Perez's story is one of many documented in Taken for a Ride: Migrant Workers in the U.S. Fair and Carnival Industry, a report published by Centro de los Derechos del Migrante Inc. (CDM) and American University Washington College of Law (WCL). Fair and carnival employers bring about 5,000 migrant workers to the United States. Many workers experience similar, if not worse, treatment and working conditions. The report uncovers widespread abuses in the H-2B visa program in the fair and carnival industry, including the following:

The H-2B guest worker visa program is plagued by fraud and abuse. Designed to allow employers to hire temporary guest workers for nonagricultural labor, the H-2B program lacks provisions, which would protect workers from wage theft, forced labor, predatory recruitment fees and other forms of exploitation. Guest workers in the United States are legally tied to their employer and are often forced to assume crippling debts for the opportunity to pursue low-wage work.

The AFL-CIO, together with Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (CDM), the Southern Poverty Law Center and other organizations, filed a complaint today against the United States under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC) on behalf of immigrant workers brought to the United States under the H-2B visa program.

The Obama administration today announced a new rule on how the wage rates employers must pay to H-2B temporary foreign workers will be calculated. But the new rule does not take effect until 2012.