Skip to main content IFRAME: https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-N35NCMF Google Tag Manager Search splcenter.org ____________________ (BUTTON) Home Donate Menu * Resources + Features and Stories + Extremist Files + Hatewatch + Case Docket + Intelligence Report + Publications + Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative + Law Enforcement o In Memoriam o Resources o Roll Call Videos * What We Do + Fighting Hate o Extremist Files o Hate Map + Teaching Tolerance + Seeking Justice + Civil Rights Memorial o Civil Rights Martyrs o History o The Forgotten o Wall of Tolerance o Information for Visitors * Our Issues + Hate & Extremism + Children's Rights + Immigrant Justice o Family Separation o Rights of Asylum Seekers o Local Policing and Immigration Enforcement o Guest Workers o Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative + LGBTQ Rights o Conversion Therapy o LGBTQ Youth Rights + Economic Justice o Request for Legal Assistance — Economic Justice + Criminal Justice Reform + Voting Rights o Voting Rights - AL o Voting Rights - FL o Voting Rights - GA o Voting Rights - LA o Voting Rights - MS * Hatewatch * Hate Map * Podcast * Donate * Search Immigrant Justice * Family Separation * Rights of Asylum Seekers * Local Policing and Immigration Enforcement * Guest Workers * Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative * Instagram * Facebook * Twitter * About Us * Press Center * Ways to Give * Donate Search splcenter.org ____________________ (BUTTON) Search Guest Worker Rights We’re working to stop the abuse and exploitation of foreign guest workers. Related News Immigrant Justice Guest Worker Rights SPLC sues farm labor contractor for underpaying H-2A guest workers and threatening to deport them for speaking out Guest Worker Rights SPLC denounces congressional vote blocking rule that protects U.S. workers’ wages Guest Worker Rights Right to a Safe and Clean Workplace See All Related News Latest Cases Guest Worker Rights Active Case Antonio-Benito v. Lowry Farms, Inc. Date Filed August 08, 2020 Under the nation’s H-2 guest worker program, U.S. employers recruit more than 200,000 foreign workers each year to perform temporary, low-skill labor in farming, forestry, seafood-processing, landscaping, tourism, construction and other labor-intensive industries. The workers, mostly from Latin America, are typically living in poverty in their home countries and desperate for work. But far from being treated like “guests” in the United States, they’re systematically exploited and abused by labor recruiters and employers. Unlike U.S. citizens, they do not enjoy even the most fundamental protection of a competitive labor market – the ability to change jobs if they are mistreated. Instead, they’re bound to the employers who “import” them. If guest workers complain about abuses, they face deportation, the loss of their investment, blacklisting or other retaliation. Employers hold all the cards. To obtain their jobs, guest workers frequently must pay exorbitant fees to unscrupulous labor recruiters, leaving them deeply in debt and vulnerable to abuse. Many are routinely cheated out of wages, forced to live in squalid conditions, subjected to labor trafficking, denied proper medical care or compensation for injuries, or held virtually captive by employers and labor brokers who confiscate their visas and identity documents. Meanwhile, the federal government has utterly failed to uphold their rights. Guest workers have been compared to modern-day indentured servants. But unlike the indentured servants of old, today’s guest workers have no prospect of becoming U.S. citizens. When their temporary work visas expire, they must leave the United States. They are, in effect, the disposable workers of the U.S. economy. Former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel called the program “the closest thing I’ve ever seen to slavery.” U.S. workers also suffer as a result of these flaws in the guest worker system. As long as employers in low-wage industries can rely on an endless stream of vulnerable guest workers who lack basic labor protections, they will have little incentive to hire U.S. workers or make jobs more appealing by improving wages and working conditions. It’s been well-documented that wages for U.S. workers are depressed in industries that rely heavily on guest workers. We’re committed to winning justice for exploited workers. We’ve recovered tens of millions in wages for cheated workers and made substantial progress toward reforming this system by filing strategic lawsuits against abusive employers and advocating for regulatory and statutory change. * Home * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram SPLC is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization (EIN: 63-0598743) The Southern Poverty Law Center 400 Washington Avenue Montgomery, AL 36104 The Civil Rights Memorial Center Learn More * About Us + Press Center + Our History + Board of Directors + Leadership + Careers + Open RFPs + Financial Information + Privacy & Terms + Contact Us + Press Inquiries * State Offices + Alabama + Florida + Louisiana + Mississippi * Support Us + Friends of the Center + Peer-to-Peer Fundraising + Planned Giving + Employer Matching + Gifts of Stock and Securities + Other Ways of Giving + Donor Resources + Store * Resources + Features and Stories + Case Docket + #ReportHate + Extremist Files + Hatewatch + Intelligence Report + Publications + Law Enforcement