Feds Indict Five in Georgia Agricultural Visa Fraud Scheme

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The latest indictments were unsealed in the Southern District of Georgia on Tuesday against five Hispanic adults, including a Mexican national in the country illegally, on charges of exploiting an agricultural H-2A visa program involving smuggling illegal foreign nationals into the U.S.

Three of the indicted were living in Alma, Georgia: Martha Aquino, Evangelina Aquino De Galvan, and Julio Cervantes; one in Rowlett, Marco Cervantes; and one from Mexico: Juan Felipe Romero-Lopez.

Aquino, Julio and Marco Cervantes were arrested this week, authorities said. De Galvan remains at large. Romero-Lopez has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after first being charged in May for “unlawful possession of a firearm by an illegal alien,” authorities said.

The alleged conspiracy is one federal prosecutors are identifying in multiple states: foreign nationals and U.S. citizens conspire to exploit the H-2A visa program by fraudulently obtaining temporary visas for agricultural workers. Foreign nationals are often smuggled into the country or brought in illegally using fraudulent paperwork under the guise of an agricultural program and then exploited in forced labor situations and unsafe working and housing environments once in the U.S., investigators have found.

The H-2A program allows U.S. employers or agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the U.S. to fill temporary agricultural jobs for up to three years.

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According to the charges, the defendants “lied” about where the foreign nationals would work and live and didn’t comply with the laws and rules governing the visa program. They also demanded and received payments from the workers before the H-2A visa applications were filed and/or before they began working in the U.S., the charges allege.

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The defendants also confiscated and withheld the foreign nationals’ identification documents, including their passports, and threatened or used violence against them to deter them from leaving or not showing up to work, according to the complaint.

After their visas expired, they had no way to leave and remained in the country illegally. The conspirators then “enabled them to remain in the United States and even offered to transport them elsewhere in the United States in exchange for additional improper payments,” the charges state.

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