The Biden-Harris Administration has a crucial opportunity to marshal the federal government’s resources and deploy its agencies to more effectively combat human trafficking—a devastating problem that the pandemic has exacerbated. As we observe Human Trafficking Prevention Month, the time is now for a robust, worker-centered strategy to end human trafficking, and particularly forced labor and debt bondage. Last month, the Administration published an updated National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (“Plan”). While Migration that Works commends the Administration for using gender and racial equity lenses and addressing migrant workers in its Plan—vital perspectives missing from the last administration’s version of the Plan—its proposed strategies to protect migrant workers fall woefully short.
Yesterday, U.S. President Biden convened with Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau and President López Obrador of Mexico, to discuss regional priorities, including migration. As a coalition of labor, migration, civil rights, anti-trafficking organizations and academics, we urge all three leaders to move away from “quick-fix” solutions and keep working towards a regional vision of migration that prioritizes the human rights of migrants and their families.
Migration that Works decries the vile, inhumane treatment of Haitian migrant families and asylum-seekers at the US Border. The horrific violence perpetrated by the US Border Patrol in Del Río, Texas towards primarily Black Haitian migrants searching for refuge and security is unconscionable and unforgivable. This treatment is reminiscent of the footprint of slavery in the US, and the Biden Administration’s treatment of Haitian migrants is a reminder of the systemic racism and anti-Blackness that viciously pervade US institutions.
When the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) unveiled the location of the 2026 World Cup, sports fans across North America naturally rejoiced. For the first time, the most-watched tournament in the world would be hosted by three countries: Mexico, the US and Canada. And this time, advocates had a reason to be enthusiastic, too—FIFA would require host nations and cities to submit a human rights plan as part of its selection criteria. This new policy signaled FIFA’s commitment to creating the infrastructure to address human rights abuses and to protect workers, following the highly-publicized, atrocious working conditions faced by guestworkers in the years leading up to the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Last week, the Biden Administration published its Blueprint for a Fair, Orderly, and Humane Immigration System and the “Collaborative Migration Management Strategy” report, both of which included plans to expand access to Central America for the current H-2A and H-2B temporary work visa programs. At the same time, the Administration announced that it will resume the inhumane expedited removal of asylum-seeking families, and has yet to repeal the Title 42 policy, which directs immigration authorities to summarily expel migrants without providing them the opportunity to seek protection in the United States. These policies are a troubling continuation of the Trump Administration’s approach, prioritizing the expansion of exploitative temporary work visa programs over our government’s humanitarian responsibilities to asylum seekers and those with protection needs.
We fear that the appropriations process will once again be used to the detriment of workers, whose risks have only intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this letter, we strongly urge members of Congress to oppose any and all appropriation riders that will increase exploitation and further undermine fundamental rights for migrant workers and workers in the U.S.
Migration that Works applauds the Biden-Harris administration for its bold immigration plan that would grant a pathway to citizenship to millions of undocumented individuals, including DACA recipients, TPS holders, and immigrant farmworkers. We also celebrate the end of the Muslim travel ban and a commitment to advance racial equity signaled through Day 1 executive orders.
Since 2011, Migration that Works has advocated for strong worker protections in the U.S. temporary work visa programs, including the H-2A, H-2B, H-1B, J-1, and TN visa categories. Many of those workers, sadly, find themselves in abusive worksites where their labor and employment rights are not respected and are repeatedly violated with impunity by employers that can exert a great deal of power over them due to the legal frameworks of work visa programs, most of which tie each worker and their immigration status to a single employer. Last month, our coalition met with the Biden-Harris Transition team, sharing our recommendations to advance policies and a labor migration model that respects and uplifts the experiences of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who enter the U.S. every year. We are happy to see the Biden-Harris immigration plan include protections from retaliation for workers that would allow them to remain in the country to pursue legal avenues to seek redress and hold employers accountable for lawbreaking.
Our coalition looks forward to working with the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure strong, enforceable protections are in place for the migrant and seasonal workers in the temporary work visa programs, to ensure that temporary work status is de-linked from employers, and to ensure the fair treatment and dignity of all workers, regardless of status.
Migration that Works is a coalition of labor, migration, civil rights, 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. We envision a value-based model for labor migration that prioritizes the human rights of workers and their families, elevating labor standards for all workers.
As the COVID-19 pandemic worsens across the country and millions of families remain at home to keep safe, essential workers continue to risk their lives in every sector of the economy. Despite their sacrifice, workers on the front lines have often been denied basic protections. In one particularly stark example, Maribel and Reyna, two crawfish workers in Louisiana, watched as dozens of their coworkers fell sick with COVID-19. Despite the outbreak, their employers failed to provide them with masks and instead forced them to continue working and living in crowded, dangerous conditions. When two workers became sick and sought medical attention, their employer fired them and reported them to immigration authorities.
For migrant workers, labor abuse didn’t start with the COVID-19 crisis. Rather, the pandemic has laid bare the ways in which our country’s temporary visa programs systematically risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who come to the United States every year. Workers are often recruited from their home countries with false promises. Instead, many discover hazardous working conditions, deplorable housing, and stolen wages. They are often unable to quit or return home because they are indebted to recruiters who charged them illegal fees in exchange for the promise of employment. Their visas and work authorization tie them to their employers, making it virtually impossible for them to find alternative employment. And with little government oversight or enforcement, unscrupulous employers are able to continue profiting from this exploitation.
As the country reckons with the havoc wrought by the pandemic, the economic crisis, and four years of harmful government action, it must prioritize the needs of its most vulnerable workers.
The MTW transition plan provides detailed recommendations for the Departments of Labor, Homeland Security, State, and Justice as well as the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. We call on the Biden-Harris administration to:
Implement realistic, worker-protective policies and practices to end recruiter fees. Recruiters–not workers–should face consequences when illegal fees are charged.
Provide immigration relief and work authorization for whistleblowers. Labor laws can only be effectively enforced when workers know that they will not face retaliation for reporting workplace mistreatment.
Revive the interagency task force on international labor recruitment.
Improve the transparency of temporary work visas by creating an accessible website with detailed information about visas, jobs, and recruiters.
Overhaul the visa programs so that each visa category has consistent regulations under a single framework.
Create an Office of International Labor Recruitment Certification and Oversight with the power to block program violators from accessing future visas.
Improve employer accountability by requiring all who benefit from migrant labor agree to joint liability.
Improve worker education and access to information by cooperating with governments in countries of origin to thwart misleading propaganda and by enhancing information provided during consular processing of temporary work visas.
Increase resources for enforcement so that unscrupulous employers and recruiters cannot continue profiting off of the mistreatment of migrant workers.
Expand labor and employment protections for migrant workers, particularly during the pandemic.
Migration that Works would like to thank Georgetown University Law Center Federal Legislation Clinic Director Cori Alonso-Yoder and students Jocelyn Westray and Marquisha Johns for contributing to this transition plan.
migrationthatworks.org 