Immigrants working at a Kansas cattle ranch have described the horrific working conditions which they say are ‘like slavery’.
Workers at Fullmer Cattle Co., which raises calves for dairies in four states, claim they were forced to work for as little as a dollar an hour until they paid off their ‘debt’ after the company arranged for them to be illegally smuggled into the country.
There are no holidays, health insurance benefits or overtime pay for the immigrants who must also shell out for their own safety gear such as goggles, they claim.
‘It is like slavery what they do to those poor people,’ said Rachel Tovar, another former worker who spoke to The Associated Press.
Immigrants working at a Fullmer cattle ranch (pictured in a promotional video) have described the horrific working conditions which they say are ‘like slavery’
Workers at Fullmer Cattle Co., which raises calves for dairies in four states, claim they were forced to work for as little as a dollar an hour until they paid off their ‘debt’ after the company arranged for them to be illegally smuggled into the country (pictured is an unidentified employee in a promotional video)
One worker spent eight months cleaning out calf pens, laying down cement and doing other construction work.
Esteban Cornejo, a Mexican citizen who is in the US illegally, left Kansas in November after paying off debt, which he figures was nearly $7,000.
The pay stub Cornejo shared with The Associated Press shows he worked 182.5 hours at $10 an hour over two weeks — an average of 15 hours a day with Sundays off. His pay was $1,828.34 before taxes.
But the a $1,300 ‘cash advance repayment’ was also deducted, which he said was a company loan for bringing him into the country.
His eventual take-home pay was just $207.46, the pay stub shows, or just over $1 an hour working at Fullmer Auto Co. Texas LLC, which does business as Fullmer Cattle.
Rachel Tovar said she was interviewed recently by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, who asked about the company’s Kansas employment practices, but ICE declined to say if it is investigating.
Rachel Tovar, right, and husband Arturo Tovar, are both former workers of the Fullmer Cattle Co., a western Kansas calf ranch. They said the ranch forces immigrants to toil long days to work off loans for the cost of smuggling them into the country
Dean Ryan, the company’s attorney, said in an email that the allegations ‘are simply not true.’
‘There was no smuggler’s fee and has never been,’ Ryan wrote, adding that there are ‘plenty of people willing to work in western Kansas without having to ‘import’ them.’
Ryan said company policy is to give pay advances to workers who have no credit. He said those loans are made so employees can purchase a vehicle or put a down payment on a home.
President Donald Trump’s administration has cracked down on immigrants living in the country illegally. But it has said less about the companies that employ them, let alone a company accused of using smugglers to bring workers to the United States.
The plight of the Kansas workers also highlights the exploitation that immigrants face when a company forces them to pay off debt with work, a practice called ‘debt peonage.’
Under federal law, employers do not have to pay overtime to agricultural workers.
Immigrants working at Fullmer Cattle Company in Kansas (pictured) said that when the firm needed more workers, they would contact a Mexican smuggler to bring more in from across the border
One worker spent eight months cleaning out calf pens, laying down cement and doing other construction work at the huge cattle ranch (pictured)
Aerial footage shows the cattle ranch appearing to stretch on for acres
Erik Nicholson, national vice president for the United Farm Workers union, said it is not unusual for employers to recruit immigrant farmworkers. Some employers use kickback schemes, although deducting from paychecks is ‘pretty brazen.’
Arturo Tovar is Rachel’s husband and a Mexican citizen who lived illegally in the U.S. and was a Fullmer manager for 11 years.
He said the smuggling process worked like this: When the company needed workers, Arturo asked employees if they knew someone who wanted to work in the United States. The company gave him the phone number of the ‘coyote,’ or smuggler, in Piedras Niegras, Mexico, to make the arrangements.
The company would give Arturo Tovar a check, which he would cash. A partial payment was made to the smuggler upfront and the rest when the immigrant reached San Antonio or Houston, where the immigrant would be picked up.
Workers also said there were no holidays, health insurance benefits or overtime pay for the immigrants who must also shell out for their own safety gear such as goggles (pictured are unnamed employees in the company’s promotional video)
Some claimed they were paid just a dollar an hour for hard, physically demanding work on the ranch
If law enforcement asked questions about the cash, the employee was instructed to say it was for used cars the company bought at Texas auctions, he says.
Rachel Tovar, a US-born citizen, said that once the loan to bring an immigrant into the country was almost paid, the company often sold used vehicles to employees in what she believes was an effort to keep them in debt.
Arturo Tovar voluntarily left the country in lieu of deportation after pleading guilty last year to misdemeanor theft stemming from what the couple says was a false company accusation after he was hurt on the job. The company contends the Tovars have an agenda and lack credibility.
But another former employee told AP that Fullmer also loaned him money for the coyote to smuggle someone. AP is not naming the ex-worker out of concern for that person’s safety.
A fifth ex-worker confirmed the general accounts of those who allowed their names to be used but asked for anonymity because that person also has safety concerns.