New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice

For Immediate Release
February 2, 2011

CONTACTS:

Saket Soni, New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice
504-881-6610; saket@nowcrj.org

Adela de la Torre, National Immigration Law Center
213-674-2832; delatorre@nilc.org

Immigrant Workers Hit Sheriff with Federal Suit in Campaign to Win Right to Remain in New Orleans

Community Demands End to Race-Based Deportations Through Orleans Parish Prison

NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 2, 2011—Today, members of the Congress of Day Laborers filed a federal lawsuit as part of a campaign to win the right to remain in New Orleans five years after they arrived as reconstruction workers to rebuild the city. The lawsuit takes Sheriff Marlin Gusman to task for unconstitutionally holding immigrants in his Orleans Parish Prison for months before they are funneled through deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Community members charged that by choosing to submit to “hold requests” from ICE, the sheriff is effectively terrorizing the communities he’s sworn to protect.

“The reconstruction workers who rebuilt New Orleans and made it their home are living in terror because of Sheriff Gusman,” said Jacinta Gonzalez, lead organizer of the Congress of Day Laborers. “The sheriff is running OPP in a way that ensures that even a person with a traffic ticket who comes to his jail will be funneled into deportation on the mere suspicion that person may be a non-citizen.”

Gonzalez spoke at a 24-hour prayer vigil that reconstruction workers and community members launched at the sheriff’s office on Wednesday to demand he reverse his policy of submitting to hold requests from ICE.

As the lawsuit details, Sheriff Gusman’s policy of submitting to hold requests from ICE has led to severe violations of the Constitution, including deprivation of liberty and due process. Plaintiff Antonio Ocampo, a father of a young child, was held unlawfully in OPP for 91 days. He filed five written complaints, all of which were ignored. His co-plaintiff Mario Cacho, another reconstruction worker, was held for more than 160 days. Federal law limits imprisonment on custody holds from ICE to 48 hours.

The workers are represented in the lawsuit by the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice and the National Immigration Law Center.

“I filed this lawsuit today not only for myself, but so that no one else will have to suffer as I did, spending months in jail without charge,” Ocampo said. “Too many people are living in terror because of the way Sheriff Gusman runs his jail.”

At Wednesday’s prayer vigil, survivors of OPP gave witness accounts of Gusman’s policy and practice of funneling Latino immigrants into deportation for minor offenses. Community members spoke about the climate of terror they live in as a result, and demanded that Gusman reverse his current policy of submitting to hold requests from ICE.

“I came to rebuild New Orleans, and New Orleans has become my home,” said Ezequiel Falcon, a member of the Congress of Day Laborers. “Why should I have to be afraid to walk my daughter to school? Why should I have to worry that every day here might be my last? I want what everybody wants, the right to remain in the community I love.”

“Although we know that a federal judge cannot grant the right to remain, we believe we can win it through this campaign,” Falcon said.

Following the end of the prayer vigil on Feb. 3, clergy and community members will march from Gusman’s office to the New Orleans City Council meeting for the 3 pm vote on an ordinance that would limit Gusman’s authority in expansion of Orleans Parish Prison’s jail size.

ABOUT: The Congress of Day Laborers is a project of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice (nowcrj.org). Plaintiffs are represented in the litigation by the New Orleans Workers’ Center Legal Department and the National Immigration Law Center (nilc.org), a national legal advocacy organization that defends and promotes the rights of low-income immigrants and their family members.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday April 20^th, 2009

Contact:

Jacob Horwitz (504) 452.9159

Guestworkers Sue Mississippi Labor Brokers, Expose Captive Worker Racket

Labor Broker Kingpins Defrauded U.S. Government to Run Lease-a-Worker Racketeering Ring

Temporary H-2B guestworkers filed a class action lawsuit today against major Mississippi labor contracting kingpins Brian and David Knight. The lawsuit alleges that Five Star Contractors LLC and Knights Marine & Industrial Services, Inc. fraudulently imported workers from Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines to a surveilled Mississippi labor camp in order to run a lease-a-worker racket in violation of federal law. The workers, who are welders and pipefitters, have been deadlocked in a fight for their dignity since they were brought to Mississippi in November 2007. The workers are members of the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity, a project of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice.

The workers’ suit exposes companies Five Star and Knights Marine, detailing the way that contractor kingpins Brian and David Knight “manipulated the H-2B guestworker program and defrauded the U.S. government and vulnerable migrant workers to generate a large pool of easily exploitable workers for on-call labor at Gulf Coast shipyards.”

Lured by false promises, workers paid thousands of dollars in illegal recruitment fees to agents of the U.S. companies. They were also pressured to turn over the deeds of their homes to the agents. “I plunged my family into debt to raise $7,000.00 for the visa,” said Miro Saucedo, a class representative. “We were desperate. They promised us American dreams but we arrived into a nightmare.”

The guestworkers’ civil suit vividly recounts the nightmare: “Upon arrival in Mississippi, they were transported to a surveillance labor camp consisting of windowless portable metal buildings while they waited weeks to be leased out. They waited weeks without work as their debts grew and they became increasingly desperate for Five Star and Knights Marine to comply with their contractual promises to workers and the U.S. Government.” Miro Saucedo, a class representative, said: “Five Star and Knights Marine held us hostage to hope of jobs that didn’t exist.”

Stripped of their dignity in the labor camp, workers fought back to demand that the companies comply with their promises to them and the U.S. government, but Five Star and Knights Marine took advantage of the rules of the H-2B guestworker program—which renders guestworkers completely dependent on their sponsoring employer for legal status, employment, and housing—to further coerce and threaten the guestworkers.

When worker Moises Santos submitted a petition on behalf of the workers, he was fired in retaliation for organizing. Santos later filed claims with the National Labor Relations Board. In a watershed victory, Santos won $13,000.00 in back wages.

“Subcontractors like Five Star manipulate the H-2B program year after year, creating a glut of easily exploitable workers who are on-call and desperate for work,” said Jacob Horwitz, an organizer with the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity.

The workers seek a declaration that their rights have been violated and an award of damages for Defendants’ unlawful conduct, including violations of the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §201 et seq., as well as for breach of contract, common law fraud, and breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing. The guestworkers seek this relief to make them whole for damages they have suffered and to ensure that they and other H-2B guestworkers will not be subjected by the Defendants to such illegal conduct in the future.

“The defendants’ actions are illegal and immoral – but not uncommon,” said Saket Soni, Director of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. “The Department of Labor signs off for employers who commit fraud and lease workers out of labor camps with full impunity. We need the Obama Administration to take a lesson in courage from these workers. We need them to crack down on companies no matter how powerful they are. The Obama Administration needs to protect workers, and needs to protect U.S. labor law.”

The workers are represented by lawyers specializing in employment and class actions: Jason J. Thompson and Kevin J. Stoops of Sommers Schwartz PC; Robert A. Alvarez of Jose Sandoval PC; Edward J. Tuddenham, Esq; Matthew L. Turner of Turner & Turner, P.C.; and Brent McBride of McBride Law Firm, PLLC.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Contact:
Jacob Horwitz (504) 452 9159
Saket Soni (504) 881 6610

Guestworkers Launch Strike To Expose Tennessee Employer Who Violated Federal Law

Prominent labor broker defrauded US government to import guestworkers and lease them across the South; H2B visa workers were made to work on military bases

NASHVILLE, TN — Guestworkers trapped in Nashville came forward today to expose the racket of prominent labor broker who defrauded the U.S. government to import workers and lease them across the South. Workers launched a strike, charged the employer with illegal retaliation against organizing, and demanded that the Department of Labor investigate the employer for fraud.

Workers are members of the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity, a membership organization of guestworkers across industries in the South.

The labor broker, Gary Lang, submitted fraudulent applications to the U.S. government, claiming that workers would be working for his company, Cumberland Environmental Resources, Inc., on site in Brentwood, TN. He swore to the U.S. government that he had these jobs and he could not find U.S. workers to fill them.

Workers from Peru, Bolivia, El Salvador, and Costa Rica paid thousands in recruitment fees to Cumberland’s agents for the jobs. When the workers arrived, they learned that the jobs they had been promised did not exist.

Workers languished for weeks, sometimes months, waiting for the work they were promised.  “We drowned our families in debt to pay thousands of dollars in recruitment fees to Cumberland’s agents,” said Miguel Angel Jovel, one of the workers.   “Cumberland held us hostage to the hope of jobs that didn’t exist.”

Finally, instead of providing the promised jobs, Cumberland leased the workers out to other contractors across the South.  These included contractors working on local, state, and federal government worksites.  Workers were employed on Maxwell Airforce Base in Alabama, Camp Lejuene in North Carolina, Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Veteran’s Hospital in Nashville, and universities across the South including University of Tennessee, Tennessee Tech, University of Kentucky, David Lipscomb, and others.

Workers filed an Unfair Labor Practice complaint, charging that Cumberland illegally retalited against their efforts to organize.

“Cumberland violated their contract with us — and with their own U.S. government,” said Tomas Arias. “When we asked to see our contracts, Cumberland refused.”

When workers asked for a meeting Cumberland, Cumberland threatened workers with termination and deportation, interrogated workers about their organizing efforts, and attempted to force workers to sign away their right to organize in closed-door meetings.  When workers stood up for their dignity and rights and pressed for a meeting, Cumberland retaliated by firing them.

Workers and advocates called on the Department of Labor to investigate Cumberland’s fraud.

“Companies like Cumberland benefited when the Bush Administration passed its midnight guestworker  regulations days before leaving office. The message to employers was: relax, we just made it easier for you to import and exploit foreign workers,” said Saket Soni, Director of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. “The White House and the Department of Labor need to throw the Bush regulations and replace them with real protections for all workers,” said Soni.

The Bush Administration’s H2B regulations, which came into effect just days before President Obama took office, have drawn widespread outrage from workers and advocates.

Clergy, labor, and civil rights leaders endorsed the workers’ strike and their call for justice on Wednesday. Tennessee AFL-CIO president Jerry Lee expressed “shock” at Cumberland’s practices.

“Shame on Cumberland, and shame on our system for letting the employer exploit these workers,” Lee said. “At a time when joblessness is at its highest point worldwide, this employer uses the guestworker program to exploit foreign workers and undermine American workers. And when the workers bravely speak out, the employer attacks the workers for organizing.”

“That’s not America,” Lee said. “Or at least it shouldn’t be.”