Fortunately, the U.S. government is beginning to recognize this inequality. In October 2022, it launched the H-2B Worker Protection Taskforce, a major acknowledgement that these visa holders face numerous human and labor rights violations in the U.S., including labor trafficking — a concern that Polaris has persistently brought to light. 

Through operating the National Human Trafficking Hotline, Polaris has heard from hundreds of workers in diverse industries covered under the H-2B program, including construction, meatpacking, amusement parks, hospitality, landscaping, and forestry. Many have had their wages stolen or withheld, supposedly to pay back costs for travel to the U.S. or basic needs. This debt bondage, along with other force, fraud, and coercion, keep workers in exploitative situations. For example, 68% of H-2B trafficking victims reported threats of deportation or immigration consequences if they failed to comply with employers’ demands.

After a year of dedicated advocacy work with coalition partners, Polaris is encouraged by the progress reflected in the H-2B Worker Protection Taskforce’s recent report, which identified the following needed actions: 

• Deferred action to support legal claims: The U.S. government should protect workers involved in labor disputes with their employers by guaranteeing deferred action and allowing workers to remain in the country during an investigation. This could reduce the fear of retaliation that discourages workers from pursuing their rights.

• Creation of a data hub: Having easy access to relevant data on H-2 workers is key in combating labor abuses and holding companies accountable for complying with the rule of law. As a first step toward leveraging existing data, the Department of State will publish anonymized data on a quarterly basis to inform outreach and advocacy efforts.

• Improved recruitment monitoring system: To reduce vulnerability, especially to debt bondage, a better monitoring system would enable the Department of Labor to inspect every aspect of the recruitment process and ensure that common but illegal recruitment fees are not being charged. 

• Outreach and education on worker rights: Under proposed measures, labor and human rights organizations would be able to visit workers in employer-provided housing, which is currently prohibited. The Department of Labor also created a helpful tool for migrant workers, which provides important information about rights and other resources to workers in English and Spanish.

These provisions will help mitigate H-2B workers’ vulnerabilities and empower them to secure their rights and pursue safe, justly compensated work in the U.S. Although much remains to be done in fighting labor exploitation and trafficking, the Taskforce’s efforts are a significant stride in the right direction.

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The post Restoring Power to Our Guest Workers first appeared on Polaris.

For most Americans, it’s normal to assume that your employer will treat you with dignity and respect, regardless of the industry. It’s not radical to expect safe and fair working conditions. 

But that’s not always the case if you are a foreign worker with a temporary work visa, like the H-2A or H-2B. In 2021, more than 250,000 workers were granted work permits through the H-2A visa program, which brings essential migrant workers into the US agriculture sector. Almost 90% were Mexican nationals. 

These visa holders accept seasonal employment in the US, hoping that they will receive fair wages and be treated with the same dignity expected by the national workforce. But labor violations, back wages, and poor working conditions are all too frequent according to media reports and Polaris’s own experience operating the National Human Trafficking Hotline and other survivor-centered programs. 

Polaris has been raising public awareness of exploitative conditions under temporary work visa programs. We have been calling out the lack of accountability for bad employers who find loopholes and take advantage of workers who desperately need jobs to provide for their families and communities. 

Now Polaris is calling for the financial resources to ensure the Department of Labor (DOL) can fulfill its mandate to protect workers and enforce labor law. The DOL has made it clear that they do not have the funding to monitor employers and ensure safe and humane conditions for workers, including those with H-2A visas. The numbers testify to the need: In 2018 there was only one labor inspector for every 175,000 workers. 

The DOL is asking for $2.3 billion from the US administration for its worker protection agencies and efforts. In support of this request, Polaris and our partners Justice in Motion and the National Employment Law Project ask the Committee of Appropriations to approve the following items in the 2024 budget:

• $340.953 million to restore and strengthen the Wage and Hour Division’s (WHD’s) enforcement capacity, an increase of $67.678 million and 389 full-time equivalent (FTE) personnel. 
• $25.968 million to bolster WHD efforts in key areas like protecting the rights and wages of essential workers, ensuring prevailing wage protections, and combating child labor.
• $2.5 million to help enforce protections of temporary foreign workers and expand outreach efforts alongside the rise in worker visa programs.
• $199.641 million across general and trust funds to adequately resource the Office of the Solicitor to enforce labor and employment laws and keep pace with the DOL’s urgent enforcement agenda.

Without enough inspectors, outreach staff, and other resources at the DOL, we will continue to read about child labor in meat packing industries, back wages owed to workers, and other violations. Budget cuts will endanger workers, leaving them vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation. But we can prevent these situations by properly and fully funding the right offices to ensure foreign workers are treated with dignity, fairness, and respect while working in the US. You can help make this happen by contacting your Congress members today. 

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The post The Fight for Fair Work Needs Full Funding for the Department of Labor first appeared on Polaris.

When workers call the National Human Trafficking Hotline to report abuses at their workplaces, one of the most common methods of control they mention is threats of deportation. In fact, between 2018 and 2020, nearly 6 out of every 10 H-2A visa holders that reported their trafficking situation to the Trafficking Hotline said they were being threatened with immigration consequences if they complain about the exploitative working conditions.

With these new guidelines, noncitizen workers can submit a “Deferred Action” request and an application for “Employer Authorization” in a new centralized intake office, a step that halts any deportation proceedings and provides temporary immigration protections. This is a clear message to employers that use threats of deportation as a way to control foreign workers. At the same time, it offers an important incentive for workers to feel more protected when they see or experience violations of their labor rights. 

Polaris has highlighted the importance of effectively protecting noncitizens workers against trafficking and exploitation, and some of the unique vulnerabilities that they experience: isolation, remote work sites, dependency of the employer for housing and transportation, low English proficiency, lack of access to support networks, just to mention a few of them. These new guidelines could benefit vulnerable workers in many industries across the country, regardless of their status, which is an important development toward empowering foreign workers. The connection with appropriate legal services remains essential and for isolated workers, this is a real challenge.

The new guidelines work hand in hand with two other important announcements that also can contribute to empower workers to report violations to their rights. First, in July 2022, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a document to provide workers with “guidance on how to seek the department’s support for their requests to the Department of Homeland Security for immigration-related prosecutorial discretion.” Another tool for immigrant workers is the new guidance from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that makes it easier for them to safely participate in investigations without fearing for their immigration status. Polaris is pleased to see DHS and DOL taking these critical steps — and we will keep working towards a labor environment free of trafficking and exploitation. 

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The post New Department of Homeland Security Guidelines Give Power Back to Immigrant Workers first appeared on Polaris.

“To respond to the workers’ mobility in North America, we need a robust safety net that effectively identifies and connects victims and survivors of human trafficking, and related exploitation, to appropriate services. During the summit we focused on strategies to enhance regional cooperation to assist victims and survivors of human trafficking, share data on emerging trends, and identifying opportunities for collaboration in public policy advocacy to prevent and respond to human trafficking across the region,” says Andrea Rojas, Director of Strategic Initiative on Labor Trafficking at Polaris. Polaris operates the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.

“There is a growing need for governments to act decisively to combat labor trafficking in North America. Non-profit organizations cannot do this work alone. National strategies and policies can help coordinate our collective efforts towards making resources more available to victims and survivors,” says Julia Drydyk, Executive Director, The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking. The Centre operates The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010, a confidential, multi-lingual service that is available 24/7.

“One quarter of Consejo Ciudadano’s human trafficking-related attention is related to labor exploitation and forced labor. It has also detected that migrants are victims of extortion, fraud, kidnapping, and forced labor for criminal groups. Hence, the relevance of Consejo’s coordination with local and federal authorities to share data on how traffickers operate, risk situations and places where the crime occurs; in addition to participating in the design of prevention policies, attention to victims, and monitoring judicial processes,” says Salvador Guerrero Chiprés, president of Consejo Ciudadano. Consejo Ciudadano operates the National Hotline and Chat against Human Trafficking at 800 5533 000, to prevent, provide care and combat this crime in Mexico.
  
Three organizations will meet regularly to continue learning from each other’s experiences and raise awareness among migrants and temporary foreign workers at-risk of being exploited in North America. Hotlines in the three countries will work more closely to provide more appropriate, trauma-informed referrals and person-centred assistance to victims and survivors of human trafficking traveling in North America.
 
For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact:

Flor Canseco, Consejo Ciudadano
prensa@consejociudadanomx.org

Rafael Flores, Polaris
rflores@polarisproject.org

Aziz Froutan, The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking
afroutan@ccteht.ca  

The post North America, United to Combat Human Trafficking first appeared on Polaris.

It is no secret that the U.S. agriculture industry is largely sustained by a Mexican workforce, as few U.S.-born workers are willing to take these difficult and low-paid jobs. This is why the U.S. offers the H-2A visa, which allows foreign nationals to come to the United States temporarily to work in the agricultural sector. More than 90 percent of these visas go to Mexican nationals. 

Sadly, statistics from the National Human Trafficking Hotline show that H-2A visa holders are highly vulnerable to labor trafficking. Between 2018 and 2020, the Trafficking Hotline identified more than 2,800 H-2A visa holders who reported being victims of labor trafficking. And across all sectors, almost 60% of victims of forced labor are foreign nationals in cases where the Trafficking Hotline is able to identify immigration status. Mexicans are by far the most reported nationality among foreigners who are exploited by traffickers in our country. 

This is why Polaris has been working tirelessly with the Consulates from Mexico in the U.S. to speak directly with the Mexican community working in the U.S. Whether they come to work every year or have a more permanent job, Polaris aims to spread the word about human and labor rights and also about resources available for workers. In 2022 alone, Polaris has reached approximately 3,500 Mexican citizens, and at least 272 consular officers have been trained to recognize human trafficking.  

This relationship with the Mexican Consulates started back in 2016, and now the Consular Network and Polaris have signed an agreement in order to formalize this collaboration and expand training opportunities with agents that have direct contact with the Mexican community. Building trust by sharing valuable information and connecting them with useful resources is the best way to make sure that migrants and their communities are aware of their rights and appropriately identify situations of trafficking.

It’s not the only strategy for being good allies. As a proactive way to reach vulnerable workers, Polaris is also implementing Nonechka, which gathers direct input from immigrant workers about dynamics of exploitation via survey, connecting them to important resources and enabling the trafficking field to hear from workers first-hand — making visible their experiences and the variables that make them vulnerable to trafficking in the agricultural environment. 

Partnering with our neighbor is not only a need; it is simply the right thing to do to help eradicate labor trafficking from our food supply chain. 

The post Polaris Partners with Mexico’s Government to Combat Labor Trafficking first appeared on Polaris.

“Human trafficking is a complex and dynamic crime,” said Catherine Chen, CEO of Polaris. “Without an investigation of exactly what happened before migrants were put on a plane and unwittingly used for political gain, it would be irresponsible to accuse anyone of trafficking. 

Human trafficking is a federal crime and has a clear legal definition. Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to exploit other people for financial or personal gain. Despite popular misconception, trafficking has nothing to do with transportation. 

In the context of the events involving migrants transported from Texas and Florida to Martha’s Vineyard and Washington, D.C. Polaris is deeply concerned about reports of fraud. 

Multiple news outlets have reported that migrants who were sent to Martha’s Vineyard were told they were going to be flown to Boston where they had jobs and housing awaiting, or to sanctuary cities because they could ‘get better help there.‘ The Washington Post reported migrants receiving unsigned and erroneous guidance telling them to report their whereabouts to the wrong agency within the Department of Homeland Security. 

These acts of calculated deception were reportedly used to trick migrants onto buses and planes.  Unfortunately, this tactic is one that we know far too well in the anti-trafficking world. Migrants are regularly tricked and defrauded as part of their trafficking experience, with traffickers and exploiters taking advantage of their recent arrival, limited English proficiency, and unfamiliarity with our government systems and labor laws. In a recently released study of 4,000 legal temporary workers in the United States between 2018 to 2020, Polaris found that in 34 percent of cases migrants reported that misrepresentation of destination/work situation was part of their trafficking experience. 

If migrants were defrauded, and if this fraud was intended as a vehicle for anyone’s material gain including that of an elected official, then there is a case for investigating it as trafficking.” 

“The views expressed in this statement are of Polaris alone and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of the National Human Trafficking Hotline or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.”

The post Polaris’s Statement on Recent Immigrant Relocation and Trafficking first appeared on Polaris.

The post Labor Trafficking On Specific Temporary Work Visas Report first appeared on Polaris.

Now, D.C. wants to change that and it’s about time.

On June 16, the D.C. Council will hear testimony from Polaris and others in support of B24-712, the Domestic Worker Employment Rights Amendment Act of 2022. This bill, introduced by At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, is an important step toward giving workers the tools they need to protect themselves and making it more difficult to traffick and exploit the very workers who make it possible for the rest of the economy to function.

While trafficking and exploitation are, of course, illegal already, the fact that domestic workers have few enumerated rights under law, are left out of most labor protections federally, and tend to work in more informal types of arrangements, makes them particularly vulnerable. Additionally, domestic workers tend to belong to communities that are vulnerable to trafficking for other reasons. Immigrants who are not documented are vulnerable to trafficking because traffickers can threaten to have them deported. Poverty is a key vulnerability to trafficking.

Of the 47,319 domestic workers living in the DMV metro area:

• 93% are women
• 78% are people of color
• 65% are immigrants
• $21,573 is the median annual earnings

The volume of labor trafficking of domestic workers in the District of Columbia largely mirrors what happens at the national level. The Trafficking Hotline from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2020 found that 31 percent of the labor trafficking, sex and labor trafficking, and labor exploitation situations in D.C. reported to the Hotline involved domestic workers.¹

The legislation before the council would

• Include domestic workers in D.C.’s Human Rights Act, to provide protection against sexual harassment and discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and other protected classes
• End the exclusion of domestic workers from D.C.’s occupational health and safety law
• Require written agreements between domestic workers and their employers to ensure workers know their rights and employers are aware of their responsibilities
• Provide supports and services to ensure workers know their rights and employers know their responsibilities.

Similar legislation pending before Congress would offer these kinds of needed protections for all domestic workers in the United States. In the meantime, 19 states and two major municipalities have passed their own versions of a domestic workers’ bill of rights to ensure this vital workforce is protected and treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. D.C. can and should be next.

¹ The data being reported here was generated based on information communicated to the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline via phone, email, online tip report, SMS, or Webchat. The Trafficking Hotline cannot verify the accuracy of the information reported. This is not a comprehensive report on the scale or scope of human trafficking within the United States. These statistics are accurate as of May 19, 2022 but are subject to change as new information emerges or as data cleanup occurs. Since awareness of both human trafficking and the existence of a national victim service hotline is still limited, this data set should be interpreted as a limited sample of actual victim or trafficking incident data, rather than a representation of all existent victims or incidents of human trafficking. The information reported by the Trafficking Hotline is only able to represent who has access to and knowledge of the Trafficking Hotline, who has the means to reach out, and who is more likely to self-identify as a likely victim or someone in need of assistance. The data reported by Polaris should not be compared to the findings of more rigorous academic studies or prevalence estimates.

The post D.C. Domestic Workers Deserve Protections first appeared on Polaris.

Nonchka significa “cerca de ti” en náhuatl, uno de los idiomas indígenas predominantes que hablan los trabajadores agrícolas migrantes de México, donde se implementó el proyecto. El proyecto se llama así porque fue diseñado para conectarse directamente con estos trabajadores, a menudo aislados. Nonechka ofrece canales de retroalimentación vía mensajes de texto y voz que brindan una forma segura y anónima para que las personas trabajadoras compartan información sobre las condiciones de reclutamiento, contratación y empleo que aumentan su vulnerabilidad a la trata. Al mismo tiempo, las organizaciones aliadas de Polaris distribuyen información a través de mensajes de texto y voz para informarles sobre sus derechos y los servicios disponibles donde se encuentran. Este informe explora la primera etapa del proyecto Nonechka, implementado en ocho estados de México: Baja California, Chiapas, Guanajuato, Guerrero, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora y Oaxaca.

The post Nonechka first appeared on Polaris.

“I am honored to be named to the Homeland Security Advisory Council under Secretary Mayorkas’s leadership,” said Chen. “With a seat at the table, the anti-trafficking field can help guide and inform public policy choices that can dramatically improve how this country supports immigrant victims of trafficking and keeps vulnerable people safe,” she added. To read her full statement, visit here.

“These distinguished leaders have agreed to serve our country as members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council at a critically important time not only for our nation, but also for the world,” said Secretary Mayorkas. “Together, we will ensure that the Department is best positioned to meet the challenges we confront today, foresee and be ready for the challenges of tomorrow, capitalize on the power of technological innovation, and serve our country by living up to our highest ideals. Our Department is privileged to benefit from the experience, vision, and creativity of these incredibly accomplished individuals.”

As a member of the Council, Catherine Chen and other Council members will provide strategic advice and recommendations to the Secretary of Homeland Security, a member of the President’s Cabinet. DHS is the third-largest Cabinet department, responsible for a broad portfolio of domestic security matters from cybersecurity and emergency management, to aviation and border security, to countering child exploitation and the provision of the legal immigration system. Through the Council, Catherine Chen will help define DHS’s strategic vision, strengthen the Department to better meet the increasingly dynamic and rapidly evolving threat landscape, and harness technology and innovation to modernize the programs it administers.

Catherine Chen brings Polaris’s expertise to the table, acquired after nearly fifteen years of managing the National Human Trafficking Hotline and hearing directly from survivors of human trafficking, many of them workers in the United States under the temporary work visa system. For some years now, Polaris has suggested a redesign of temporary work visas in order to close the gaps that allow trafficking in these government-sponsored programs.

The Council was originally established in 2003 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a federal law that governs the establishment and operation of committees that provide consensus advice to a federal government agency. Secretary Mayorkas has reimagined the Council to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities that an evolving homeland security landscape presents. The Council will convene for its first meeting on March 21, 2022. For more information about the Council, visit here.  

Secretary Mayorkas has appointed the following individuals to the HSAC: 

• Jayson Ahern, Principal, The Chertoff Group
• John Allen, President, The Brookings Institution 
• Dmitri Alperovitch, Co-Founder and Chairman, Silverado Policy Accelerator
• Marc Andreessen, Co-Founder and General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz 
• Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, Chairwoman, Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah 
• Mary Barra, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, General Motors Company
• Tarika Barrett, Chief Executive Officer, Girls Who Code
• Noah Bookbinder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
• Safra Catz, Chief Executive Officer, Oracle Corporation
• Catherine Chen, Chief Executive Officer, Polaris 
• Michael Chertoff, Former Secretary of DHS and Co-Founder, The Chertoff Group
• Carrie Cordero, Senior Fellow & General Counsel, Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
• Lynn Good, Chair, President & Chief Executive Officer, Duke Energy 
• Jamie Gorelick, Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP
• Danielle Gray, Executive Vice President and Global Chief Legal Officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. 
• Jane Harman, Distinguished Fellow and President Emerita, The Woodrow Wilson Center
• Robert Isom, Incoming Chief Executive Officer, American Airlines 
• Carie Lemack, Co-Founder, Zed Factor Fellowship
• Scott Kirby, Chief Executive Officer, United Airlines Holdings, Inc.
• Michael Masters, National Director & Chief Executive Officer, Secure Community Network
• Brian Moynihan, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of America 
• Janet Murguía, President and Chief Executive Officer, Unidos US
• Leon Panetta, Former Secretary of Defense and Chairman, The Panetta Institute for Public Policy
• Ted Schlein, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins (KPCB)
• Sonal Shah, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Network Operations, United Way Worldwide, and Founding President, The Asian American Foundation
• Ali Soufan, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, The Soufan Group, LLC
• Todd Stern, Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution 
• Vincent Talucci, Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer, International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)
• Jonathan Thompson, Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer, National Sheriffs’ Association
• Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Chobani, LLC
• Lynda R. Williams, Immediate Past President, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE)
• Patrick Yoes, National President, Fraternal Order of Police
• Wendy Young, President, Kids In Need of Defense (KIND)  

The post Polaris CEO, Catherine Chen, Appointed by DHS Secretary Mayorkas to Homeland Security Advisory Council first appeared on Polaris.