“Billionaires Cash In On Abusive Farm Worker Scam”

Billionaires who have been buying up farmland across the country are using a controversial immigration program linked to labor abuses and human trafficking to find low-wage workers for their agricultural investments…

…companies affiliated with billionaires like Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Stan Kroenke, Phillip Anschutz, and John Malone have used the H-2A visa program to staff their expanding agricultural holdings …

…Toronto-based Manulife, owns farm properties in Washington state that hosted H-2A workers…

…none of these other billionaires or Manulife have ever been publicly associated with the controversial immigration program…

Manulife, Cato, the American Enterprise Institute, and entities controlled by each of the billionaires did not respond to The Lever’s requests for comment…

The H-2A visa program…allows U.S. farm owners to sponsor temporary visas…

About 90 percent of all H-2A workers come from Mexico…

While advocates say the program is crucial for small farmers facing staffing troubles, critics say it has enabled a powerful industry to suppress wages…

The H-2A program has been associated with workers’ rights violations…

“It’s very enraging to hear that the tracts of land where these folks are employed are owned by these billionaires, because the narrative around H-2A is that it’s justified because it supports struggling farms…