A number of migrant workers who worked at a multimillion dollar Michigan greenhouse company were tricked into being detained by federal immigration agents after they complained about numerous bounced paychecks and weeks of unpaid labor, a new trafficking lawsuit alleges. The workers—who legally entered the U.S. from Mexico through H-2A worker visas—were detained for as long as two months before being deported.
“Today, Eduardo, Gerardo, and four of their colleagues are taking their employer, Four Star Greenhouse, source of the popular ‘Proven Winners’ plants, to federal court,” Centro de los Derechos del Migrante said in a statement. Ben Botts, an attorney with the organization, told Detroit Free Press that "[t]his is one of the most egregious cases I've seen of workers standing up for their rights … These workers were raising concerns that were legally protected."
Detroit Free Press reports that Four Star used Vasquez Citrus & Hauling to recruit the workers beginning in 2017, promising them nearly full-time weeks at $12.75 an hour through mid-2018. Eduardo Reyes Trujillo told Detroit Free Press that while the first few pay periods went through, they eventually stopped getting paid. When they did gets checks, they sometimes bounced. “The workers were also lied to about their visa status, told by the recruiter that their visas were being extended before they arrived in Michigan,” the report continued. “Their visas had actually already expired by the time they arrived in Michigan.”
“Struggling to pay for food and in debt, the workers complained to the recruiter and Four Star,” the report said. “That's when the retaliation and threats started, they allege.”
Centro de los Derechos del Migrante said in the statement: ”Their employer’s recruitment agent lured them to the local Walmart for a ‘shopping trip’ under the guise of a ‘housing inspection.’” But when they arrived via bus to the store from the crowded apartment where a number of workers lived, immigration agents were there waiting for them. "As soon as we got off the bus, there was a patrol waiting for them," Reyes Trujillo said according to Detroit Free Press. "The patrol was telling them on loudspeakers something we didn't understand."
The report said that the workers are still unsure of who detained them—if it was agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which believes it can harass the entire state because of the 100-mile zone law. The workers do know they were detained for weeks before being deported without any of their possessions; thinking they were just going shopping, most of their personal items, including clothes and documents, were left behind.
The workers are now suing Four Star Greenhouse, which Detroit Free Press says boasts more than 100 workers and nearly $20 million in profits a year. The recruiter, Vasquez Citrus & Hauling, was also hired by Four Star “despite its history of labor violations,” the report said: In 2016, the Department of Transportation fined it nearly $22,000 after a bus that was taking workers back to Mexico crashed and killed six. “In 2018, the Department of Labor debarred Vasquez for three years from the H-2A program,” the report continued.
Centro de los Derechos del Migrante said that instead of “strengthening protections for workers” susceptible to abuse and exploitation in the program, “the government is easing requirements for employers to hire H-2A workers during the pandemic. We must remain vigilant.”
“It’s unjust for us to travel so far—to be separated from our families and at points, not even know how they are doing—and then for our employers to fail to fulfill their promises to us, not pay us, and retaliate against us,” Reyes Trujillo said in the statement. “It is not fair.” Gerardo Santiago Hernandez, another plaintiff, said: “We received so many false promises. It shouldn’t be possible for us to work so hard and not get paid as one should—for me that is corruption. I am grateful that today we are fighting for our rights.”