Mexican citizens charged with agricultural visa fraud

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

Mexican citizens exploiting a U.S. federal agricultural visa program have been indicted for operating forced labor operations in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, as the Trump administration continues to crack down on visa fraud.

In one recently unsealed indictment, three Mexican nationals were charged on 35 counts of trafficking Mexican farmworkers into forced labor conditions and detaining them after their visas expired for financial gain.

In this case, they exploited the H-2A visa program “to lure vulnerable workers from Mexico to the United States with promises of legitimate employment, only to then confiscate their identity documents and force them to labor in inhumane conditions,” A. Tysen Duva, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said. “These charges reflect the Department’s commitment to protecting the integrity of our lawful immigration system and holding accountable those who corrupt it to exploit and abuse foreign workers.”

The alleged ringleader, Martha Zeferino Jose, 42, a Mexican national and permanent resident of the U.S., owned and operated Las Princesas Corporation, a farm labor contracting company based in Washington, North Carolina, to recruit Mexican workers through the H-2A agricultural visa program. Her partner, Jose Rodriguez Munoz, a Mexican national, and her son Jeremy Zeferino Jose, 23, a Mexican national and permanent resident, were also arrested for their alleged roles in the scheme.

Through her company, Zeferino Jose submitted visa applications to the departments of Labor and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services claiming Mexican workers would be provided farm jobs in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, paid wages and provided with meals, housing, and transportation, the charges allege. They also wouldn’t be charged recruitment fees or have their documents confiscated, in accordance with the law, according to the filed applications.

Investigators found the opposite to be true. Mexican workers who thought they were following a legal process were charged with fees, “saddling them with debt before they even arrived;” their passports, visas, and identification documents were seized once they arrived in the U.S. to prevent them from leaving, according to the charges. They were also required to “perform physically demanding labor at farms and plant nurseries across three states under degrading conditions … without adequate breaks or access to water,” were “housed in crowded, unsanitary residences that lacked heat, air conditioning, hot water and bedding,” weren’t paid, weren’t provided with food and were denied medical care, investigators allege.

They were also isolated, prohibited from leaving, speaking with others outside their group, monitored, threatened, and detained after their visas expired, according to the charges. The Mexican nationals exploiting them also obstructed federal investigators, the DOJ says.

They were charged “with forced labor, conspiracy to commit forced labor, alien harboring for financial gain, conspiracy to commit alien harboring for financial gain, and document servitude offenses,” among other charges. If convicted of all charges, they each face decades in prison.

The charges were brought as six people in Washington state were indicted on 61 charges for operating a similar scheme. They also allegedly submitted fraudulent applications to the same federal agencies to lure Mexican workers seeking legal work on farms through the federal H-2A visa program, The Center Square reported.

Under the Trump administration, the visa process is being revamped, fraudulent claims are being investigated and victims are being rescued from forced labor situations. Federal investigators are also conducting I-9 inspections and audits through thousands of worksite inspections uncovering “multiple forms of criminal activity,” including human trafficking, document fraud, and human rights abuses, including forced labor.

Recent high-profile worksite enforcement actions have occurred in Nebraska, Illinois, Tennessee, Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas, The Center Square reported. Several involve identity theft perpetrated by illegal foreign nationals against American employers.

Many forced labor situations involve minors, including children as young as 13 working for an Iowa janitorial service operating meat processing machinery; and children as young as 14 performing dangerous jobs at a California poultry processing facility and operating dangerous equipment at a Tennessee parts manufacturer, The Center Square reported.

In fiscal 2024, the Department of Labor investigated 736 cases of child labor violations impacting more than 4,000 children nationwide, The Center Square reported.