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The Employment Security Department does more than provide unemployment benefits and paid family medical leave. We also have a role in ensuring agricultural employers comply with regulations to protect worker safety and more.
The state Legislature created the Office of Agricultural and Seasonal Workforce Services to clarify the state’s role in the H-2A temporary agricultural program.
The federal H-2A program, run by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification, allows U.S. employers who meet specific requirements to lawfully bring workers from other countries to work in temporary agricultural jobs.
A recent case shows how cooperative and dedicated agency partnerships make a big difference, working together once workers arrive on farms to ensure employer compliance and worker safety.
On Feb. 23, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced four people from Yakima and the Tri-Cities were indicted for fraud by a federal grand jury for fraudulently obtaining temporary work visas (H-2A visas) and unlawfully transporting more than 500 temporary foreign laborers over the United States and Mexican border and into Eastern Washington.
Read the full news release on the U.S. Attorney’s Office website.
Employment Security’s ASWS compliance team played a critical role in this case, starting back in 2022 when staff first received information about the business not complying with the H-2A program.
Employment Security staff worked with federal partners – the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division and the Office of Investigator General – to conduct a fact-finding investigation of the employer’s unlawful actions from 2022 to 2024. This included interviewing workers and associates of the defendants’ business.
After the Wage and Hour Division issued findings in 2024, our staff also worked with partners from the state Department of Labor & Industries to ensure the employer cannot legally operate in Washington.
At Employment Security’s request, the Office of Investigator General assumed the investigation. The employer has been since debarred from the H-2A program and all Employment Security Department services.
For this investigation, federal partners relied heavily on ASWS staff to locate witnesses, conduct in-person interviews, provide data and reports, and monitor developments. The Office of Investigator General shared with us that the case “could not/would not have happened without ASWS.”
This effort shows interagency coordination is functioning as it should, ferreting out scammers, and protecting workers and growers.
Learn more about the ASWS, as well as its advisory committee, on Employment Security’s website.