Our home stretch for 2018

We couldn’t pass up the chance to close out the year with one more day of vital migrant worker outreach — only possible thanks to your support! Last Saturday, Claudia Cruz and Rebeca Rodriguez conducted a Know-Your-Rights workshop at the 3rd Migrant Forum in Huimilpan, Hidalgo. Workers, their family members, local authorities and media attended the…

“Picked Apart” — 10 Years Later

While picking seafood with an H-2B visa, Elisa Martínez Tovar found that her workplace conditions were far from what she was promised. Her employer forced Elisa and her coworkers to live in deplorable housing. Women were channelled into lower paying tasks. Sometimes, they would go weeks without work. Their visas tied them to a single employer. And…

International Migrants Day 2018

Today, on International Migrants Day, we’re thinking of Jesús and Rigoberto — they’re closing 2018 on a high note. Jesús Silva and Rigoberto Zepeda reached out to us two years ago when they faced abuse while working in the forestry industry with H-2B visas. But now we’re celebrating: we just settled their case alongside our allies at California…

Worker Leaders Hold National Meeting

It’s been a month since we launched our new report, Fake Jobs For Sale: Analyzing Fraud and Advancing Transparency in U.S. Labor Recruitment.   For members of CDM’s Migrant Defense Committee (“Comité”), a group of over 80 worker leaders and their families, recruitment fraud is part of everyday life. And now, their commitment to combat fraud is stronger…

Migrant Defense Committee Speaks Up

Members of the Migrant Defense Committee (“Comité”), a group of migrant leaders and their families supported by Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM), gathered for their National Meeting in October 2018. They issued the following statement: We are here  because we want our voices to be heard; because telling our stories is power.…

Combatting Recruitment Fraud

Millions Stolen from Migrant Workers in Fake Job Scams (Mexico City, Mexico)—For migrant workers from around the world, a job offer in the United States can promise a higher wage and an opportunity to provide for their family. But for unscrupulous and fraudulent labor contractors, ploying prospective workers with false employment offers in the United…

Migrant workers’ rights in USMCA

Over the last 477 days, we’ve fought to strengthen labor rights in the renegotiated trade agreement. We’ve organized workers and allies across the trinational corridor to convince negotiators that trade and labor are inextricably connected. It was worth it.   Late last night, we learned that negotiators listened to our demands. The full text of the new…

Forum (re)Fraud

Join us in combating fraud in the recruitment of migrant workers! The lack of transparency and accountability in the international recruitment process fuels the business of fake jobs: scammers all over Mexico fabricate nonexistent U.S. job offers to defraud people who are seeking employment. In recent years, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM)…

Friend-of-the-Court Brief: NY Farmworkers’ Exclusion from Legal Protections

CDM, joined by nine allied organizations, has filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a challenge to agricultural workers’ exclusion from New York’s labor law. Farmworker Crispin Hernandez, the Workers’ Center of Central New York, and the Worker Justice Center of New York sued the state in 2016, arguing that this exclusion violates the state Constitution, which grants employees the fundamental right to…

Trade deal to include migrant workers’ rights!

Today, we celebrate a big win: the U.S. Trade Representative announced that the preliminary agreement for a new trade deal reached by the United States and Mexico will ensure migrant workers are protected under labor laws, bring labor obligations from a side accord into the core of the agreement, and make labor obligations fully enforceable. Since…