Each fall, Migrant Legal Aid celebrates another summer of farming with a luncheon to honor the migrants and growers. Elected officials and community members attend and an award is given to a company that best demonstrates fair employment practices and that brings plants and produce to the market in a socially responsible way.
During the Harvest of Justice luncheon on September 12 at Versluis Orchards, the 2012 Good Grower award was presented to Kalamazoo-based Wenke Greenhouse for showing “extraordinary compassion” to its workers after learning of a human trafficking situation they were involved in.
“Rather than look the other way, they chose to make the situation right,” says Teresa Hendricks, executive director of Migrant Legal Aid.
Hendricks says the staff at Wenke Greenhouses suspected something suspicious and started asking questions. Once their suspicions were confirmed, they removed the migrants from the situation, providing safe housing and transportation at the company’s expense. Wenke Greenhouses then contacted Migrant Legal Aid for help and there is now an investigation pending.
One of the human trafficking victims spoke at the event and told the audience of more than 100 people that he went from feeling constant fear to having a legitimate place where he could take care of himself and earn a living.
Migrant Legal Aid offers civil legal services to migrants who need assistance with employment pay, benefits, education, housing, civil rights issues, unacceptable worker conditions, immigration, domestic violence and healthcare access problems. Since 1973, they have been giving a voice to migrant workers and their families.
Often, migrant workers don’t speak English well, or at all, and can sometimes be duped into accepting illegal employment practices such as payment below the legal minimum or hazardous working conditions. Also, if an employer suspects or knows a person is here illegally, some may take advantage.
Other times, migrants are the victims of domestic violence and have no one to turn to. A recent example involved a woman who was beaten and raped by her husband and had no family nearby. Migrant Legal Aid was able to have the spouse deported and get the woman legal status here so she could get a job and find her own place to live.
With a small staff of six people that swells to 10 in the summers, Migrant Legal Aid covers the entire state of Michigan and its nearly 900 migrant camps.
The nonprofit organization receives no federal or state funding and relies on donations and grants from local foundations to operate. With high gas prices, it costs a lot for the staff to drive all over Michigan. There are also legal fees and expenses to cover. Yet, the services of Migrant Legal Aid are free to migrants working in agriculture who have an income level below poverty.
If you want to help Migrant Legal Aid continue to give a voice to those who need one, here’s how you can get involved:
- Visit
Migrant Legal Aid to find out more about what they do.
-
Donate to Migrant Legal Aid.
Source: Teresa Hendricks, Executive Director of Migrant Legal Aid
Writer: Heidi Stukkie, Do Good Editor
Photography provided by Migrant Legal Aid.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.