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The H-2A visa is supposed to be a win-win. Migrant farmworkers can get a job in the U.S. and support their families back home. Meanwhile, American farms get enough workers to tend their fields without hiring people without legal status.
But a federal investigation known as Operation Blooming Onion exposed widespread abuses of H-2A workers across Georgia, ranging from wage theft to sexual abuse. One judge even referred to what was happening as modern-day slavery.
Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with ProPublica reporter Max Blau.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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