Legal Aid Files Suit Against Local Companies & Department of Labor For Violating Rights of U.S. Workers

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                      
October 10, 2007
Contact: Jake Wedemeyer
830.773.6151
jwedemeyer@trla.org

EAGLE PASS, Texas – Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA), the leading defender of civil rights in Texas, has filed suit against Nowell Borders, Mata Trucking Company, Martinez Packing Company, and the Department of Labor for illegally importing more than four hundred temporary foreign workers to work in south and west Texas, including the Rio Grande Valley, from 2001 to 2007.

The suit, filed on behalf of 19 Texas farmworkers, alleges that the companies manipulated the visa program to obtain cheap foreign labor and avoid providing housing, transportation, and meals to workers.  Though hundreds of United States workers applied for the positions, the companies refused to hire almost all of them.  The Department of Labor is named as a defendant for failing to protect United States workers by not verifying reports that they were unwilling to take the jobs.

According to TRLA employee and Equal Justice Works Fellow Jake Wedemeyer, “These companies purposefully manipulated events so that they could hire cheap foreign labor.  They violated the rights of U.S. workers so that they could take advantage of foreign workers.”

The companies applied for guestworker visas using the H-2B program that is designed for nonagricultural employment.  The program has fewer recruiting requirements than the H-2A agricultural visa program which the companies should have used and would have required the recruitment of domestic workers at higher wages.

As Wedemeyer explains, the choice to use the H-2B program and hire foreign guestworkers was both illegal and unnecessary, particularly in areas where local unemployment rates are higher than state and national averages.

The United States Congress is currently considering additional protections to ensure that U.S. workers are given employment preference over foreign guestworkers.

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Established in 1970, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides free civil legal services to low-income and disadvantaged clients in a 68-county service area that covers the southwestern third of the state, including the entire Texas-Mexico border region. TRLA’s mission is to promote the dignity, self-sufficiency, safety and stability of low-income Texas residents by providing high quality civil legal assistance and related educational services. For more information on TRLA visit www.trla.org.

Wedemeyer’s Equal Justice Works Fellowship is sponsored by the Texas Equal Access to Justice  Foundation (TEAJF).  TEAJF administers funds to create community capacity to provide civil legal services for low-income Texans.  The organization is committed to the vision that all Texans will have equal access to justice, regardless of their income.