Bakersfield, Calif. – On February 10th, the central defendant in the federal investigation dubbed Operation Blooming Onion, which exposed rampant forced labor and human trafficking in the H-2A agricultural guest worker program, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison. In response to the sentence, the UFW and UFW Foundation released the following statements.
President of the United Farm Workers Teresa Romero, said:
“This short sentence — significantly less than the years-long Operation Blooming Onion investigation itself — is an insult to the hundreds of workers who were trafficked and exploited in conditions prosecutors called ‘modern-day slavery.’ One worker was repeatedly raped, kidnapped, and survived an attempted murder. We note that the federal judge responsible for this light sentence is the same judge who struck down federal rules designed to prevent such abuse in the first place. Individuals engaged in human trafficking using ‘legal’ guest worker programs like the uncapped H-2A visa program must be severely punished, while the H2A program is clearly in desperate need of accountability, oversight, and reform. This abuse must be prevented from ever happening again.”
UFW Foundation Chief Executive Officer Erica Lomeli Corcoran, said:
“This sentence is wrong and is an insult to the victims who were trafficked and exploited by Patricio and her co-conspirators. Two people died while others have had their lives irreparably damaged due to their actions. Holding her accountable just for mail fraud is an egregious failure of justice. It is a dark day for our justice system when a human trafficker is given such a light sentence. This will only embolden more abuse of the H-2A system and create a class of people who will be exploited with little to no consequence. Our justice system must be better than this. We must be better than this.”
As part of Operation Blooming Onion, federal prosecutors charged 24 members of the Patricio Transnational Criminal Organization (PTCO) with 54 counts of federal charges, which include federal conspiracy, forced labor, mail tampering, money laundering, and witness tampering. The full federal indictment in Operation Blooming Onion can be read here.
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