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By Don Jenkins, Capital Press

Federal prosecutors have accused five people in Georgia with exploiting farmworkers from Mexico, alleging shakedown tactics that parallel two ongoing cases in Washington.

The five are accused of charging workers thousands of dollars to come to the U.S. and thousands more upon their arrival, and creating a climate of fear to keep workers in line.

The defendants allegedly lied about where farmworkers would work and live and allegedly encouraged some to overstay their visas, according to the Justice Department.

One victim allegedly paid $2,000 before coming to the U.S. and $2,000 after she arrived. She allegedly had her visa confiscated and was told she could get it back and go home if she paid another $2,000.

“The H-2A (program) is specifically designed to help farmers fill temporary or seasonal jobs when there is a shortage of domestic labor,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s criminal division.

“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,” he said.

Washington cases

U.S. attorneys earlier this year charged six people in Washington in two separate schemes that allegedly sought to illegally profit from the H-2A program. Two defendants pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Three defendants pleaded innocent and are awaiting trial. One apparently fled to Mexico.

Prosecutors have not presented all the evidence in the two cases, but the indictments allege the defendants illegally took money from farmworkers and intimidated them to keep working or stay silent.

Farmers can help prevent abuses by being careful about who they get workers from, said Enrique Gastelum, CEO of Worker and Farmer Labor Association, which helps farms navigate the H-2A program. “It can be tough,” he said. “You better know who they are.”

Gastelum said one-man farm labor contractors are a red flag, as are contractors that have one person recruiting and processing visas.

In Georgia, four of the five defendants were related and the fifth lived on another defendant’s property.

Like in Washington, farmworkers were allegedly illegally charged fees and threatened with violence, according to an indictment unsealed Sept. 15. Two victims allegedly paid $3,500 to come to the U.S. and another $4,000 upon their arrival.

Farmworkers allegedly were told one defendant had large dogs and guns and was authorized by another defendant to shoot anyone who came onto her property to remove workers.

In Washington, a Yakima-area couple, Francisco Rodriguez Martel and Esmeralda Rodriguez, have pleaded innocent to forced labor, victim tampering and other crimes.

They allegedly recruited more than 500 farmworkers from Mexico and illegally charged for visas, transportation, housing and food. Martel allegedly threatened farmworkers by claiming he had ties to a cartel in Mexico.

Their co-defendants, Erica Cisneros and Giovanna Sierra, pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced in January.

In another case, a Yakima couple, Jamie Rebeolledo Diaz and Socorro Ramos, are accused of posing as farm owners to dupe a farm labor contractor into obtaining 103 Mexican farmworkers.

The farmworkers in some cases were allegedly forced to work without pay. Diaz allegedly boasted about his ties to a Mexican cartel to keep workers in line and allegedly offered a farmworker $1,000 if she named workers talking to state investigators.

Ramos has pleaded innocent. Diaz apparently fled to Mexico before he was arrested, according to court records.