Urge California to ensure all its temporary workers are free from slavery

“When I got to the US things were very different from what I thought. I was told I owed $12,000 for my transportation to the United States and the visa. My trafficker told me my salary will be $600 a month with a $300 deduction for the money I owed her. I would have to work for her for 10 years to pay off my debt. 

I worked at a retirement home for the elderly located in a suburb of Los Angeles, 18 hours a day, seven days a week with no day off. I had to sleep on the floor in the hallway and eat table scraps. My passport was taken away from me and I was told it would be held for me for safekeeping.” —Angela 

Thousands of temporary workers are being trafficked into forced labor in California under threat of violence, deportation, and harm to their families. 

California attracts more temporary foreign workers than anywhere else in the US. As the fifth largest global economy, workers on lawful visas from all over the world seek opportunities in California.¹

The vast majority of temporary workers are recruited via third-party foreign labor recruiters (FLRs), some of whom act neither lawfully nor ethically. 

For example, unscrupulous FLRs have been known to drive to remote Mexican villages to find their recruits, who they contact via Facebook and WhatsApp. The FLRs take advantage of the desperation of low-income workers in these villages to increase their profits by charging high fees and deceiving them into exploitative work conditions.²

Once in the US, workers are bound to a single employer and are dependent on them for housing, food, and visas. Employers can take advantage of this power imbalance to abuse their workers—and because FLRs act as brokers between employer and worker, employers bear little responsibility for any wrongdoing. 

These circumstances mean that temporary workers are among the most exploited legally authorized workers in the country. The full scope of the problem is not known because workers rarely report labor abuses for fear of losing their jobs and immigration status.

“To pay for my visa, I had to take out a loan of 10,000 pesos from my trafficker. They promised me that I would earn enough money so I thought I could work off my debt. But when I arrived in California, everything was different.” — Raymundo 

California state legislators tried to address these risks in 2014 by passing Senate Bill 477³(SB477), a bill designed to create better oversight for FLRs, with wide bipartisan support.

The bill became law in 2016. However, because of the way this new law was incorporated into existing legal provisions for farmworkers, it fails in its goals. As it’s currently framed, the new legislation allows for an interpretation that would limit the law to non-agricultural workers on H-2B visas. With the vast majority of migrant workers in California being on other temporary work visas, only around 3% of migrant workers are protected by SB477. 

“If I had been given the right information, I never would have come to California. I would have been safe if I knew that I could not be charged a fee for my visa if I came to work in California. I also would have been safe if I had been provided a contract about my work and any money I would owe in my own language, Tagalog…

That’s why I support amending SB 477 to cover all visa categories. It would protect workers like me… from becoming victims of human trafficking… I want other workers to be able to have this knowledge to protect themselves.” — Jayson

As currently interpreted, SB477 leaves thousands of temporary workers in California at high risk of exploitation and human trafficking.⁴

This must change. 

Our partners at the Sunita Jain Institute Anti-Trafficking Initiative at the Loyola Law School have been lobbying for the small legislative change needed to fix the law—AB 1362, The Human Trafficking Prevention and Protection Act for Temporary Immigrant Workers.⁵

AB 1362 provides clear guidance for companies and recruiters on how to prevent trafficking and forced labor.

Specifically, this bill:

1. Protects economic opportunity for law-abiding businesses that support workers’ rights and safety
2. Creates clear definitions of human trafficking and forced labor
3. Provides guidance on contract language to prevent exploitation and human trafficking
4. Mandates safe living conditions for workers if provided
5. Outlines procedures for companies to follow if they identify trafficking or forced labor occurring
6. Addresses the harmful and inaccurate ways in which labor trafficking is treated as less dangerous and less severe
7. Prevents fraud and misleading coercive practices that may include confiscating workers’ passports or other identification

THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW:  

Call on the California State Legislature to amend Senate Bill 477 to protect all migrant workers, regardless of visa or industry, from forced labor and human trafficking.