Call to Action Text Field
In December of 2021, Georgia law enforcement announced criminal indictments for a labor trafficking scheme where workers from Mexico were brought to the U.S. for what they thought were decent, legal, jobs, then forced to dig up onions with their bare hands for 20 cents a bucket.
The fact that this “Operation Blooming Onion” is holding traffickers accountable is good news. The fact that this kind of abuse has gone on for years under the noses of our government is not.
Tell Congress. Transparency helps prevent trafficking.
The workers abused in Georgia came here on a program that allows U.S. businesses to contract with workers from overseas for a set period of time to come here and do jobs they say they can’t fill with people already in this country.
The program is massive and touches virtually every corner of the U.S. economy but is particularly important in the agricultural sector, where farmers say food would rot in the fields without the help of migrant workers. Yet, as data from the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline shows many of these workers on what’s known as H2-A visas face abuse and trafficking.
It’s long past time to fix the temporary work system and ensure that the food on our tables was not harvested by trafficking victims.
The Visa Transparency Act is a good place to start. Tell Congress: It’s time to pass the Visa Transparency Anti-Trafficking Act and fix the system that brings trafficking to our supermarket shelves.