T oday immigrants are coming to make their homes in American communities

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2 By Susan Reed and Ilene J. Jacobs Susan Reed Staff Attorney Farmworker Legal Services P.O. Box d St. Bangor, MI Ilene J. Jacobs Director of Litigation, Advocacy, and Training California Rural Legal Assistance P.O. Box D St. Marysville, CA ijacobs@crla.org. T oday immigrants are coming to make their homes in American communities where immigrants have not settled for some time. 1 Immigrants continue to settle in the urban areas that have been immigration magnets and in rural areas where farmworkers historically have worked and settled. However, new settlement patterns are emerging quickly, and new settlement places are facing the challenges of integration. Basic field offices offering legal assistance in many smaller and more rural communities are some of the first service providers and community institutions to encounter newcomers as immigrants struggle with legal issues related to poverty and discrimination. Immigrant access to legal assistance is a new and perhaps unanticipated challenge for many programs. Migrant farmworker legal aid providers in rural areas around the country have a long history of finding and serving immigrants in rural settings. Farmworker advocates have a wealth of relevant experience to share with those first encountering the unique delivery problems presented by rural immigrants. A Legal Services Corporation (LSC) study conducted in pursuant to Section 1007(h) of the Legal Services Corporation Act of 1974 concluded that migrant and seasonal farmworkers face special barriers limiting their access to the legal assistance delivered by regular field programs. 2 Migrants have specialized legal needs which cannot be adequately met through the basic field delivery system. 3 The 1007(h) Study identified the basic features of the legal services delivery system that has been developed over the past twenty-five years by LSC s migrant grantees. Migrant legal aid programs have developed education, outreach, and advocacy strategies designed to address special barriers for a largely immigrant farmworker population with unique linguistic, cultural, and legal problems. 1 URBAN INSTITUTE, THE NEW NEIGHBORS: A USERS GUIDE TO DATA ON IMMIGRANTs 4 6 (2003). 2 Legal Services Corporation Act, Pub. L. No , 1007(h), 88 Stat. 378 (1974); 42 U.S.C l (2000) ( 2996f(h)(3)). 3 LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION, OVERVIEW OF 1007(H): SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND METHODOLOGY (1979). Clearinghouse REVIEW Journal of Poverty Law and Policy September October

3 In this article we survey the access barriers and legal issues that migrant and seasonal farmworkers face and the migrant program response. We hope that in the context of this special issue of CLEARINGHOUSE REVIEW our article can help readers contrast and compare the challenges and advocacy strategies for farmworkers with the potential challenges and advocacy strategies for the immigrant groups that the readers own programs serve. We also offer advocates a fuller understanding of the assistance and insights that their local migrant advocates might supply them. I. Access Barriers and Migrant Program Response Cultural isolation is one of the serious barriers to access to legal services that the 1007(h) study identified. The reality of cultural isolation stemming from national origin remains relevant among farmworkers. Eighty-one percent of farmworkers in were foreign born, and an additional 9 percent of farmworkers were Hispanics born in the United States. 4 Ninety-five percent of foreign-born farmworkers were from Mexico, 2 percent from other Latin American nations, 1 percent from Asian nations, and 1 percent from other nations. 5 Farmworkers tend to migrate to or settle in rural communities. There farmworkers often feel more acutely the cultural isolation that comes with their race and national origin than might immigrants who settle in urban areas where higher concentrations of immigrants and increased diversity are likely. Language skills and cultural awareness and sensitivity are top priorities for migrant program staff. 6 The isolation that many farmworkers experience as immigrants is compounded by the nature of farmworker employment which brings with it its own variety of cultural isolation. Farmworkers and their families most often are more dependent than other workers on their employers, both growers and farm labor contractors, for fundamental necessities. They rely on these interested parties for their current and future livelihood, and often for housing, transportation, access to limited health care, information verification to determine eligibility for public benefits, and, in the case of foreign guest workers, for continued legal status in the United States. Farmworkers legal claims often are against the growers and farm labor contractors upon whom they depend, and against others in their tightly knit employment networks such as outside housing providers, recruiters, food providers, coyotes (smugglers) and raiteros (drivers). Many growers, farm labor contractors, and others in the network have a hostile attitude toward farmworker legal aid providers; even being seen speaking with legal workers can be or seem to be risky to workers. Farmworkers often have, both from their experiences in their countries of origin and in the United States, a feeling of distrust of the legal system and lawyers. Often they are unaware of the laws available to protect them or might believe that those laws would not be evenly enforced. Fear of contact with anyone in the legal system is tied closely to immigration status. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that 52 percent of farmworkers in were not authorized to work. 7 Farmworkers with lawful immigration status fear that any contact they have with a legal worker or an advocate could result in problems with immigration status for themselves or other family members. In order to help clients manage their worries and weigh risks accurately, farmworker advocates, even those who do not specialize in immigration practice, must have an understanding of immigration 4 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, FINDINGS FROM THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL WORKERS SURVEY : A DEMOGRAPHIC AND EMPLOYMENT PROFILE OF U.S. FARMWORKERS 5 (2000). Migrant farmworkers are even more likely to be foreign born. In percent of follow-the crop and shuttle migrants were foreign born, while just two-thirds of nonmigrant farmworkers were born abroad. Id. at 22. Id. at 5. 5 Id. 6 See Jane Perkins et al., Enforcing Language Access Rights: Trends and Strategies, in this issue. 7 DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, supra note 4, at Clearinghouse REVIEW Journal of Poverty Law and Policy September October 2004

4 law and procedure as well as of the significance of legal status. Such an understanding also is critical for advocates seeking accurately to determine clients eligibility for LSC-funded programs. 8 Another major cultural challenge for farmworkers, especially migrants, is the frequent reluctance of the private bar in farming communities to take cases that are unpopular with growers or the local community. Those attorneys who might be willing to serve farmworkers find themselves challenged by issues of linguistic and cultural competency. Providing the only legal representation available in many communities, migrant legal aid programs are the law firms of first resort for farmworkers. Migrant legal aid programs also perform another critical service by helping clients identify and connect with members of the rural private bar who might speak appropriate languages, be willing to serve migrant clients, and appreciate the immigration consequences of certain criminal convictions and other actions or conditions. Geographic isolation and migrants transience create serious barriers to farmworker access to legal and other essential services. In states where a large number of migrant farmworkers work, clients tend to live in farm labor housing camps that, in addition to being rural, are often located far-off public roads, deep in the employer s private property. 9 Advocates travel with maps, compasses, cell phones, and, where available, copies of the case law endorsing their right to visit workers. 10 There might not be telephone service or a regular mailing address. In areas that receive fewer farmworkers, geographic isolation means that advocates cannot reach out to more than a few farmworkers in a single evening s outreach trip. Workers are likely to be staying with friends or relatives, renting squalid rooms in cheap motels, or squatting. Farmworkers find garages, porches, camper shells, old vehicles, and other unconventional housing for which they are overcharged and where they live in overcrowded conditions. Legal workers cruise laundromats, ethnic grocery stores, gas stations, churches, and the Wal-Mart parking lot. They profile passersby and ask them to distribute community legal education materials and business cards to presumed farmworkers. Justice is not always swift enough to keep up with farmworkers, who are transient on a seasonal and sometimes daily basis. Advocates maintain contact with clients by promoting the toll-free number and the self-addressed stamped envelope and through regular communication with other service providers. A farmworker might have two or three seasonal addresses or a winter address abroad. Advocates obtain addresses and telephone numbers of clients friends and family and ask clients to call in regularly. II. Specialized Legal Needs of Farmworkers Farmworkers who are immigrants naturally have the same legal problems as other immigrants, and farmworker legal aid programs strive to resolve them. Farmworkers, however, also face many other legal problems that are more particular to their agricultural employment and migrant life. They include employment-related issues, health and safety, housing, public benefits, immigration, and language access. A. Employment The highest-profile statute providing for rights and remedies to farmworkers is the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. 11 It has substantive protection provisions for migrant and seasonal agricultural workers through requirements related to advance disclosure of work terms and conditions, employer compliance with work arrangements and wage and pay record obligations, transportation safety standards, 8 See Sara Campos et al., Representing Immigrants: What Do LSC Regulations Allow?, in this issue. 9 A large camp in Michigan, not visible from the road, is known as El Escondido ( The Hidden ). 10 See, e.g., State v. Shack, 277 A.2d 369 (N.J. 1971); Folgueras v. Hassle, 331 F. Supp. 615 (W.D. Mich. 1971). 11 Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, 29 U.S.C (2000). Clearinghouse REVIEW Journal of Poverty Law and Policy September October

5 housing health and safety standards, and the licensing of farm labor contractors. 12 According to the Act, aggrieved agricultural worker plaintiffs have a private right of action for actual damages, statutory damages, and equitable relief. 13 Typically, where violations of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act are found, so are violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), especially with respect to the minimum wage protection provisions of the FLSA. 14 State minimum wage law may extend minimum wage and overtime coverage beyond the requirements of the FLSA. 15 Many workers are paid at piece rates that do not meet either the FLSA or state minimum wage standards. 16 The Wagner-Peyser Act and the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 govern interstate and intrastate recruitment of migrant workers through the employment service agencies. 17 States are required to ensure that the employment services provided to migrant and seasonal farmworkers are qualitatively equivalent and quantitatively proportionate to services provided to other job seekers. 18 Agricultural employment issues, especially unfair immigration-related employment practices, can raise federal civil rights issues. 19 Farmworkers are often subject to document abuse in the completion of Form I-9 at hiring because of employers hypervigilance about employment authorization or the perception that all farmworkers are immigrants. 20 Some employers discriminate by assembling an undocumented crew that is less likely to protest poor conditions or abuses. 21 Payment of wages is often regulated by state law, which may specify how to prevent abuses when a migrant family needs to move on and a wage dispute arises. 22 State law may have special provisions for farmworkers relating to state driver and vehicle licensing requirements, independent contractor status, and state income tax for part-year residents. Federal practice is also an integral part of farmworker legal practice. Farmworker 12 See BILL BEARDALL, OUTLINE OF MIGRANT AND SEASONAL AGRICULTURAL WORKER PROTECTION ACT (Equal Justice Center ed., 2002), for a comprehensive and practical guide to the statute U.S.C (2000). 14 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C (2000). FLSA overtime provisions do not apply to most agricultural workers. Id. 213(b)(12). See id. 203(f); see 29 C.F.R. pt. 780, Subparts B and C for the FLSA definition of agriculture. FLSA contains certain exemptions, usually related to the nature of the employee s work or the nature or size of the employer s business. See id. 213, See the U.S. Department of Labor website, for updated information on state minimum wage laws. 16 Many farmworkers are paid per bucket picked, acre hoed, or bundle harvested. However, farmworker employees are still entitled to the federal minimum hourly wage should the piece rate wage not reach it. 17 The Wagner-Peyser Act, 29 U.S.C n (2000); Workforce Investment Act, 29 U.S.C (2000) C.F.R ; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Brennan, 360 F. Supp (D.D.C. 1973). 19 The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices housed within the U.S. Department of Justice, investigates and prosecutes employers charged with national-origin and citizenship-status discrimination, as well as document abuse and retaliation under the antidiscrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 1324(b) (2000). 20 See id. 1324b; U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration Regulations, 8 C.F.R (2004). Employers must accept any of the documents or combination of documents listed on the back of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Form I-0 to establish identity and employment eligibility. Examples of document abuse include requiring employees to present a specific document, such as a green card or any immigration document, upon hire to establish employment eligibility. Refusing to accept tendered documents that appear reasonable on their face and that appear to relate to the individual is also document abuse. All employment-authorized individuals are protected from document abuses by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, 8 U.S.C See 8 U.S.C. 1324a (2000). 22 See, e.g., MICH. COMP. LAWS (2003), Michigan wage payment law requires that hand harvesters, upon leaving voluntarily, must be paid no more than three days after voluntary termination, as distinct from other workers who need only be paid as soon as the amount can be determined. Id. 370 Clearinghouse REVIEW Journal of Poverty Law and Policy September October 2004

6 clients are poor, transient, and widely regarded as outsiders in receiver states. Thus procedural hurdles involving burdens of proof, venue, and long-arm jurisdiction can often dictate the outcome of a case. B. Health and Safety Health and safety issues frequently arise in the context of agricultural employment. Dangers of farm machinery, chemical pesticides, bad weather, unsafe transportation, and substandard housing place farm work among the top three most dangerous occupations in the nation. 23 Federal and state laws regulate health and safety standards in migrant labor camps and in the field. 24 Regulations on field sanitation require potable water and hand-washing and toilet facilities in the fields within a reasonable distance from workers. 25 Violations of occupational health and safety standards may violate the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act and thus may be part of a private action. 26 The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act governs the registration, labeling, and use of pesticides. 27 Under the latter, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a worker protection standard. 28 Farmworkers often suffer personal injury at work, and farmworker advocates may address agricultural workplace health and safety issues through workers compensation claims when the private bar does not accept the case. Often the private bar is reluctant to take a farmworker s workers compensation case because complicated state law exemptions for agricultural employment may apply. 29 Access to health care and health insurance, while beyond the scope of this article, are fundamental problems faced by farmworkers and their families. Advocates can challenge denial of care by hospital emergency rooms and ineligibility for or lack of available public health benefits. Fear of immigration consequences for utilizing available services and lack of knowledge about free or other available health clinics and related services can often be overcome with information and outreach areas in which migrant advocates have considerable experience. C. Housing The protection provisions of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act apply to migrant housing, which is very broadly defined in implementing regulations and case law, and include licensing, disclosure, and substantial health and safety requirements, incorporating prophylactic state law standards. 30 According to the Act, each person who owns or controls a facility or real property used as housing for migrant agricultural workers shall be responsible for ensuring that the facility or real property complies with applicable federal and state safety and health standards. 31 A limited innkeepers exception is for housing providers who supply their lodging to the general public on the same terms and conditions. 32 Some states farm labor housing standards provide for a meaningful process for redress of concerns regarding habitability. 23 See NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL, HEALTH: UNITED STATES, 2003 at 149 (Table 49: Occupational Injury Deaths and Rates by Industry, Sex, Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin: United States, (2003)), available at 24 See Occupational Safety and Health Standards for Agriculture, 29 C.F.R (2004); id (2004). 25 See id See, e.g., Elizondo v. Podgorniak, 70 F. Supp. 2d 758 (E.D. Mich. 1999). 27 Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, 7 U.S.C.S y (2004). 28 The worker protection standard requires pesticide safety training, notification about pesticide applications, use of personal protective equipment, restricted entry intervals following pesticide application, decontamination supplies, and emergency medical assistance. See 40 C.F.R. pt. 170 (2004). See also (Aug. 27, 2004). 29 See, e.g., Workers Disability and Compensation Act, MICH. COMP. LAWS (2004) U.S.C (2000). 31 Id. 1823; 29 C.F.R (2004) U.S.C (2000). Clearinghouse REVIEW Journal of Poverty Law and Policy September October

7 California, for example, requires permits, substantial health and safety standards, and regular inspections as well as due process, a complaint and appeals process, private and public enforcement, injunctive relief, and other redress for violations and retaliation. 33 California s Employee Housing Act applies to almost anyone housing five or more farmworkers and is not limited to employers or farm labor contractors. It governs typical farm labor camps, unconventional housing, and, in most instances, typical rental housing (with an innkeepers exemption) and treats farmworkers in large part as tenants, giving them landlord-tenant law protection. 34 Michigan law also provides licensing requirements and minimum habitability standards that apply to any housing where five or more migrant agricultural workers reside and emphasizes safe water supplies, camp maintenance, structurally sound and properly equipped shelters, fire safety, bathing and laundry facilities, and proper waste disposal. 35 These statutes begin to fill the gap in housing codes and standards often found in rural areas. Where states do not have such protection for farmworkers, federal standards regulate some temporary labor camps. 36 Some federal and state funding sources assist in the construction and operation of farm labor housing. The Farm Labor Housing Loan and Grant program operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, formerly the Farmers Home Administration, provides capital financing for the development of housing for domestic farm laborers. Farmworker lawyers have assisted farmworkers in ensuring that the projects are overseen according to regulation so that farmworkers are not charged improper fees and units are not lost to prepayment or mismanagement. 37 California and other states have state-funded migrant centers, farm labor housing programs for year-round family and migrant housing, and sweat equity homeownership programs that are state-funded. Farmworker housing development often is opposed in rural communities where nonprofit developers seek to meet the housing needs of farmworkers and their families by offering rental housing and homeownership. The not-in-my-backyard (nimby) opposition typically is driven by many of the same fears and biases facing the development of needed affordable housing for low-income households in recent immigrant and minority communities. Legal assistance providers and nonprofit housing corporations often form successful alliances to ensure the development of the housing. They use public education, community leadership efforts and litigation when necessary. Antinimby litigation often involves challenges under federal and state fair housing laws and state housing and planning laws. Many migrant families are subjected to self-help eviction by growers and farm labor contractors. 38 A grower s carefully worded contract may seek to establish that an employee living in farm labor housing is not a tenant and not entitled to inhabit the premises after termination from employment. State law varies in the rights that it gives farmworker tenants who are not directly paying rent or who do not have an agreement for a definite term. However, in many states, migrant lawyers successfully defend against self- 33 California Employee Housing Act, CAL. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE (West Supp. 2004); CAL. CODE REGS. tit CAL. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE (West Supp. 2004). 35 See, e.g., Agricultural Labor Camps, MICH. COMP. LAWS (2004). 36 See 20 C.F.R (2004). For cases on farmworker housing conditions under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, see BEARDALL, supra note See, e.g., Roman v. Korson, 918 F. Supp (W.D. Mich. 1995). 38 A common experience among migrant farmworker advocates is that their clients are victims of self-help eviction and retaliatory eviction, arising in the context of disputes over employment terms and conditions, retaliation for complaints related to the condition of farmworker housing or work conditions, or because the end of a work season means that their services no longer are needed. Information about these experiences is often anecdotal because many farmworkers fear that they may not find further work or housing if they challenge such practices and cause any problems for their employers or housing providers. 372 Clearinghouse REVIEW Journal of Poverty Law and Policy September October 2004

8 help evictions and housing operators attempts to evade the protection provisions of landlord and tenant law. Migrant programs have brought affirmative litigation against the housing providers. 39 Farmworkers and other immigrants also face displacement by discriminatory code enforcement, occupancy standards intended to discourage applicants with large families, and redevelopment efforts gone awry. These local government and landlord practices can be and have been successfully challenged by using federal and state fair housing laws and the state laws that apply to redevelopment, relocation, housing, and land-use planning. Various successful antinimby, discriminatory land-use and code enforcement, and antidisplacement cases have been brought. 40 D. Public Benefits Immigrant access to public benefits involves special considerations for farmworker clients. 41 Farmworkers have irregular seasonal income, and even during the season where they work the most, their income is uncertain. Weather and crop conditions can make the amount of money a worker actually earns fluctuate wildly, thus deviating from the prospective verification that an employer signed at the beginning of the season. Residency requirements for certain benefits also can pose a challenge for itinerant workers, especially with respect to medical benefits. E. Immigration Law Farmworkers who are immigrants have myriad immigration law needs. Immigration law has special provisions for agricultural workers. Past legalization efforts, such as the Special Agricultural Worker program under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, have targeted the agricultural workforce. 42 Last fall, legislation containing compromise on immigration and agricultural labor issues was introduced in Congress. 43 This legislation would provide for earned legalization for farmworkers who would continue to work in farm work for a significant period. 44 At the same time it would streamline the certification process for bringing temporary foreign agricultural workers. 45 Farmworker and migrant legal aid programs maintain expertise in the regulations governing the temporary foreign agricultural worker program known as H-2A. Farmworker lawyers may represent these agricultural workers in matters regarding work terms and conditions Rival v. Schmidl, No. Civ-S DFL-JFM (N.D. Cal. 1991), is a farmworker case where the author Ilene J. Jacobs challenged such practices. (Farmworkers won a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction preventing threatened eviction and restoring them to the jobs lost because of retaliation for complaining about housing conditions and requiring that their housing comply with health and safety standards.) 40 For information on antinimby (not-in-my-backyard) cases, see National Low Income Housing Coalition, The Nimby Report, See also, e.g., Community Housing Improvement Program v. City of Orland, No. Civ. S GEB PAN (N.D. Cal. 2001), an example of a successfully settled farmworker housing antinimby case in which the city refused to approve a farmworker housing development notwithstanding that the city had no discretionary approvals left to make. The city placed an illegal spot moratorium against the housing; the moratorium was challenged by using fair housing and land-use laws. The housing is now under construction. For discriminatory code enforcement and land-use cases, see, e.g., United States v. Bound Brook (D.N.J. 2004) (complaint and consent decree available at Sherman Avenue Tenants Association v. District of Columbia, Civ. Action No. 1:00CV00862 (D.D.C. 2004); Garcia v. City of Buellton, No. CV WMB(JTlx) (C.D. Cal. 2002). 41 See Immigrants Eligibility for Federal Benefits, in this issue. 42 Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, 8 U.S.C 1160 (2000). 43 In September 2003 Sen. Edward Kennedy (D. Mass.), Rep. Howard Berman (D. Calif.), Sen. Larry Craig (R. Idaho), Rep. Chris Cannon (R. Utah), and Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus) introduced the Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act of 2003 (AgJOBS). See Bruce Goldstein, Immigration Policy and Low-Wage Workers: The Farmworker Case, in this issue. 44 Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003, H.R. 3142, 108th Cong. 45 See Goldstein, supra note Programs funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) may represent H-2 agricultural workers in matters involving wages, housing, transportation, and other employment rights. 45 C.F.R (2004). The H-2B category is considered nonagricultural, but, since it includes landscaping workers and others whose work is somewhat related to agriculture, many non-lsc-funded programs represent these workers as well. Clearinghouse REVIEW Journal of Poverty Law and Policy September October

9 H-2A workers are entitled, among other guarantees, to free housing, workers compensation benefits, and a minimum wage of $9.11 per hour in Michigan and some other states. 47 Because of the attractiveness of the guest worker programs to employers, farmworker lawyers also represent domestic farmworkers who are illegally denied the jobs for which guest workers are requested in matters concerning labor certification and illegal immigration related employment practices. A special eligibility category is for agricultural workers and other individuals who have been victims of trafficking. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act and its amendments make victims of trafficking eligible for LSC-funded legal services in certain circumstances without regard to the victims immigration status. 48 Farmworker and migrant legal aid organizations, in collaboration with other human rights organizations, have begun to focus attention on those agricultural workers who might have been victims of trafficking and who are effectively enslaved in agricultural work. 49 Special T and U visas may help immigrant victims who cooperate with investigations and prosecutions. 50 F. Language Access Language access has been a serious challenge for farmworkers and their advocates, very notably in receiver states. 51 A variety of advocacy approaches, including public education, outreach, comments on proposed regulations, administrative complaints, and appropriate litigation, can be taken to encourage language access for a client community. Title VI provides that [n]o person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. 52 It has been interpreted by executive order and the U.S. Department of Justice to include affirmative obligations for language access. 53 Farmworkers lead dangerous and difficult lives, and migrant legal aid programs provide critical, specialized assistance to them in protecting their health, safety, and economic security. Because farmworker clients are often immigrants or the sons and daughters of immigrants, migrant legal aid programs have developed expertise in immigration law and in the many poverty law practice areas where immigration status has an impact. The increasing tendency of the law to distinguish among citizen, noncitizen, documented, and undocumented members of our community makes it ever more important for legal aid advocates to collaborate in delivering service to the rural immigrant population. Farmworker legal aid programs and regular field programs must continue to share information and best practices in order to serve all immigrants most effectively C.F.R (b) (2004). 48 Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, 22 U.S.C (2000), amended by Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003, Pub. L. No , 117 Stat LSC Program Letter , Eligibility of Immigrant Victims of Severe Forms of Trafficking for Legal Services (May 15, 2002), available at See also Sheila Neville & Susana Martinez, The Law of Human Trafficking: What Legal Aid Providers Should Know, 37 CLEARINGHOUSE REVIEW 551 (March April 2004). 49 See 22 U.S.C. 7101(b)(1) (2000). The Trafficking Victims Protection Act defines labor trafficking as [t]he recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery. Id. 7102(8). The element of fraud, force, or coercion that is required distinguishes trafficking from smuggling. E.g., the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center, Chicago, Illinois, has done a great deal of outreach and training for Michigan s farmworker advocates U.S.C (2000). 51 E.g., only this year, and only through advocates hard work, has Michigan s unemployment benefits application and verification system become available in Spanish to Michigan s migrant and seasonal farmworkers and other monolingual Spanish-speaking workers. 52 Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. 2000d (2000) 53 Exec. Order No (Aug. 11, 2000); DOJ Guidance, 66 Fed. Reg (Jan. 16, 2001). 374 Clearinghouse REVIEW Journal of Poverty Law and Policy September October 2004