting updates: Update # 1 – Immigration protections for workers involved in labor disputes can now be granted for up to 4 years! After months of advocating alongside allied organizations, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to extend immigration protections for workers involved in labor disputes to up to four years. This protection helps immigrant and migrant workers speak up against labor abuse by lessening the risk of immigration-based retaliation by allowing them to stay and work in the United States while helping…
She shared digital ads that we encounter every day in social media offering job opportunities for male workers only, in blatant disregard for the US’s anti-discrimination laws. She also shared a few key recommendations to reduce gender inequality in guestworker programs such as increasing data transparency —gender data in particular— facilitating access from abroad to EEOC complaint processes and ensuring the US lives up to its obligations under the USCMA by removing barriers to migrant worker access to legal services funded by the Legal Services Corporation.
Alongside other Migration that Works member organizations we also took this invaluable opportunity to advance some of our advocacy priorities. Among other things, we continued sounding the alarm on legislative attacks on carnival workers’ rights, and the need for the government to play a more active role in addressing the heightened challenges faced by H-2 workers recruited from Central America.
Update # 3 – Amicus Brief filed!
In a previous newsletter I shared with you that we were filing a motion to intervene in defense of the DOL’s farmworker protection rule currently under legal attack by State Attorneys General, growers and big-time farmers. Sadly, our motion to intervene was denied this week since the judge deemed that the DOL would represent our interests fairly.
But the good news is the judge allowed us to file our intervention brief as an extensive Amicus Brief —which our attorneys filed on Monday— to be considered in the case alongside DOL’s arguments.
All in all it’s been an exciting week. Advocacy is such an important part of CDM’s work building a world where migrant rights are respected and laws and policies reflect migrant worker voices. AND SO ARE YOU! Your support is the reason all of this is possible. So, thank you.
I hope we can continue to count on your support and your fierce determination to create a fair and just world for all.
We’re thrilled to introduce you to Julia Solórzano, CDM’s new Director of Litigation! Julia brings deep empathy and vast experience litigating cases on behalf of migrant workers, and we couldn’t be happier to have her on our team!
A little bit about Julia: Before joining CDM, Julia was a Senior Staff Attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project, where she litigated cases regarding large-scale workplace immigration raids in Tennessee and Mississippi and the unionization rights of farmworkers in North Carolina. Julia received her A.B. from Princeton University and her J.D. from Yale Law School. After law school, Julia clerked for U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison of the Southern District of Texas and completed a Skadden Fellowship project focused on the health and safety rights of poultry processing workers.
We are honored to have Julia as part of our incredible team and we look forward to seeing her in action defending the rights of migrant workers and advancing migrant justice.
Read on to learn more about why she decided to join CDM, what led her to join the worker rights movement and what she is most excited about in her new role:
Why did you decide to join CDM?
I was really drawn to CDM in large part because of the binational structure and its ability to reach workers in two countries. To really have that cultural fluency and understanding of the communities from which the workers that we support here in the United States are coming from is really unique.
In my previous roles I worked with a lot of workers from Mexico. Not having that presence in Mexico was something that was always challenging, and so I was really drawn to that. I have been an admirer of CDM’s work from afar for many years, and I feel very lucky that this opportunity came.
Why did you choose to fight for migrant worker rights?
I grew up in a rural part of Florida in Polk County which is the top orange producing county in the state. Both my parents were farmworker attorneys, so there was a lot of awareness in my home about where our food came from, and the conditions of the people who were working to produce that food was always in my consciousness. It was a part of me.
Throughout my education I was involved in various kinds of social justice movements, but I always felt called back to the fight for worker rights. I think this is the fight I found the most energizing. It’s where I felt I could make a real contribution. Similarly with litigation it’s just something that really interests me. I believe that in order to stay in any social justice movement for a long time you need to have energy to keep the fight going even when things seem really discouraging. For me this is the movement where everyday I feel excited to be a part of it.
What are you most excited about in your new role?
I’m excited about the opportunity to have the ongoing dialogue with workers who are organized into the Comité de Defensa del Migrante who are getting information from CDM and giving information to CDM. This direct communication and constant dialogue makes me feel like not only am I part of this movement for worker rights but that I am doing so right alongside the workers. That’s really exciting to me.
Every single one of our litigation cases is fascinating and crucial. Our plaintiffs are extremely courageous in speaking out, and I’m just so excited to partner with them and other leaders in this movement.
I hope that in my time here I’m able to strategize and to push that work forward and really center the priorities of those workers.
Maximo applied for deferred action, an immigration protection for workers involved in labor disputes, during our first pro se deferred action clinic in North Carolina last year. Maximo’s employer had forced him and his colleagues to work in the sweet potato fields under extreme heat without sufficient water or breaks. As a result, one worker died from heat stroke. Maximo decided to apply for deferred action so he could remain in the United States and fight for justice for himself and his colleagues.
Thanks to deferred action, Maximo was able to find a well-paying job where he is treated with respect and dignity. He also decided to join other migrant leaders in the Migrant Defense Committee, so he can continue organizing, building power and advocating for fairness in the labor migration system. His wife is starting the process to become a member as well.
This past weekend we held our third clinic in North Carolina and Maximo was there again. But this time, he was there to help other workers, talk to them about the importance of standing up against abuse and to share his experience with deferred action. Knowing full well the challenges of getting around as a migrant worker, he even volunteered to drive some colleagues to the clinic himself.
Stories like Maximo’s illustrate how the deferred action process is a game-changer for migrant workers facing abuse. The process provides workers the safety and protection they need to speak out against abuse and seek justice, and it gives them the freedom to find dignified employment elsewhere.
That’s why since the process was announced last year, we’ve been holding clinics from Delaware to Georgia, as well as online. In the last two months alone, we’ve held four in-person clinics in North Carolina and Delaware, where we’ve supported dozens of workers in filling out their deferred action applications.
The workers CDM has organized through targeted clinics near worksites where we have cases and campaigns work across labor sectors from agriculture to poultry to sanitation. The clinics have been successful because of our strong partnerships with Migrant Defense Committee leaders like Maximo and community-based organizations. Every worker we’ve supported has one thing in common: a deep desire for fair and safe working conditions.
North Carolina Justice Center, El Futuro es Nuestro, Duke University School of Law, Student Action with Farmworkers, and the Hispanic Federation made last weekend’s clinic in North Carolina another success. Thank you for supporting migrant workers and CDM in advancing justice for all workers.
Our deferred action work is far from over. Will you continue to help us bring deferred action to more workers like Maximo who are in need of protection against retaliation from abusive employers?
Last week, our team led seven know your rights workshops for farmworkers in Maryland and Virginia. These trainings are part of the Farm Labor Stabilization Protection Pilot Program (FLSP), a USDA program to support employers in ensuring safe and healthy workplaces for farmworkers.
In just three days, we were able to train over 120 workers, including H-2A workers, using the toolkit we co-designed with Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, resource guides, and tailored training materials for migrant farmworkers on participating FLSP farms. By participating in this program, farms agree not just to uphold the law, but to provide additional worker protections beyond the law. Some offer sick leave. Others have a collective bargaining agreement or have agreed to participate in the Fair Food Program. Our trainings give workers the tools to hold employers accountable to their commitments under the FLSP.
Worker leaders share the critical information they receive in our trainings with other workers, extending the reach of CDM’s workshops. Earlier this year, we trained more than 50 community-based trainers who will then go on to educate thousands of workers in their communities.
Over the coming years, we expect that employers will turn more than ever to the H-2A program and the federal government will continue accelerating the program’s expansion. Workers and trainers trained through our FLSP workshops will have the tools to prevent abuses and defend their rights.
All of us at CDM are incredibly proud to be a part of this promising pilot program and to have co-designed a Know Your Rights curriculum that will support agricultural workers— no matter their immigration status— in learning more about their rights, building power and improving their working conditions.
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the energy, optimism and kindness of the workers who we’ve had the opportunity to meet through FLSP, some of whom, in true Thanksgiving spirit, shared with our team warm milk with honey– a tradition in their country of origin– in appreciation for the training session.
And we are grateful for you too. Thank you for supporting CDM’s work with farmworkers.
This International Migrants Day we are celebrating a new rule that strengthens protections for migrant guestworkers in the H-2 program. The rule, which was announced yesterday by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), will make it easier for migrant workers to access key existing worker protections.
A few highlights:
Visa potability: In theory, visa portability was always a possibility in the H-2 visa program, though many factors made it nearly impossible. One main obstacle was that after leaving an abusive workplace, workers had very little time to look for employment with a company that was certified to hire them before falling out of status. The DHS rule gives workers a grace period to either organize their departure, seek legal assistance or look for new employment. This provision helps workers stand up against exploitation and opens up opportunities for them to find decent employment.
Responsibility in recruitment: Charging recruitment fees has always been illegal, but in practice, many migrant workers are forced to pay those fees or sign promissory notes. The DHS rule makes it clear that employers are responsible for the actions of recruiters in their recruitment chain and includes promissory notes as a type of illegal recruitment fee.
More accountability: DHS has the ability to provide harsher punishments to employers from the H-2 program if they violate the law or allow their recruiters to charge illegal recruitment fees. This provision protects workers from being exploited by low-road employers.
CDM’s tools like, el Portal Migrante —a job board for migrant workers— will be even more critical than ever to support migrant workers in finding decent employment and ensuring they can access visa portability provisions. Our website Contratados.org will also have an important part to play in ensuring workers know their rights and speak out against abuse.
2024 is almost over, but our work advancing migrant justice continues. Thank you for being a part of this journey and this movement for justice.
