Twenty-three years ago today, the United Nations adopted the landmark . Subsequently, the General Assembly named December 18 "," an occasion to affirm and acknowledge the human rights of migrants all over the world.
In our country, one group of migrant workers faces unique forms of human rights abuses which are directly attached to their visa status – guestworkers (a.k.a temporary workers). In the U.S. government's H-2B guestworker program, visas tie guestworkers to a single "employer-sponsor" without the ability to change jobs. This makes the worker's ability to obtain and retain status in the United States entirely dependent on their remaining on good terms with their employer. The programs allows the employer to treat the worker as a disposable commodity, using the labor and then tossing the worker away if the he or she complains about any aspect of their job, seeks to educate other workers about their legal rights, is any way non-compliant with the demands of the employer, or for any reason at all.
Guestworkers are generally afraid to be sent back to their home countries, because they often arrive in the United States saddled with huge debts paid to recruiters for recruitment fees and travel. That debt is often multiplied by high interest rates charged by the loan sharks who workers approach to fund payment for the fees. Because recruiters often misrepresent the terms and conditions of employment opportunities in the U.S., and because our government does not require these foreign recruiters to register or to even agree to follow U.S. law, fraudulent recruiters are often unaccountable for their actions. To make matters worse, the U.S. government has no oversight mechanism to insure that guestworkers are not mistreated after they arrive in the United States or that the contracts that workers sign with recruiters are honored after the workers are here and under the control of their "employer-sponsors."
There is, unfortunately, no shortage of of exploitation and abuse under the program. In just one example, the ACLU and co-counsel represent men from India trafficked through the H-2B guestworker program with recruiters' and employers' false promises of green cards and good industrial jobs on the U.S. Gulf Coast. However, when the Indian workers arrived in late 2006 and early 2007, they found themselves living in segregated, overcrowded, guarded labor camps. Our clients were also victims of severe racial discrimination, which led in 2011 to a separate lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Sadly, their experience, while horrific, is emblematic of the broader problems with the guestworker program.
The debate surrounding comprehensive immigration reform will likely continue into the next session. As Congress considers legislation, including changes to and a possible expansion of the guestworker program, it must protect civil liberties and human rights and ensure, as we lay out in our recommendations, that under any temporary visa program:
...workers must have the ability to leave abusive U.S. employers and seek employment with other U.S. employers without having to leave the U.S. and return to their country of origin, a path to permanent residency and citizenship (with their families), robust governmental oversight of labor conditions, and enforcement mechanisms verifying that employers comply with the terms of the contract; employers must bear the recruitment/visa processing/travel costs of workers; government must adopt a rigorous and streamlined process to deny visa applications of employers who have violated workers' rights under prior contracts.
Last week, President Obama issued a in support of human rights, which called to "reaffirm our unwavering support for the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." But article 23 of the guarantees everyone "free choice of employment" and "just and favorable conditions of work," neither of which are enjoyed by guestworkers in the United States.
So, on this International Migrants Day, let us raise our voices and tell President Obama and our government that America cannot continue to have double standards on human rights, one for its rhetoric and one for its actions. America cannot call itself a global leader and at the same time continue an abusive guestworker program that systemically denies rights and exploits workers. Let's turn presidential proclamations into concrete policy change that protects the rights of the most vulnerable amongst us.
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News & CommentaryDec 2024
Human Rights
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News & CommentaryDec 2024
Racial Justice
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Press ReleaseOct 2024
Human Rights
Free Speech
Universities Should Protect Students’ Right to Protest, End Crackdown on Peaceful ProtestsUniversities Should Protect Students’ Right to Protest, End Crackdown on Peaceful Protests
WASHINGTON – College and university presidents across the U.S. need to respect and protect the right to protest in support of Palestinian rights the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch said today in an open letter. For months the organizations have raised concerns about the potential use of unlawful force when university administrators call in law enforcement officers to break up demonstrations on campus. This new letter comes after reports of heavy-handed and excessive force by some campus police and local law enforcement against peaceful protests and encampments across the country. The groups provide recommendations for colleges and universities to ensure they protect the right to protest on their campuses. The organizations also urge university administrations to refrain from taking any further measures to suppress student protests on campus, including stopping the use of so-called less lethal weapons and ensuring that coercive police power is used only as a last resort, among other recommendations. “Universities are responsible for protecting both physical safety and free expression on campus,” said Jamil Dakwar, director at the ACLU’s Human Rights Program. “It’s deeply concerning to see universities needlessly expose students to police violence for peacefully expressing their political opinions. We’re urging schools once again to exercise restraint, practice de-escalation, and protect free speech and dissent on campus.” Preliminary analysis by Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps has identified at least 174 photos, videos, or social media posts from 20 universities of potential excessive use of force by law enforcement under international law that merits further investigation. This includes 17 universities where chemical irritants such as pepper spray appear to have been used against student protesters, and 11 universities where officers appear to have responded to protests armed with kinetic impact projectiles such as rubber bullets. The results of this use of force by law enforcement agencies have been devastating, including media-verified reports of severe injuries such as bleeding puncture wounds, head injuries, broken teeth, and suspected broken bones, most notably at the University of California Los Angeles, Columbia University, and the City College of New York. The Digital Verification Corps also documented at least 10 other universities where photos or videos capture potential injuries to students. It found that half of the incidents involving injuries under investigation appear to be the result of chemical irritants. “The information we have gathered on excessive use of force against student protesters is extremely worrisome and we are still in the beginning of our investigation,” said Justin Mazzola, researcher with Amnesty International USA. “With the continuation of the Israeli military’s assault on Gaza and the risk of US complicity through the sending of weapons, campus protests in favor of stopping the violence and destruction will continue. Universities have a responsibility to protect academic freedom and the rights to freedom of expression, and to peacefully protest, and we will be watching to ensure they do.” The ACLU, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch are not alone in their concern. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and several UN experts, including the UN special rapporteur on the right to education, have criticized the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators by law enforcement and disciplinary measures against students exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. All higher education institutions, even private colleges and universities, where the First Amendment is not applicable, have a responsibility to respect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly under international law. “Instead of resorting to police action that both shuts down free speech and heightens the risk of injuries, universities need to do more to protect student speech from violence and intimidation, and actively ensure that peaceful student expression continues without interference,” said Tanya Greene, director of the US program at Human Rights Watch. As the letter explains, the ACLU, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch are conducting research and analysis of how campus administrators are responding to student protests. They urge universities to fulfill their human rights responsibilities by facilitating protests and ensuring that all students' rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, regardless of viewpoint, is respected. A comprehensive joint report on this issue is slated to be released by the ACLU and Amnesty International USA in the coming months. The open letter is available here: /documents/letter-to-universities-student-protesters -
News & CommentaryOct 2024
Immigrants' Rights
Human Rights
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