Dear House Committee on the Judiciary,
Migration that Works writes to express our concerns regarding the Carnivals are Real Entertainment (“CARE”) Act. Migration that Works is a coalition of labor, migration, civil rights, and anti-trafficking organizations and academics advancing a labor migration model that respects the human rights of workers, families, and communities, and reflects their voices and experiences.
Severe and widespread abuse of H-2B workers in the mobile entertainment industry is well-documented. For example, in Taken for a Ride, a 2013 report co-authored with the American University Washington College of Law Immigrant Justice Clinic, CDM examined the working conditions of H-2B carnival workers.1 We found that H-2B workers in this industry were regularly required to work more than 80 hours per week for flat rates of around $300 per week, subjected to extremely dangerous working conditions without access to workers’ compensation, and required to live in isolated and substandard housing. There has been no meaningful improvement since the report was published: our organizations continue to receive harrowing reports of labor trafficking, extreme sub-minimum wage pay, and other abuses suffered by H-2B mobile entertainment workers.
Section 2 of the CARE Act would make this abusive situation significantly worse. By designating mobile entertainment workers under section 101(a)(15)(P) of the INA, the proposed legislation would allow employers in this industry to bring workers into the
country on P- visas, excluding them from existing protections and oversight they currently have under the H-2B program.2 These protections, though far from adequate to fully address the pervasive abuses in this industry, are critical to curbing the most severe exploitation mobile entertainment workers experience and allowing these workers to seek justice when their rights are violated. For example, the Department of Labor recently received a favorable decision where a judge affirmed a DOL investigation that found severe wage violations and recovered $146,243 owed to H-2B carnival workers.3 Without the protections of the H-2B program and the oversight of the DOL, workers would not have recovered these wages.
In addition, section 2’s definitions of “mobile entertainment provider” and “functions that are common in the mobile entertainment industry” are extremely and excessively broad. As a result, the proposed legislation’s degradation of already inadequate protection and oversight would affect a wide range of festival and other mobile entertainment workers.
This is particularly concerning given that the United States is slated to be a hosting country for the upcoming World Cup in 2026.
Recommendation:
We strongly urge the members of the House Committee on the Judiciary to prevent this bill from moving forward. Migrant workers already facing rampant abuse in the mobile entertainment industry would be placed in a more vulnerable position if allowed to be recruited under P-visas instead of H-2B visas.
Sincerely,
Migration that Works
1 Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc., Taken for a Ride (2013), Click to access Taken_Ride.pdf
2 See, e.g., U.S. Dept. of Labor Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet #69: Requirements to Participate in the H-2B Program (October 2009), https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/69-h2b-requirements3 DOL, Court Orders Minnesota Carnival Operators to Pay $146k in Back Wages to Temporary Foreign Workers Denied Wages, $63k in Civil Money Penalties (March 27, 2024),
migrationthatworks.org 