Nicolas Perez came to the United States from Mexico as a non-agricultural temporary worker under the H-2B guest worker program to work in the fair and carnival industry from 2008 to 2010. Perez worked 12- to 13-hour days during which he was responsible for operating, assembling and disassembling a roller coaster ride. Every time the fair moved to a new site, he had to climb up the side of some 130-foot-tall ride without any safety equipment to disassemble the ride. Throughout the nine- to 10-month fair season, Perez and his co-workers were forced to live in cramped, overcrowded and often bug-infested employer-provided trailers. Perez's employer confiscated his passport during his first two weeks in the United States and forbade the workers from leaving the fairgrounds for the first month. The employer often yelled at the workers and called them derogatory names. For the dangerous work and poor living conditions, the employer paid Perez a flat weekly rate that amounted to about $3.00 per hour or less.

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 some 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:

• Unfair recruitment processes, including charging illegal recruitment fees;
• Wage and hour abuses, such as paying workers way below the federal minimum wage;
• Significant health and safety risks;
• Lack of access to workers' compensation;
• Limited access to medical care;
• Isolated and substandard living conditions; and
• Limited access to legal representation and justice in the courts.

Workers are afraid to report abuses because of the threat of employer retaliation and job termination. Job termination is devastating to those who took out significant loans for the job and whose families and home communities depend on their earnings. The lack of government oversight and safeguards in the H-2B visa program allow employers to mistreat workers on temporary visas with relative impunity.

Employer associations and the U.S. Department of Labor are currently facing off over wages and working conditions under this visa program, which brings non-agricultural temporary workers to the United States. Taken for a Ride illustrates the importance of the Labor Department's continued regulation of the temporary worker program and the need to step up its enforcement. CDM and WCL urge Congress to ensure that the Department of Labor has authority to regulate the H-2B program, and that it has the resources necessary to effectively monitor it. The report recommends that worker protections be included in any immigration reform package to reduce the exploitation of the most vulnerable groups in America’s workforce.

Read the full report.