March 31, 2015
Sign this Petition to Strengthen H-2B workers’ rights!
We were hired on a six-month contract to work in pine reforestation. Our work contracts promised eight dollars per hour... A recruiter had arrived here in our town [in Mexico] and invited us, asking if we wanted to go to work in the United States. He told us, "You know what, you will need to pay me a certain amount of money to be able to go to the United States." ... We had to take out loans, because we didn't have the money on hand.
We arrived in the United States fooled by the American Dream...When we received our first check the dream ended...We found the courage to return [to Mexico] because we weren't paid enough to buy food or pay rent.
- Ismael, a former H-2B worker from Mexico, tells his story on Radio Bilingüe
Act now to support workers' rights within the H-2B temporary work program. The U.S. government agencies that operate the program will issue new regulations in April 2015. Centro de los Derechos del Migrante and Polaris launched a petition on Change.org to urge those agencies to create much needed protections for H-2B workers like Ismael. Sign the petition today!
Flaws in the H-2B program make exploitation like that described by Ismael all too common. Recently, the program has been in flux. From March 4 through March 18, a federal district court in Florida suspended the program, ruling that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) does not have the authority to enforce regulations for the H-2B program. DOL plays a critical role in providing H-2B workers like Ismael the few protections they do enjoy and should increase protections for workers in the H-2B visa program.
Following a subsequent court decision, the H-2B program is currently operating until April 15 under DOL's former regulations. To ensure that the program can continue operating indefinitely, DOL and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that they will jointly issue new H-2B regulations during April 2015.
The question now is whether the agencies' new regulations will include strong protections for H-2B workers like Ismael. Nearly 70,000 people work in the United States with H-2B visas each year, and many experience fraud and abuse during the labor recruitment and employment process.
Employer groups have been lobbying to remove all worker protections from the program. A recent report about the H-2B program from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, however, called for greater worker protections to combat rampant fraud and abuse.