The Supreme Court grappled on Tuesday with a case involving poor working and living conditions for migrant workers at a New Jersey farm and how the federal government can collect damages for violations of the migrant worker program.
The high court heard oral arguments in Department of Labor v. Sun Valley Orchards, a case involving a dispute with H-2A migrant agriculture workers. Sun Valley Orchards, a New Jersey farm that grew vegetables and fruit, had applied for and been granted permission to import 96 noncitizen workers via the H-2A program in 2015, which included certain requirements and parameters to avoid undercutting domestic workers. The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division found that Sun Valley Orchards had violated several of the program’s requirements, including false promises about the living facilities, unacceptable housing and transportation, and improper deductions from workers’ wages.
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