The H-2A visa program provides an important source of seasonal agricultural labor, but traffickers can exploit its structure to recruit and control vulnerable workers. Jane Anderson sits down with Georgia Bureau of Investigation prosecutor Diane McLeod to explore how seemingly legitimate labor practices can cross the line into trafficking. Using the landmark “Onion Case,” they examine the indicators that helped uncover the exploitation, the investigative partnerships and financial evidence that strengthened the case, and the strategies behind one of the country’s largest labor trafficking prosecutions.

For More Information:

• AEquitas resource, “Leveraging Attorney General Offices' Varied Roles in Combating Labor Trafficking” 

• AEquitas webinar, “State-Level Responses to Labor Trafficking”

• Article, “Workers fight for and deliver justice: Traffickers sentenced to federal prison in landmark case”

• Article, “A human-trafficking case exposed farmworker abuses. The government is promising change”

• Website, “H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers”

• Press Release about the Los Villatoros case: “Mexican National Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy Involving the Forced Labor of Mexican Workers”

This podcast discusses the violent crime of human trafficking and related crimes of sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking. If you need support, please call: The National Domestic Violence Hotline, RAINN, and The Human Trafficking Hotline.

If you'd like more info about AEquitas visit: https://aequitasresource.org or email us at: [email protected]. Follow AEquitas on Instagram @aequitas_resource

This Season of The Traffick Report is funded by a generous grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.