Mexican Workers Advance Trafficking Suit Against Michigan Farm

Two workers that entered the United States from Mexico under the H-2A agricultural worker visa program can continue to accuse First Pick Farms LLC and other operators of a Michigan blueberry farm of unlawfully benefiting from forced labor, a federal district court said.

Feliciano Velasco Rojas and Luis Guzman Rojas adequately alleged that the defendants violated the Trafficking Victims Protection and Reauthorization Act by having a continuous business relationship with a trafficker that imposed harsh working and housing conditions, Paul L. Maloney of the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan said in a Jan. 2 opinion partially ...