Two migrant workers have filed a federal lawsuit against a West Michigan blueberry farm accusing them of migrant trafficking, unsafe working conditions, and other violations.
The lawsuit was filed on Friday, June 9 by Feliciano Velaso Rojas and Luis Guzman Rojas in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. The 32-page lawsuit alleges that the two workers legally obtained employment in the U.S. after obtaining an H-2A temporary agricultural Visa that allowed them to work on a North Carolina farm in 2017.
However, after beginning work in North Carolina, Velasco and Guzman alleged that they along with 30 other workers were trafficked to work in Michigan on First Pick Farms. The lawsuit details that this transportation across state lines was a violation of their immigration status because migrant workers who receive the H-2A temporary agricultural visa are tied to a specific employer. First Pick Farms did not have an H-2A work order for the migrants. Instead, the lawsuit accuses the farm of violating the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act and the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act.
The lawsuit explains First Pick Farms employee Antonio Sanchez allegedly rounded up the migrant workers, gave them fake IDs that included their photos, and established new identities for them. Guzman was given documents that identified him as “Saul Chavez” while Velasco was given documents that identified him as “Juan Guzman.” The lawsuit explains that the defendants were repeatedly threatened along with other H-2A workers that if they did not comply with the transport to work in Michigan, they would be reported to local immigration authorities.
In addition to the illegal transport, the lawsuit takes issue with how the migrants were treated and paid while working on the farm. The lawsuit accuses First Pick Farms of illegally deducting wages from the workers. The migrants were allegedly charged $110 for the fake IDs that were created along with $25 per refueling stop on the drive from North Carolina to Michigan.
The workers also accuse their employer of unfairly paying them, failing to track and pay for hours worked, and demanding unreasonable production standards including grueling picking quotas.
Once the migrants arrived at First Pick Farms, they were met with “grueling conditions” that consisted of hand-picking berries for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, without any breaks during the work day.
The migrants were also charged $20 a week for their housing accommodation. The defendants along with 28 other migrants described living in a 3-bedroom home in living situations that were “unfurnished, dilapidated, and overcrowded.”
One bedroom was shared between two female workers while at least 28 other workers were forced to sleep throughout the rest of the house. According to state law, agriculture employers including farmers must provide housing complete with bunk beds, single beds, or clean mattresses.
Velasco shared in a statement the work endured on the farm was “physically and mentally” exhausting. “Additionally, the conditions, being unable to rest because we had to sleep on the floor, nearly broke me.”
The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages and have filed the lawsuit after failing to reach agreements with First Pick Farms.
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