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DIVERSITY EMPLOYERS MAGAZINE
Spring 2011 - Anniversary Commemorative Issue

Hispanic American Village Jobs Center
Featured bilingual and other opportunities for all levels

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Ice on Immigration: H-2 workers’ rights violated

By L. Patricia Ice, Featured Columnist

Question: I am working in the United States on an H-2B visa with a group of other men. Recently, my employer took all of our passports, visa information, I-94 departure records and social security cards. He told us we could not leave the compounds where we work and live. Our passports are our only identification in the United States. We are worried. What should we do?

Answer: You should contact an attorney immediately. There are United States laws prohibiting this kind of employer behavior. The federal laws are known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Acts. To read more about these laws go online to http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/united_states_of_america. For more help please contact the Southern Poverty Law Center Immigrant Justice Project at 334-956-8200 or at http://www.splcenter.org/legal/ijp.jsp. You may also contact the National Employment Law Immigrant Non-Standard Project at 212-285-3025 or at

http://www.immigrant-nonstandard.org/index.php.

L. Patricia Ice

Featured IMDiversity Immigration Columnist L. Patricia Ice is an attorney and counselor who has taught immigration law at Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson, and also contributes regular immigration advice stories to La Noticia and The Jackson Advocate. A practicing attorney, Ms. Ice is a former Equal Justice Works Katrina Legal Fellow, focusing on immigrant family and employment issues in areas around the Gulf Coast. Ms. Ice trains law students in the extern program of the Mississippi College School of law. She is also dedicated to immigrants rights advocacy, and serves as the Director of the Legal Project of the non-profit rights education group, MIRA: The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance at www.yourmira.org.

IMDiversity.com is committed to presenting diverse points of view. However, the viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at IMD.