Guest Workers Seek Global Horizons

Another fly in the immigration-argument ointment
BB

By Kari Lydersen
U.S. company finds its niche exploiting migrant labor
About 170 Thai migrants paid thousands of dollars to recruiters in Bangkok for the opportunity to work in the bountiful orchards of Washington state. Their tale illustrates the pitfalls of the H-2A guest worker program which is a mainstay – along with undocumented labor – of the U.S. agricultural system.
The migrant workers paid up to $8,000 each to Thai recruiters working for Global Horizons, a California-based company, which then obtained H-2A agricultural guest worker visas for them, flew them to Washington and set them up in housing, as required by the federal program.
Before taking the jobs, the workers had been told they would live in apartments, eat meals catered by a Mexican restaurant and be able to send significant amounts of money home to their families, according to the Seattle Times.