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There were several cases filed against farm employers and contractors who employed H-2A workers in summer-fall 2009; most involved the admission of Thai workers. There were also cases filed against employers of H-2B workers.

Global. A class action suit on behalf of 150 Thai H-2A workers was filed on September 25, 2009 against Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower and several Washington apple growers alleging that Global charged Thai H-2A workers $10,000 to $17,000 each to obtain US jobs. Global's contract with the Thai recruiter, AACO International Recruitment, did not stipulate how AACO would be paid; the suit alleges that this shows that Global knew AACO would charge the workers for recruitment services.

According to the suit, the Thai workers were promised $8.71 an hour and 40 hours a week for a year. However, most of the workers arrived in Washington in May-June 2004, and most were returned to Thailand in November 2004. The suit seeks to recover for workers the difference between what they would have earned by working 2,000 hours at $8.71 an hour and their actual earnings, plus recruitment payments made in Thailand.

The US Department of Labor barred Global from participating in the H-2A program for three years in 2006, and the state of California revoked Global's FLC license in 2006. There are at least 50 wage claims against Global, including several from ex-employees who were allegedly not paid promised wages and benefits.

Eurofresh. Willcox, Arizona-based Eurofresh was certified in February 2008 to employ 530 H-2A workers; 800 US workers were hired to perform the same tasks. DOL investigated Eurofresh, and found that it discriminated against US workers in favor of H-2A workers, including illegally firing 527 US workers and failing to report the terminations as required.

In April 2009, Eurofresh filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and failed to list DOL as a creditor for over $6 million in back wages and penalties. On August 31, 2009, DOL and Eurofresh settled the back wages complaint for $1 million.

Seaside. Eight Haitian-Americans who moved from Florida to South Carolina to pick tomatoes for labor contractors Carlos and Maria Morice at Seaside Farm on St. Helena Island, South Carolina sued these employers under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Protection Act, alleging that they were denied work in favor of Mexican H-2A workers. Seaside was certified to fill 230 jobs with H-2A workers. The Haitians say there were told a week after arriving that there was no work for them, and were ordered to vacate the housing that had been provided to them.

Aloun. Aloun Farms in Hawaii and its Thai labor recruiter were charged in August 2009 with forced labor involving 44 Thai H-2A workers between 2003 and 2005. The 3,000-acre farm hired 150 to 200 workers and has annual sales of $8 million. The Thai workers paid up to $10,000 to get the H-2A visas and jobs paying $9.60 an hour, and had their passports taken after arriving in Hawaii.

Perry. The father of a Western New York employer of H-2A workers from Peru was found to have violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when he repeatedly accused the grower's former employees of being terrorists. A federal judge found that Donald Perry had no basis but his own prejudice for accusing the workers employed by Becker Farms under the H-2A visa program of links to terrorism, and found Perry guilty of violating the FLSA's anti-retaliation provision.

The operator of the 340-acre farm is a Peruvian immigrant married to the daughter of Donald Perry. He was certified to employ H-2A workers between 1996 and 2001, and notified the INS that the H-2A workers left the farm in November 2001. Later that month, the H-2A workers sued Becker Farms for underpayment of minimum wages, a suit settled in early 2009.

After the workers' suit was filed in November 2001, Donald Perry began contacting government agencies alleging that the ex-H-2A workers were connected to Peruvian terrorists and were part of a "sleeper cell" that was being aided by farm worker advocates. The ex-H-2A workers sued Perry for retaliating against them for filing FLSA claims. Perry countered that they were connected to Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, prompting a court in December 2003 to order Perry not to continue making unfounded claims in order to dissuade the workers from continuing their FLSA suit.

Perry continued to make assertions about the ex-H-2A workers, and the court concluded he did so in order to protect his daughter's farm from the workers' FLSA suit. The workers may sue Perry for damages.

H-2B. Reed's Reforestation and Reed's Forestry, based in Alabama, was sued in October 2009 for bringing 307 Guatemalans with H-2B visas into the US and deducting recruitment and other fees from their wages while providing them with substandard accommodation.

RICO. After ICE arrests unauthorized workers at a workplace, attorneys sometimes sue employers on behalf of legal workers, alleging that the employer engaged in a conspiracy to hire unauthorized foreigners in order to hold down the wages of legal workers. Under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, legal workers can win triple damages if they can prove such hiring occurred to depress their wages.

Most of the cases brought against US employers are settled before trial by employers who fear triple-damage verdicts. Of those that go to trial, few result in victories for the legal workers.

For example, in Chicago in July 2009 a federal court ruled that RICO applied only to actual conspiracies. If the employer did not know the workers were unauthorized, the court ruled, there is no RICO case. A.L.L. Masonry, represented by Chicago attorney Howard Foster, sued after competitor Omielan was awarded a remodeling project with a bid that was about $100,000 lower. A.L.L. Masonry sued, alleging that Omielan hired at least 10 unauthorized workers, but the court found that simply hiring 10 unauthorized workers was not a conspiracy.

Georgia carpet maker Mohawk Industries is defending itself in a suit brought by legal workers under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and a similar state law that accuse Mohawk of conspiring with labor recruiters to hire illegal workers in order to reduce labor costs and depress wages for legal workers.

The US Supreme Court in 2009-10 will consider a suit by a newly hired Mohawk supervisor who alleges he was fired when he reported that about 10 percent of the 125 workers under his supervision were unauthorized. The Supreme Court will decide if Mohawk's dealings with the fired supervisors must be turned over to the workers in the RICO suit.

On May 18, 2009, a federal judge certified a RICO class-action suit against SK Foods LP filed by Robin Brewer, a seasonal hourly worker employed at the tomato processing plant. The judge's decision allows hourly workers employed between June 2003 and June 2007 to sue SK President Scott Salyer, who allegedly approved the hiring of over 5,000 illegal workers at the plant in Lemoore, California to depress the wages of legal workers.