Purpose Point Harvesting LLC, a farm labor contractor based in Mears, is now on trial in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan for what civil rights attorneys call modern-day slavery. Five Guatemalan farmworkers say they were lured to the U.S. with promises of legal jobs through the H-2A visa program, only to find themselves trapped in a nightmare of wage theft, threats, and confiscated passports.

From promised opportunity to exploitation.

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According to the lawsuit filed in 2022, the workers were charged $2,500 each in illegal recruitment fees before ever stepping foot in Michigan. Once here, they allege they were forced to work up to 100 hours a week – sometimes from 2 a.m. to 10 p.m., headlamps and all – but were paid for only 60 hours. Their actual wages? Around $8.10 an hour – well below the U.S. Department of Labor’s Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) for 2022 which averaged about $15.00 an hour nationally, with variations by state and region based on USDA Farm Labor surveys. Medical care was also reportedly denied or restricted.

And when two of the migrants tried to leave, court documents say owner Emilto Moreno Gomez reported them as missing persons to state police. In a strange twist, MLive has reported that two of the plaintiffs are actually related to Gomez.

Gomez and his wife, Lucille Jean Moreno, deny all allegations and have filed countersuits. They’re being represented by Avanti Law Group, the same firm that is known for high-profile cases such as suing Elon Musk over a $1 million voter giveaway last fall.

The legal claims against the couple include violations of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, Michigan’s Human Trafficking Victims Compensation Act, state wage laws, and breach of contract.

The federal trial of Purpose Point Harvesting LLC began May 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

Systemic abuse under a legal program.

The H-2A program is supposed to provide legal, temporary farm labor. But according to Kenya Davis, of Boies Schiller Flexner, one of the firms representing the workers, that legality is where the protection ends. Davis told Metro Times, “When those passports are taken from them, they are left to be picked up and treated like anyone who would be here illegally.”

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Teresa Hendricks, of Migrant Legal Aid, also representing the plaintiffs, warns that this isn’t an isolated case. She said, “This is the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of thousands of workers like this. And people don’t think about it when they eat fruits and vegetables that were handpicked by farmworkers.”

Trial underway, accountability in question.

With the Department of Labor often announcing inspections in advance, Hendricks says bad actors know how to clean up before anyone comes knocking.

And if Purpose Point Harvesting walks away without consequences? Advocates worry that without stronger enforcement and punishment, such abuses will continue unchecked.