Prism, Futuro Investigates, and Latino USA have conducted an investigation on the H-2A visa programme in the USA. In April 2023, a series of articles, podcasts, and ‘reporter’s notebooks’ was released outlining the findings of the investigation. The articles shed light on the labour rights violations experienced by migrant workers with H-2A visas in the agricultural sector the US.

The first podcast, ‘Head Down Episode 1’, tells the story of two Mexican agricultural workers who escaped a blueberry farm where they were employed near Raw-Lee, in North Carolina, after experiencing exploitation and abuse. The podcast sheds light on several human rights violations experienced by the workers and others on the H-2A visa, including withheld passports, extortionate recruitment fees, a lack of company grievance mechanisms, intimidation, dismissal for those who complain, and wage theft. The podcasts sheds light on issues with the H-2A visa that lead to abuse, including the fact the workers are tied to their employer and thus leaving means they risk losing their right to remain in the country. The second podcast, ‘Head Down, Episode 2’, focuses on the difficulty migrant workers face in getting back-wages paid to them from the US Department of Labor after they experience wage theft by their employers. The podcast also explores what it terms the ‘racist roots’ of the H-2A programme, and a case of large-scale arbitrary dismissal of H-2A workers at a US farm.

Another output from the investigation is an article, also published in April 2023, titled “Human Trafficking or a Guest Worker Program? H-2A’s Systemic Issues Result in Catastrophic Violations”. Like the podcasts, the article explores the stories of the two Mexican workers' experience of abuse at a US blueberry farm, including poor living conditions and a lack of access to food. Citing research by the Economic Policy Institute, the article alleges employers hire H-2A workers because they are seen as ‘exploitable’, enabled through a lack of oversight by the Department of Labor. The article also explores how COVID-19 exacerbated this exploitation, such as by making it more difficult for advocacy groups to inform workers about their rights through in-person workshops.

An opinion piece released following the investigation explores why the exploitation of migrant farmworkers through the H-2A visa programme is little known. The author suggests the abuse migrant workers experience is often invisible because many migrant workers do not complain due to fear of dismissal.

The series also contains articles from the reporters’ notebooks, including an article outlining the resilience of the Mexican workers, and another telling the story one of the Mexican farmworker's family back home.