May 17, 2025
The suit argues that Black workers were paid $10 an hour while foreign white workers received more.
On May 15, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Southern Migrant Legal Services (SMLS), and the Mississippi Center for Justice (MCJ) announced a joint lawsuit filed in federal court on behalf of five Black U.S. farmworkers. The suit alleges that Gregory Carr discriminated against the workers by favoring white foreign laborers, resulting in thousands of dollars in lost wages.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Greenville, Mississippi, alleges that Carr’s misuse of the H-2A visa program informed his decision to not rehire Michael Anthony Nash, Jimmy Shaw, Vinnie Cason, Grant Lewis, and Charleston Taurvonta Harris, all Mississippi natives who formerly worked for Carr as migrant or seasonal farmworkers.
The suit also argues that Carr paid those workers and other Black workers on his farm $10 an hour while paying the foreign workers more, and in addition to this, he misclassified the Black American workers on his farm as independent contractors and did not make the required contributions and tax payments that he was supposed to as an employer.
According to Kimberly Jones Merchant, the President and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice, “The intentional underpayment and misclassification of Black farmworkers in favor of white foreign labor not only violates federal law but has become increasingly common in the Mississippi Delta, holding our communities back for generations and perpetuating the historical exploitation faced by Black agricultural workers in our community.”
As Jones alluded to, the suit marks the ninth case filed by SMLS and MCJ which challenges the discriminatory practices of farmers in the Mississippi Delta, the other eight cases were all resolved in the favor of local workers and resulted in a significant wage recovery for the local workers who argued that the misuse of the visa program caused them to lose wages.
According to Marian Delaney from the SMLS, federal protections for American workers only matter if they are actually enforced.
“This case shows how the H-2A program can be manipulated to exclude and underpay Black American workers. Federal protections are only meaningful if we enforce them– and that’s exactly what our clients are demanding through this lawsuit,” Delaney said.
In April 2024, a similar case was resolved through the arbitration of a judge, who resolved the case on what was deemed mutually agreeable terms.
According to Hannah Wolf, an attorney who represented the 14 workers in that case, the SMLS would continue pursuing cases that resulted in American workers being replaced by foreign workers due to the intentional misuse of the H-2A program.
“The H-2A program requires employers first to try to recruit and hire local workers, but we continue to hear from U.S. workers who report being pushed out of their jobs and replaced with guest workers. We will continue to investigate those claims and bring legal action when warranted,” Wolf said.
Rob McDuff, one of the lawyers for MCJ added, “We hope our legal efforts will make clear to farmers in the Delta, and across the U.S., that they need to pay fair wages to local workers.”
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