A West Michigan blueberry farm is being accused of human trafficking and violating migrant workers’ rights. A lawsuit was filed Friday by the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC), along with Farmworker Justice and Farmworker Legal Services.
The 32-page document alleges First Pick Farms forced a group of immigrant workers in North Carolina to come to the company’s blueberry farm in West Olive, Michigan in 2017.
MIRC claims First Pick Farms threatened to report workers who didn’t comply to immigration authorities. Workers were allegedly awakened in the middle of the night, given fake ID’s and ordered into vans driving to Michigan. Once there, the lawsuit alleges workers were forced to work unbearably long hours and live in unfit housing conditions. This included 30 workers sharing a three-bedroom, two-bathroom residential home without furniture. Workers claim they were coerced into paying the farm’s supervisor for housing and transportation costs to Michigan.
Gonzalo Peralta is the MIRC staff attorney representing two of the affected farmworkers.
“No one should be made to work under threat from their employer, regardless of where they’re from. I think this is a crucial theme to try to ameliorate the employment conditions that allow employers to take advantage of human trafficking," he said.
WGVU reached out to First Pick Farms for comment, but at the time of this report has not received a response.
