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Friend,
This Sunday, March 31, is César Chávez Day, a time for me and my colleagues to reflect on the work the Southern Poverty Law Center is doing to represent immigrants who have been exploited in the U.S. while laboring in the fields as agricultural workers.
The commemoration, which coincides with the labor activist’s birthday, was proclaimed by President Barack Obama in 2014. Chávez is known for leading the grape strike and boycott on behalf of workers who toiled for meager wages under appalling conditions in the fields of California in the 1960s.
Several decades later, exploitation of immigrant workers remains an issue. The SPLC has long recognized the importance of agricultural workers in the United States and has advocated for their rights in various ways, such as publishing the Close to Slavery report, which highlights the systematic exploitation of immigrant workers in the H-2 guestworker program. The report was originally published in 2007 — attracting national media attention to the issue — and updated in 2013.
What’s more, the SPLC has filed dozens of lawsuits against employers for their roles in exploiting agricultural workers. More recently, we have represented workers who are survivors of a transnational human smuggling and labor trafficking operation that lured Mexican and Central American workers into brutal conditions on South Georgia farms. It’s not just the difficult work; it’s the dilapidated and unsafe housing, threats from bosses, underpaid wages — if any at all — broken promises and not having your passport in your possession, among other issues.
In 2021, the SPLC filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor after workers came forward about abusive practices on farms in South Georgia. The SPLC represents several survivors in their applications for immigration relief, restitution and other benefits due to the labor-trafficking scheme.
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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