In Texas, a traveling carnival business owner is facing accusations of labor exploitation, adding to the growing concerns about worker protection reforms and child labor violations in the country.
Angel Reyes Isidro, aged 41, reportedly ran a carnival business in Houston employing unauthorized workers. According to an indictment, in 2019, Reyes is accused of falsifying temporary employment applications to secure H-2B visas for 24 foreign seasonal workers.
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- 1 Carnival business workers put in poor working, living conditions
- 2 Federal authorities take steps to strengthen labor protections
- 3 Uptick in child labor across the U.S.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the H-2B program enables employers to hire foreign nationals for temporary nonagricultural jobs in the United States. To participate in the program, employers must demonstrate that they will provide wages that meet or surpass the highest prevailing wage or minimum wage requirements.
According to the indictment, Reyes is accused of engaging in unlawful activities after the 24 workers arrived in the United States between June and August 2019. These alleged activities include charging the workers illegal visa fees, paying them less than the minimum required wage, and making threats of deportation and loss of future job prospects. Reyes is said to have benefited from this scheme and received payment for illegally transferring four workers to another employer.
The case highlights the extent to which employers nationwide have profited from the labor of vulnerable workers.
Migrant children are at risk of labor exploitation and human trafficking in the United States, as highlighted by immigration and child advocates. Disturbingly, these children have been discovered working in hazardous sectors, including meatpacking and poultry, construction, and major food factories. The American Immigration Council’s Immigration Impact project has extensively documented these alarming instances.
Carnival business workers put in poor working, living conditions
Reyes was arrested on April 28 for continuing to operate his carnival business with unauthorized workers from 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
According to the charges, the defendant “placed the workers in cramped and crowded conditions where they had to take turns sleeping on the floor because there was not enough bed space.” According to the US Attorney’s Office, testimony at a federal court hearing also indicated that Reyes threatened workers with a firearm and sexually harassed female employees.
Prosecutors also said that Reyes, a Mexican citizen living in the United States, “poses a serious flight risk, a risk of obstructing justice, and is a danger to the community.” The indictment charges him with fraud in overseas labor contracts, fraudulent claims, and mail fraud, among other things.
Reyes faces up to 20 years in federal prison for mail fraud and up to ten years for visa fraud, according to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office. The other counts carry a potential five-year prison term.
In 2023, the Labor Department announced additional measures to safeguard workers against employer exploitation, especially migrants and children. The expanded initiatives to tighten worker safeguards are part of the Biden administration’s “approach to ensuring our most vulnerable workers know their rights, are protected from abuse at the hands of their employers, and can advocate for themselves at work,” the agency stated.
The H-2B program is one of numerous temporary work visa schemes in the United States, according to a 2022 Economic Policy Institute analysis. Positions in gardening, construction, forestry, seafood and meat processing, traveling carnivals, restaurants, and hospitality frequently use the curriculum.
The research claims that as the H-2B program grows, employers are “employing migrants with H-2B visas in industries where there is extensive wage theft and lawbreaking.”
Using Labor Department data, the research revealed that workers stole over $1.8 billion in earnings between 2000 and 2021. During those years, the Labor Department reviewed more than 225,000 cases in seven key H-2B businesses, with breaches detected in over 180,000 of them, according to the report.
Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said in a statement in October that “worker exploitation has plagued the H-2B program for far too long.” “The Biden-Harris administration is committed to protecting H2-B workers from abuse, and with this report, we’re taking a whole-of-government approach to protecting these vulnerable workers, which will also help ensure they are not used to undercut labor standards for domestic workers.”
Uptick in child labor across the U.S.
In the past year, the Labor Department has strongly criticized the increase in child labor across the country. As a result, numerous employers, including meat and poultry processing facilities, have faced penalties from federal authorities for violating child labor laws.
According to the department, their investigators discovered that a significant number of children, exceeding 5,800, were employed in violation of federal child labor laws during the fiscal year of 2023. This marks an 88% increase when compared to the numbers from 2019. In total, 955 federal investigations were conducted, uncovering various instances of child labor violations. As a consequence, these violations led to penalties amounting to over $8 million.
In the largest case of that year, it was revealed that a shocking number of 102 children, aged between 13 to 17, were found to be working overnight shifts at 13 meat processing facilities in eight different states.
A recent federal investigation revealed that PSSI, a prominent food safety sanitation services provider based in Wisconsin, engaged children in perilous tasks involving the cleaning of hazardous powered equipment. These young workers were assigned to handle potentially dangerous tools such as brisket saws and “head splitters” used in animal slaughter.
According to a statement made by Michael Lazzeri, the Labor Department Wage and Hour Regional Administrator, Packers Sanitation Services’ systems identified certain young workers as minors. However, the company disregarded these flags and when the Wage and Hour Division conducted an investigation with warrants, the adults responsible for recruiting, hiring, and supervising these children attempted to hinder the investigation.
