Landscaping Company Allegedly Stiffed Wages And Threatened To Deport Legal Guest Workers http://t.co/HTvLxY1rw2 pic.twitter.com/CGpr9fhihg
— Larry Cooper (@coopah) August 11, 2015
The employer thought legal Mexicans can be treated just like illegal Mexicans:
[…]
According to the complaint, Jernigan “also threated [sic] to report Plaintiff to immigration and to kick Plaintiff out of the housing supplied by Defendants.”
Bolanos-Ramirez is not the first — and won’t be the last — immigrant to experience wage theft from employers who use the H-2 visa programs to take advantage of legal guest workers. In June, Mexican guest workers sponsored under the H-2A visa program, which is specifically reserved for agricultural work, alleged that they were housed in squalid conditions, paid less than the guaranteed wage, and threatened with deportation or arrest.
A May 2015 Economic Policy Institute report found that temporary legal guest-workers are just as likely to be subjected to low wages as undocumented workers. H-2 visa holders “are tied to [individuals’] employers, therefore they cannot change employers or jobs while working in the U.S,” Lauren Apgar, the EPI study author, said during a panel in May.