Legal experts urge farm workers along California's central coast to report scammers

For farm workers in Santa Maria, about 70 miles north of Santa Barbara, raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are not the only concern. Many have also fallen prey to scammers who threaten violence to coerce victims into silence.

Lawyers interviewed for this story say it is critical that affected individuals seek legal aid to prevent future cases of fraud and to find redress for their losses.

“Together we can bring these high-impact cases to light to raise awareness of the problem,” said Abigail Kerfoot. Kerfoot is the deputy legal director at the Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (Center for Migrant Rights, or CDM), a national nonprofit that advocates on behalf of migrant workers. “And also to seek justice so that people can recover their payments and oppose illegal charges,” she said.

Scammers threaten violence, ICE

In November, ACoM reported on an ICE raid that uncovered a scam targeting farm workers in Santa Maria. The largely agricultural and majority Latino community sits along California’s Central Coast. While the accused co-conspirators, Jorge Vasquez and Gabriela Lopez, await their day in court, victims are wary of coming forward.

Court records show as many as 163 farm workers were impacted by the scam, which involved the illegal sale of H-2A visas. Many say they or their family members have been threatened with violence.

Jocelyn Reyes is CDM’s director of outreach, education, and leadership development. She said in cases involving threats of violence, the organization relies on its legal team to assess each case. Staff evaluate the risks, and determine the best course of action for those who seek help.

The first and most important step for workers, added Reyes, is to contact CDM through its private, secure hotline. The hotline is designed to provide confidential support to victims.

According to an ICE press release, scammers also threatened to call ICE to prevent farm workers from contacting authorities. Santa Maria has seen ongoing and often large-scale ICE raids going back to the early part of last year. The raids have cast a shadow of fear across the community. 

Additionally, victims cited a lack of receipts for payments made as reason for their reluctance to seek legal aid. Speaking in Spanish, Kerfoot stressed that under the U.S. judicial system, a victim’s testimony still carries weight.

“If the person testifies that the payment was for a certain amount, that counts. A jury, for example, may or may not believe that amount,” she said. “But we have seen that even if there is no receipt, the testimony of several people can convince or prove that a payment was made.”

H-2A visa scam

According to the criminal complaint, Vasquez and his associates illegally sold H-2A visas to workers in Mexico. Amounts charged ranged from $8000 to as high as $17,000. Documents from ICE note scammers charged workers an up-front fee of up to $1000 or more. Workers were then forced to pay the remainder once employed in the U.S.

H-2A visas allow foreign nationals to enter and work in the U.S. agricultural sector for a predetermined period. Average H-2A visas last anywhere from three months to three years. A worker’s employment and immigration status is tied to a specific employer. They are required to return to their home country once the visa expires.

Under the H-2A program, employers apply for government certification to fill a set number of temporary agricultural jobs they have been unable to staff with U.S. workers. Rather than requesting visas for specific individuals, the process authorizes a pool of visas based on the employer’s labor needs.

There were about 45,000 H-2A farm workers in California in 2024, the overwhelming majority from Mexico and Central America.

Scam victims ‘very afraid’

In a previous indictment in 2020, Vasquez—who is a U.S. citizen—was sentenced to 12 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of fraud in foreign labor contracting. He was ordered to pay $135,388.70 in restitution, distributed among 38 victims, with amounts ranging from $200 to $6,250.

The latest case against Vasquez began with a call to the California Employment Department in May 2024. A Mexican national working in the U.S. on an H-2A visa told the agency he was unable to return home after his employment ended because he owed his employer money.

The worker (who is not identified in the Criminal complaint) arrived in October 2023 to work for Cuyama Valley Farms, owned by Jose Luis Torres. The worker was scheduled to finish his employment in December that same year.

He reported that at least seven other workers were in similar circumstances, saying they “were very afraid of the employer.” He also alleged Torres “knew people that could make their families heads roll if they reported the abuse to authorities,” according to the text.

The document further indicates that Cuyama Valley Farms told authorities the workers had left the country, even though some of them were allegedly still working at the farm to pay off a $15,000 debt, the amount charged in exchange for obtaining the H-2A visa.

Torres could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts to contact him.  

‘Power in the hands of workers’

Vasquez was detained by ICE Homeland Security Investigations agents on Nov. 13 at his home in Santa Maria. He appeared in a Los Angeles County courthouse on December 4, where he pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of mail fraud.

The charges carry sentences of up to 65 years in federal prison, including a maximum of 5 years for conspiracy and up to 20 years for each mail fraud count. His trial is set for August 18.

For her part, Kerfoot insists that reporting scammers such as those targeting farm workers in Santa Maria is critical to holding would-be fraudsters accountable under the law. The 38 individuals who received monetary restitution during the 2020 sentencing stands as a case in point.

“The power is in the hands of the workers,” said Kerfoot.

CDM has 20 years of experience protecting the rights of migrant workers. It operates offices in Baltimore and in several locations across Mexico, including Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca, where services are also available in Mixtec. Individuals seeking more information about CDM’s services may call 667-217-5738 from the United States or 55-96-61-6771 from Mexico.