Urge California to ensure all its temporary workers are free from slavery

Thousands of temporary workers are being trafficked into forced labor in California under threat of violence, deportation, and harm to their families. 

California attracts more temporary foreign workers than anywhere else in the US. As the fifth largest global economy, workers on lawful visas from all over the world seek opportunities in California.¹

The vast majority of temporary workers are recruited via third-party foreign labor contractors (FLCs), some of whom act neither lawfully nor ethically. 

For example, unscrupulous FLCs have been known to drive to remote Mexican villages to find their recruits, who they contact via Facebook and WhatsApp. The FLCs take advantage of the desperation of low-income workers in these villages to increase their profits by charging high fees and deceiving them into exploitative work conditions.²

Once in the US, workers are bound to a single employer and are dependent on them for housing, food, and visas. Employers can take advantage of this power imbalance to abuse their workers—and because FLCs act as brokers between employer and worker, employers bear little responsibility for any wrongdoing. 

These circumstances mean that temporary workers are among the most exploited legally authorized workers in the country. The full scope of the problem is not known because workers rarely report labor abuses for fear of losing their jobs and immigration status.

California state legislators tried to address these risks in 2014 by passing Senate Bill 477³(SB477), a bill designed to create better oversight for FLCs, with wide bipartisan support. The bill aimed to regulate FLCs by requiring:  

1. The registration of FLCs 
2. The use of only registered FLCs by California employers 
3. Full and honest disclosure of working terms and conditions during the recruiting process, including no fees, and 
4. Penalties for failure to comply with these requirements 

The bill became law in 2016. However, because of the way this new law was incorporated into existing legal provisions for farmworkers, it fails in its goals. As it’s currently framed, the new legislation allows for an interpretation that would limit the law to non-agricultural workers on H-2B visas. With the vast majority of migrant workers in California being on other temporary work visas, only around 3% of migrant workers are protected by SB477. 

As currently interpreted, SB477 leaves thousands of temporary workers in California at high risk of exploitation and human trafficking.⁴

This must change. 

Our partners at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking have been lobbying for the small legislative change needed to fix the law. While simple, the amendment has faced opposition from industry lobbyists who stand to gain from the loophole.⁵

We are calling on the California State Legislature to support the amendment to update SB477 to support all FLC visa workers by: 

Fulfilling SB477’s original goal of covering all migrant workers by deleting Section 9998 of California Business and Professions Code. This section, which you can read below, creates the loophole which allows workers on H-2A visas to fall through the cracks. This chapter shall apply only to “nonagricultural workers” as defined by Section 1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(b) of Title 8 of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act. It shall not apply to any person duly licensed as a “farm labor contractor” as that term is defined in Section 1682 of the Labor Code nor shall it apply to any person exempt from the licensing requirement in Section 1682.5 of the Labor Code or to any employer employing agricultural workers as defined by Section 1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(a) of Title 8 of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act

20 years ago- The U.S. Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the first federal law combatting human trafficking in the U.S. and globally.  

15 years ago- California passed its first law, AB 22 (Lieber), to combat human trafficking statewide. 

10 years ago- Mayor, now Governor, Newsom started a human trafficking task force in San Francisco, California, with other cities and counties across the state following his lead. 

THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW:  

Call on the California State Legislature to amend Senate Bill 477 to protect all migrant workers, regardless of visa or industry, from forced labor and human trafficking.