(The Center Square) – The Trump administration continues to crack down on visa fraud and human smuggling involving agricultural workers.
The latest indictments were unsealed in the Southern District of Georgia on Tuesday against five Hispanic adults, including a Mexican national in the country illegally, on charges of exploiting an agricultural H-2A visa program involving smuggling illegal foreign nationals into the U.S.
Three of the indicted were living in Alma, Georgia: Martha Aquino, Evangelina Aquino De Galvan, and Julio Cervantes; one in Rowlett, Marco Cervantes; and one from Mexico: Juan Felipe Romero-Lopez.
Aquino, Julio and Marco Cervantes were arrested this week, authorities said. De Galvan remains at large. Romero-Lopez has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after first being charged in May for “unlawful possession of a firearm by an illegal alien,” authorities said.
The alleged conspiracy is one federal prosecutors are identifying in multiple states: foreign nationals and U.S. citizens conspire to exploit the H-2A visa program by fraudulently obtaining temporary visas for agricultural workers. Foreign nationals are often smuggled into the country or brought in illegally using fraudulent paperwork under the guise of an agricultural program and then exploited in forced labor situations and unsafe working and housing environments once in the U.S., investigators have found.
The H-2A program allows U.S. employers or agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the U.S. to fill temporary agricultural jobs for up to three years.
“The H-2A is specifically designed to help farmers fill temporary or seasonal jobs when there is a shortage of domestic labor,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said. “Instead of helping American farmers, these defendants allegedly concocted a scheme to enrich themselves by manipulating the program and smuggling aliens into the country for profit.”
According to the charges, the defendants “lied” about where the foreign nationals would work and live and didn’t comply with the laws and rules governing the visa program. They also demanded and received payments from the workers before the H-2A visa applications were filed and/or before they began working in the U.S., the charges allege.
The federal program does not require foreign nationals to pay to participate. It requires the U.S. employers to pay a range of fees, including income taxes for the workers, as well as to comply with and meet inspections conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The defendants also confiscated and withheld the foreign nationals’ identification documents, including their passports, and threatened or used violence against them to deter them from leaving or not showing up to work, according to the complaint.
After their visas expired, they had no way to leave and remained in the country illegally. The conspirators then “enabled them to remain in the United States and even offered to transport them elsewhere in the United States in exchange for additional improper payments,” the charges state.
“The defendants allegedly used fraud and intimidation to exploit vulnerable workers and undermine the H-2A visa program, a system designed to meet legitimate agricultural labor needs,” Department of Labor Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said. “Their egregious conduct included demanding improper payments, confiscating workers’ identification documents, and using threats or violence to maintain control.”
The charges include conspiring to commit visa fraud, visa fraud, encouraging and inducing aliens to enter the U.S. illegally for commercial advantage and private gain and “unlawful possession of a firearm by an illegal alien.”
If convicted, they each face up to decades in prison depending on the charges. Visa fraud carries up to 10 years in prison; visa fraud conspiracy up to five years; encouraging and inducing illegal entry up to 10 years; and the firearms charge up to 15 years.
Homeland Security Investigations-Savannah, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, DOL-Office of Inspector General, and Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating the case. HSI’s Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C., and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center International Interdiction Task Force also assisted with the investigation.
Prosecutions of H-2A visa fraud, forced labor and human smuggling are ongoing nationwide. Recent H-2a visa fraud cases include 61 indictments in a forced labor case in Washington and multiple indictments for operating forced labor operations in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.
Other labor law violations involving immigration fraud and identity theft spanning Nebraska to North Carolina are being prosecuted as well as thousands of cases of marriage and welfare fraud in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Charter school and educational visa fraud is being prosecuted in at least 21 states; student visa fraud involving Chinese and Russian students, is being prosecuted nationwide, as is birth tourism visa fraud, The Center Square reported.
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