Florida has prosecuted several cases of abusive treatment
of farm workers that met the legal definition of slavery. The
Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) played a key role
in bringing these cases to light. Labor contractors, supervisors, and crew leaders are typically responsible for exploiting
farm workers, although growers can use these intermediaries to try to shield themselves from charges of worker abuse.
The most egregious abusers of immigrant farm laborers are
Farmers and Farm Workers
sometimes unauthorized immigrants themselves. In one
Even a cursory look at the intersection of the U.S. farm 2008 case, brothers Cesar and Giovanni Navarette and other
and immigration systems reveals a fundamental contradic- members of their family—Mexican nationals— were found
tion. While many farm operators depend on foreign labor, guilty of locking farm workers in trucks without running waimmigration law denies foreign workers legal status unless ter or toilets, denying them pay, shackling them with chains,
they arrive through the H-2A program. If a non-H-2A worker and slashing them with knives if they refused to work. Both
farm worker is in the wrong place at the wrong time, he or she Navarette brothers, as the leaders of this agricultural-worker
can be expelled from the United States.
slavery ring, pled guilty to charges of forced labor and other
Growers have long urged authorities to look the other way counts and received 12-year prison sentences.23
as they employ a foreign-born, unauthorized workforce. But
Not all relationships between farm workers and growemployers are now confronted with the possibility that using ers are adversarial. Many farm workers and growers have
the E-Verify program for all new hires could become man- long-term relationships where both parties prosper. Today,
datory (see Box 2). With no viable alternative to immigrant farm worker advocates agree with growers on issues central
labor, they are calling for reforms that would legalize their to farm labor reform; both groups want a stable, legalized
unauthorized workforce.
system of farm labor. Farmworker Justice, an advocacy orgaThe State Department has described poor working condi- nization based in Washington, DC, seeks to “empower seations on farms as “endemic,” and the number of slavery cases sonal farm workers” and finds itself working toward goals
involving farm workers demonstrates the vulnerability of farm that growers also embrace. “[Growers] want access to their
workers to the actions of those in positions of relative power.22 workforce without worrying about raids by Immigration,
In short, there is no evidence that removing immigrants
from farm labor would create job vacancies that unemployed
citizens would fill. If immigrant farm workers were no longer
available, growers would likely try to mechanize their crops
or abandon labor-intensive agriculture, leaving the United
States to fill the food gap with additional agricultural imports.
Box 2: E-Verify
Laura Elizabeth Pohl
E-Verify is an Internet-based system that enables employers to electronically verify