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Guest worker program close to modern-day slavery
April 25 , 2008
By Sr. Jean Juliano, DC
    “I am a man. Dignity.” These words were written on placards held in the hands of many of the 100 Indian guest workers leading a protest on the steps of the Mississippi capitol on March 20. These workers made Jackson one of their stops in their march to Washington, D.C., where they hope to meet with members of Congress to ask for changes in the guest worker program.
    These workers walked out of their jobs at Signal International in Pascagoula claiming Signal had made fraudulent promises to them when they hired them for jobs in the H2B guest worker program.
    The Southern Poverty Law Center (SLPC) in Montgomery, Ala., and the New Orleans Workers Center have helped them to file a class action lawsuit against Signal.
    I find it interesting their placards did not call for better wages but rather that Signal recognizes they are human beings who deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Our Catholic bishops have been drumming that very message in their Campaign for Justice.
    At the center of this dispute is the guest worker program which is part of our immigration system. Let’s take a look at the program prompting this protest.
    The SLPC has this to say about the H2B current system: These workers are not treated like ‘guests.’ Rather, they are systematically exploited and abused. Unlike U.S. citizens, guest workers do not enjoy the fundamental protection of a competitive labor market … the ability to change jobs if they are mistreated. Instead, they are bound to the employers who ‘import’ them. If guest workers complain about abuses, they face deportation, blacklisting or other retaliation.
    In fact, Rep. Charles Rangel (D, New York ) is quoted as saying, “This guest worker program is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to slavery.”
    Keep in mind these workers are brought in legally, with temporary visas that stipulate the time of their stay in the U.S. The law center outlines the abuses of the program on guestworkers who they say are: routinely cheated out of wages, forced to mortgage their futures to obtain low-wage, temporary jobs, held virtually captive by employers or labor brokers who seize their documents, forced to live in squalid conditions, and denied medical benefits for on-the-job injuries.
    One of the Indian workers at the protest previously mentioned told the press “we were like pigs in a cage.”
    And to add to the caged feeling the men say they were forced to pay $1,050 a month to live in crowded company housing in isolated, fenced labor camps where as many as 24 men shared a trailer with only two toilets. And when they tried to find their own housing they were told they would still have the rent deducted from their pay.
    These workers from India who SPLC says paid recruiters $20,000 for travel, visa and other fees were told by these recruiters they would get good jobs, green cards and permanent U.S. residency. And for an extra $1,500 per person they could bring their families to live in the U.S.
    Many of these recruiters all are said to make a hefty profit carrying on their business. They know how to appeal to desperate men and women who see their work as a way out of poverty for their families. What often happens is they end up with more debt than earned wages and their dream turns into a nightmare.
    The experience of these Indian workers is certainly not an isolated incident. Abuses associated with the guest worker program are well-known and are documented by lawyers and law firms like the Southern Poverty Law Center. You can access their website for more specific information about the abuses in the system.
    What can the ordinary person do? Let me repeat what the law center recommends: the H2 guest worker program is fundamentally flawed. Because guestworkers are tied to a single employer and have little or no ability to enforce their rights, they are routinely exploited.
    The guest worker program should not be expanded or used as a model for immigration reform. If the program is permitted to continue it should be radically altered to address the vast disparity in power between guest workers and employers.
    I feel certain we Catholics would not want to support a program that treats people like slaves. We often feel powerless to remedy a bad situation but in this case we can voice our support for immigration reform including the radical improvement of a guestworker segment of the immigration system. We must let our legislators know how we feel about eradicating “slavery” from the immigration system.
    Our efforts to support just, humane reform of this program as well as the entire immigration system will go a long way in ensuring that the worth and dignity of all workers will be assured.
(Sister Jean Juliano, DC, works with the diocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry as a legislative advocate.)

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