![]() ![]() Public Integrity has found three H-2A worker deaths in North Carolina alone that haven’t been publicly disclosed but are under investigation. 21, accusing it of failing to provide safe conditions. Coronavirus outbreaks this year infected many H-2A workers in multiple states.Īfter investigating the COVID-19 deaths of two H-2A workers, Washington state labor officials fined a large agribusiness company more than $2 million on Dec. But advocates have long warned that the workers can be cheated out of wages and treated as expendable because they fear complaining will cost them their visas. Foreign workers, mostly from Mexico, benefit from the ability to work legally, albeit temporarily. In just five years, the number of H-2A jobs in America has jumped by 155% to more than 275,400 this year. On the other, the program can put workers in arduous, sometimes-deadly, situations: Toiling in excessive heat, living in unsafe housing and, now, exposing themselves to a highly contagious virus. On one hand, the program provides essential labor for growers and jobs for foreign workers desperate for money. The twin tragedies, details of which were confirmed by the Center for Public Integrity through state records and interviews, lay bare the contradictions of the 34-year-old H-2A program. After both were buried in Mexico, their sons dutifully returned to North Carolina to keep working under their visas because they needed the income. In August, one of the fathers died of COVID-19. All four men held temporary H-2A nonimmigrant visas-permits US employers use to sponsor foreign guest workers to fill seasonal labor shortages on farms. ![]() Two fathers and their sons traveled from Mexico this spring to grow and harvest North Carolina’s sweet potatoes, tobacco, Christmas trees and other crops. Check out our most recent coverage of the coronavirus crisis, and subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter. The coronavirus is a rapidly developing news story, so some of the content in this article might be out of date. ![]()
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