The H-2A Visa Program is intended to allow foreign workers to enter the U. S. for seasonal agricultural work. It is evident that there is abuse of this visa category as evidenced by a civil lawsuit filed on November 14th by legal activists. Iowa Legal Aid and Farm Worker Justice filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Iowa against Kuchenbecker Excavating and H&S Farms, LLC and others alleging violations of the Civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and violations of state law including fraud.
The case involves a worker admitted to the U.S. from South Africa on an H-2A agricultural worker visa who was employed in trucking. The Plaintiffs alleged that the Defendants “engaged in a pattern of fraud on the United States Government and on workers securing low-paid H-2A temporary agricultural worker visas to conduct non-agricultural work”.
Abuse of H-2A visas allows employers to pay lower wages than they would legally and the fraud results in competition to the detriment of U. S. citizens.