Dispatches: A Win for US Farmworkers Against Sexual Assault
October 3, 2014
Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno
Human Rights Watch
No woman should have to fear that when she goes to work she will be raped, groped, or harassed by her coworkers or supervisors. But hundreds of thousands of immigrant women and girls working on farms in the United States face that risk to an extent other women do not. As Human Rights Watch documented in 2012, weak legal protections for farmworkers and immigrants and poor enforcement of those that exist, combined with the constant threat of deportation for those without documentation, mean that many immigrant farmworker women and girls endure sexual assault or harassment at their workplace without realistic possibility of redress. Perpetrators prey on them precisely because most victims are too afraid of retaliation to speak out.
But this past week saw a step toward reform in one large US state, which could help thousands of farmworker women and girls, as California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill aimed at combatting sexual harassment of farmworkers.
California was a significant focus of our reporting because it has the largest number of migrant farmworkers – both authorized and unauthorized – in the US, as well as a large number of farm labor contractors. For our research, we worked closely with activists, such as Alina Diaz in New York, and – in California – Lideres Campesinas and California Rural Legal Assistance, among other groups – that have long fought for farmworkers’ rights. After our report’s release, several national media outlets joined forces to produce “Rape in the Fields,” a documentary film highlighting the plight of women farmworkers in California, adding to the momentum for reform.
Under the new law, all supervisors and non-supervisory agricultural workers in California must undergo sexual harassment training when they are hired and at two-year intervals thereafter. Indeed, a central problem we documented is that employers often don’t train employees on sexual harassment policies, or investigate complaints. The law also creates new means for redress, by empowering California’s labor commissioner to revoke the licenses of contractors who commit sexual harassment, and pursue other legal action against alleged perpetrators.
There is much more to be done to fully protect farmworkers from sexual assault and harassment. The US Congress needs to strengthen federal farmworker and immigrant protections; it should also increase the number of U visas available to protect from deportation unauthorized immigrants who are victims of crimes, and ensure they can safely report serious offenses. The Obama administration should also overhaul policies, such as Secure Communities, a federal program that requires local law enforcement to share fingerprints they collect with immigration authorities, which may deter immigrants from reporting crimes.
But other states – particularly those with large farmworker populations such as New York, North Carolina, and Texas – should now take a cue from California, and get to work on their own bills to ensure that no woman or girl lives in fear of being raped at work.
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/03/dispatches-win-us-farmworkers-against-sexual-assault
