Chilean workers at ST Engineering in Pensacola say they moved their families here for their jobs and had no idea they'd be fired just one year later...

They say the workers visas expired, and the company had to follow government rules.

WEAR News sat down with a Chilean worker to get his thoughts. He spoke with WEAR News back in July when all of this started. He says when the Chilean workers were hired there wasn’t any indication that the job would be for only one year.

Samuel is one of about 40 Chilean workers who came to Pensacola to work for ST Engineering. He says a year later, they were let go.

ST Engineering leadership says there was no layoff, but the workers’ visas expired.

Samuel says they were under the impression this was a longer commitment when the company was recruiting in Chile.

"If we were like a short-time job, why they make a presentation of how to make career inside the company?"

Samuel says, now, most of the workers went back to Chile. Others were able to find work outside of Pensacola...

Grace Resendez McCaffery is the founder of the Hispanic Resource Center. She says the J-1 specialist visa doesn’t match the original H-1B1 visa used by the Chilean workers.

"It is for foreign experts to show Americans how to do a job," says McCaffery. "It's not meant for them to do the job, other than to give an example but not to do for a daily basis."

McCaffery says the next steps she’s like to see is severance pay and for the workers to be hired through a contract company...