Category: In the News - Page 84

The settlement still needs federal court approval, but Flint residents were being cautiously optimistic after the drawn-out crisis: “I just want it to be over.”

Since contaminated water began running from taps in Flint six years ago, perhaps the biggest worry was the lasting effect on the Michigan city’s 25,000 children.

Along with skin rashes and illnesses, some children showed elevated levels of lead in their blood, raising the alarming prospect of irreversible damage to their developing brains. In the schools, requests for special education or behavioral interventions began rising.

As the state of Michigan on Thursday announced a $600 million settlement for the victims of the water crisis that upended Flint, the deal was another reminder of the damage and debt to thousands of children: Almost 80 percent of the settlement will go to people who were younger than 18 during the crisis, the officials said, and much of that will go to those who were younger than 7.

Around Flint, residents said that the settlement, which still needs a federal judge’s approval, felt like the start of hopeful news. Still, after all they have been through, some had lingering doubts. They questioned how long the process of deciding who qualifies for payment may take. And they said they were painfully aware that no amount of money can undo the exposure their children had to tainted water between 2014 and 2016.

“For me, the settlement means we’re going to be OK,” Tiantha Williams said as she helped at a food and water distribution center at the Greater Holy Temple Church of God in Christ. “But it is upsetting that it’s going to take so long because I just want it to be over. You just get to a certain point where you just hate talking about it.”

Ms. Williams, 43, said that her 4-year-old son had experienced developmental delays with speech and toilet training, and that she feared that the water she drank while pregnant might have played a role. He was only 2.6 pounds at birth, she said, and struggled to survive.

The water lines in her home have been replaced, as have the lines in most homes in Flint, officials say. But Ms. Williams, like many people who live in Flint, continues to use bottled water for drinking and cooking. “I just don’t trust the water,” she said.

The water began turning strange colors and smelling odd in 2014, after the city switched residents’ water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The city, home to about 95,000 residents — 40 percent of whom fall below the federal poverty line — had fallen into fiscal distress. While under oversight by a state-appointed emergency manager sent to solve the city’s woes, Flint had switched its water supply to save money.

For months, residents’ complaints of ailments and foul odors were ignored as city and state officials assured people that the water was safe. But officials had failed to add chemicals that slow corrosion to the water, and investigations later found that the Flint River water was leaching lead and other substances from the city’s maze of old pipes into people’s drinking water. Much of the last few years has been spent trying to repair and replace water lines, and to convince residents that the water is now safe.

Settlement helps resolve five-year legal fight over one of nation’s worst public-health emergencies

Five years after the lead-tainted drinking water crisis in Flint, one of the nation’s worst public health emergencies, the state of Michigan has reached a settlement to compensate residents.

On Thursday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the state would pay $600 million to settle civil claims brought by thousands of residents on behalf of children and others. Residents had sued the state, along with the city of Flint, three engineering firms and the Environmental Protection Agency, for their alleged roles in allowing lead levels in the city’s drinking water to rise, starting in 2014.

The settlement, which needs to be approved by a federal judge, would resolve claims against Michigan, the state environmental agency and some former state employees. The other litigation is ongoing.

“Ultimately, by reaching this agreement, I hope we can begin the process of closing one of the most difficult chapters in our state’s history,” Ms. Nessel said. “Flint residents have endured more than most, and to draw out the legal back-and-forth even longer would have achieved nothing but continued hardship.”

The water crisis that hit the city of nearly 100,000 residents in 2015 raised awareness about the hazards of lead in drinking water systems nationwide. Flint’s problems eventually were found to have been created when officials appointed by the state switched the city’s water source as a cost-saving measure in April 2014.

When the city failed to treat the water properly, old pipes running from water mains to homes leached lead into the tap water. Tests eventually showed that the percentage of children citywide with elevated blood lead levels roughly doubled to 4.9% from 2.4% after the city changed its drinking-water source. Many with the highest levels lived in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

Under the terms of the settlement, nearly 80% of the funds will go to residents who were under 18 years old during the period between April 25, 2014, and July 31, 2016. That could include 7,500 to 20,000 people, according to a lawyer involved in the settlement. Individual amounts will depend on factors such as previous blood lead levels and how many people participate in the settlement.

For Information About the Proposed Settlement

If you are a Flint resident or business owner and you’d like information about the proposed settlement, please go to www.FlintWaterJustice.com. If you would like to speak to someone directly about the settlement or if you need assistance with the form, please call: 1-866-536-0717 or text: “Flint” to 47177 or email: info@flintwaterjustice.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

State of Michigan to Fund Special Education Programming for Students Suffering Long-term Health and Behavioral Impacts

FLINT, MI – Interim Co-lead Class Counsel for victims of the Flint water crisis announced today a landmark $600 million settlement with multiple governmental defendants, including the state of Michigan, in the Flint Water Crisis litigation. This partial settlement is the result of 5 years of litigation and 18 months of court supervised negotiations. Interim Co-lead Counsel will continue to pursue claims against the remaining defendants on behalf of certain residents and local businesses in the City of Flint harmed by the water crisis.

The settlement will establish a court-monitored victims compensation fund that will provide hundreds of millions of dollars in direct payments to Flint residents, nearly 80 percent of which will go to those who were under the age of 18 at the time of the crisis. Flint residents, including minors, adults, property owners, and businesses, will be eligible to make claims from the compensation fund for personal injuries, and property and business damages. The claims process and compensation awards will be based on categories of injury. The settlement also takes into account community needs. For example, a dedicated fund will be created to provide special education programming for students who suffer long term health and behavioral impacts from lead poisoning.

The State of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and all individual defendants, including former Governor Rick Snyder, are included as parties to this settlement. It is important to note that this Preliminary Agreement is a partial resolution of claims for adequate and fair compensation. The litigation will continue against other defendants, including two private engineering firms charged with professional negligence—Veolia North America (Veolia) and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam (LAN). Each failed to give appropriate professional advice and greatly added to the widespread lead contamination of the water into proposed class members’ homes and businesses. Separate litigation against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will also continue.

All Flint residents harmed by the water crisis will have an opportunity to submit a claim for relief under the Agreement. Interim Class Counsel, Ted Leopold, with Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll and Michael Pitt, with Pitt McGehee Palmer Bonanni & Rivers, respectively, along with affiliated firms will be conducting a public awareness campaign about the settlement and will continue to advocate for members of the proposed class and settlement sub-classes and the guardians or representatives of any children who wish to be provided legal assistance to guide them through the claims process. Claimants presenting the same profile of injuries will receive the same awards without regard to whether they are represented by an attorney or law firm. The Special Master and Plaintiffs’ lawyers will help supervise this part of the process. Under the settlement, Interim Class Counsel will seek appointment as Class Counsel for the Settlement Class and the proposed sub-classes, and Interim Class Counsel will be authorized by the Agreement to assist in securing for any parent or family member an award for his or her child who is not represented by counsel. Residents are encouraged to visit flintwaterjustice.com or call 866-536-0717 for information.

“The residents of Flint were victims of horrendous decisions by the State, its employees, and other defendants that have resulted in tragic and devastating consequences. This public health disaster was the product of a complete disregard for the health and well-being of ordinary citizens. While we can never undo the damage that occurred to the citizens and community of Flint, we are pleased that today we were able to secure a measure of justice for the proposed class and the Flint community, and will continue to seek justice against the remaining defendants,” said Ted Leopold, court-appointed interim co-lead counsel and Partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.

Michael Pitt, court-appointed interim co-lead counsel and Partner at Pitt McGehee Palmer Bonanni & Rivers, P.C., added, “Interim Class Counsel worked with the State and counsel representing individual plaintiffs to negotiate a settlement that took into account the interests of the class and the community. We made sure that there was broad coverage so that the most impacted members of the community could participate in the settlement. Clearly, this is an important first step toward addressing the damage done to the bodies, spirit, and community of Flint. By obtaining justice, Flint residents and businesses can begin to rebuild from this tragedy.”

The Court-Appointed Interim Executive Committee that has worked in tandem with interim co-lead counsel for the past five years has included Steve Morrissey of Susman Godfrey L.L.P., who also chaired the Expert Committee; Paul Novak of Weitz & Luxenberg; Teresa Bingman of the Law Offices of Teresa A. Bingman; Esther Berezofsky of Motley Rice, LLC; and Peretz Bronstein of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman L.L.C.; Mark McAlpine and Jayson Blake of McAlpine PC worked with interim class counsel in coordinating related proceedings in state court. Shawn Raymond of Susman Godfrey served on the Mediation Team and played an instrumental role in negotiating the settlement. Emmy Levens and Jessica Weiner with Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll coordinated all briefing. Jordan Connors and Katherine Peaslee of Susman Godfrey oversaw discovery. Greg Stamatopoulos of Weitz & Luxenberg and Sarah Hansel of Motley Rice, LLC worked with experts.

The interim class counsel team also include attorneys Trachelle C. Young of Trachelle C. Young and Associates; Julie Hurwitz and Bill Goodman of Goodman, Hurwitz & James PC; Deborah LaBelle of the Law Offices of Deborah LaBelle; Cynthia Lindsey and Shermane Sealey of Cynthia M. Lindsey & Associates PLLC; Brian McKeen of McKeen & Associates; and Cary McGehee and Beth Rivers of Pitt McGehee Palmer Bonanni & Rivers PC.

“This historic Agreement will remain noteworthy for many reasons beyond the justice rendered here. We will never be able to truly reverse the harm and endangerment that was a direct result of failed leadership, including by individuals elected as public servants. The action taken in reaching this partial settlement is a clear reassurance of being able to hold our government and its officials accountable. This is also a historic win for a city that’s rich in its history of Black, Brown and Immigrant working people whose trust, patience and resilience remained visible in the pursuit of justice and accountability,” said Teresa A. Bingman, Law Offices of Teresa A. Bingman and member of the Executive Committee and Mediation Team.

In 2014, the City of Flint switched its water supply to draw from the highly contaminated Flint River. What followed was one of the nation’s most horrific public health disasters, with all of Flint’s residents exposed to lead poisoning and corrosive water, including over 10,000 minor children. Research clearly shows that children are highly susceptible to permanent, long-term health consequences from lead poisoning. Additionally, over 30,000 of the City’s housing units lost significant value, and require substantial remediation expense, because of corroded, unsafe pipes, fixtures and appliances.

As the lawsuit uncovered, it was calculated decisions by government officials and the reckless and professionally negligent conduct of the private engineering firms that exposed residents of Flint to the harmful health effects of lead and damaged homes and businesses throughout the city.

Flint residents charged that the engineering firms LAN and Veolia gave disastrously bad advice about switching over the water supply and ensuring the quality and safety of Flint water. When Flint citizens complained about the new water’s bad smell, color and taste—and later, when poisonous lead levels easily could have been identified and the City suffered an outbreak of deadly Legionnaires’ disease—these companies failed to identify the absence of any corrosion control in the Flint water system as the root cause of the problems, conduct standard tests to assess corrosivity in the water, assess the scope of the problems, and recommend steps that could have avoided the enormous harms to the City’s residents and businesses.

Victims also accused former Governor Snyder and his administration of carrying out a woefully slow and inadequate response to the unfolding crisis. While former Governor Snyder and his staff were aware of the health risks associated with the city’s transition to Flint River water, including the risk of Legionnaires’ disease, they knowingly concealed information from the public and waited several months before declaring a state of emergency. Furthermore, the DEQ failed to comply with State and federal laws and put in place a satisfactory non-discrimination policy.

As a result of these failures, lead concentrations in Flint water reached astonishingly high levels—in one case, as much as 880 times the EPA’s legal limit. The toxic lead made its way into residents’ water supply, eventually then into their homes’ lead-based water pipes, and eventually into their bodies.

Lead poisoning is known to cause serious damage to children’s central and peripheral nervous systems, stunt growth, reduce IQ and cause serious behavioral problems. The effects of these symptoms can reverberate across a child’s entire lifespan. Residents have reported skin lesions and dermatologic pathology, neurological disorders and both chronic and acute respiratory disorders. Others have said they contracted E. coli and a urinary tract infection from Flint’s unsafe water. Corrosive water has also damaged pipes and fixtures in homes and businesses throughout the city.

Media Contact: Doug Cohen / 617-595-7160/ doug.cohen@berlinrosen.com

For Information About the Proposed Settlement

Pharmaceutical company Actavis told a Massachusetts federal court Wednesday that it had reached a settlement with the direct purchaser class in a lawsuit that accused the company, along with fellow pharma company Shire, of conspiring to delay sales of a generic version of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medication Intuniv.

In a letter, Christopher T. Holding of Goodwin Procter LLP — counsel for Actavis — told the court the company and direct purchasers had reached a settlement “resolving all claims against each other in this litigation” and the class will ask the court for preliminary approval of the deal “in due course.”

However, the letter noted that the direct purchasers’ claims against Shire have not yet been resolved. It also said separate claims against Actavis from a group of indirect purchasers also remain unresolved, as the indirect purchasers’ appeal to the First Circuit against the denial of its class certification is still pending.

. . .

Direct and indirect purchasers of Intuniv claim Actavis got permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to launch its generic version of the ADHD drug in October 2012. However, the generic didn’t come to market until December 2014 because of a deal it made with Shire, leaving buyers without a generic option.

Under the agreement, Shire agreed not to launch an authorized generic during Actavis’ 180-day generic exclusivity period once it launched the generic. In exchange, Actavis agreed to delay its generic launch and give Shire 25% of its profits earned during its exclusivity period — which the purchasers claim is an illegal reverse payment.

. . .

The direct purchasers are represented by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, Faruqi & Faruqi LLP, Berger Montague, Radice Law Firm, Nussbaum Law Group PC, Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and Sperling & Slater PC.

Tens of thousands of women who claim Sterling Jewelers improperly shorted them on pay and promotions pressed the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to turn aside the company’s effort to limit when workers can pursue class arbitration, saying its legal rationale doesn’t hold water.

The group of around 70,000 women urged the high court to deny Sterling’s appeal of a November ruling by the Second Circuit blessing an arbitrator’s decision to certify an arbitral class of female retail employees that included those who didn’t explicitly opt into the long-running case, which dates back to 2005. The women have alleged that Sterling paid them less than their male peers and stymied their career advancement.

Sterling lodged its cert petition earlier this year, seeking to upend the Second Circuit’s decision. The question posed to the justices is whether an arbitrator can allow class arbitration that binds all parties as well as “absent” class members without finding that they consented to the process.

But in Monday’s opposition, the women noted that Sterling failed almost a decade ago to have the Supreme Court take up the case and that its “arguments are even weaker now” following multiple appeals.

“While Sterling says this case ‘vividly illustrates’ the problems of class arbitration, it more vividly illustrates a different problem: losers in arbitration seeking a second (and in this case a third and fourth) bite at the apple and burdening the judiciary with requests to review arbitral decisions they dislike,” the women said. “Sterling’s conception of judicial review — where arbitral awards are subject to judicial revision a decade after the fact, following several intervening appeals — presents the real threat to the efficiency and finality arbitration is meant to achieve.”

. . .

If the high court takes the case, it will be the latest of numerous legal fights it has taken on in recent years that involve workplace arbitration agreements generally and class arbitration in particular as employers have increasingly gravitated toward programs mandating arbitration of legal disputes.

. . .

The class is represented by Sam Smith and Loren B. Donnell of Burr & Smith LLP; Joseph Sellers, Kalpana Kotagal and Shaylyn Cochran of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC; Jessica Ring Amunson and Lauren Hartz of Jenner & Block LLP; and Thomas Warren.

An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday granted final approval to a $588K deal that settles allegations national staffing agency MVP subjected a class of Black workers to discriminatory hiring practices.

U.S. District Judge John Tharp said during a telephone hearing that the agreement among the class, MVP — also known as Personnel Staffing Group LLC — and several other Chicago-area companies that contracted with MVP and were also named in the suit was a fair and reasonable resolution to the litigation.

Settlement discussions persist with just one other company named in the suit, MPS Chicago, but attorneys told Judge Tharp Tuesday that the parties were close to a deal.

. . .

The suit, first filed in December 2016, claims the staffing agency complied with several of its clients’ requests not to refer African American employees, selecting primarily Hispanic workers instead.

Filed along with the suit were statements from former administrative employees of MVP detailing how clients allegedly used code words to communicate their requests for exclusively Hispanic workers and punished administrative staff who gave assignments to African American workers.

The companies used stereotypes to dictate their desire for exclusively Hispanic workers, the suit claims. Code words like “guapos” — Spanish for “pretty boys” — referred to African Americans based on a stereotype that they were unwilling to do dirty work, according to the complaint. By contrast, Hispanic workers were called “feos,” or “dirty ones.”

Among the statements submitted with the suit was one from a former manager of the Cicero office who said the company screened out people who “looked gang-related” based on their tattoos, how they wore their clothes or where they lived.

And if African American workers were referred to a company that did not want workers of their race, their file would be marked “Do Not Return” before the end of their first shift, the suit claimed.

. . .

The plaintiffs are represented by Christopher J. Williams of the National Legal Advocacy Network; Joseph M. Sellers, Shaylyn Cochran and Harini Srinivasan of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC; and Javier Eduardo Castro of the Raise The Floor Alliance.

Preliminary data released last month by scientists at seven North Carolina universities showed the highest levels of ‘forever chemicals’, known as PFAS, were observed at the Cape Fear region’s main raw water supply at the Kings Bluff pump station on the Cape Fear River. The high level was attributed to PFAS chemicals coming from discharges at the Chemours Fayetteville Works plant.

The team of scientists measured a total PFAS level of 425.5 parts per trillion (ppt) at the station, only two points higher than the nearby Bladen Bluffs station — which only serves the Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel — but nearly double the third-highest level found in Harnett County. (It is important to note that these numbers only included the study’s first round of testing; a second round is in progress, which identified a preliminary PFAS level of 804.9 at Pittsboro’s water source.)

The pumps at Kings Bluff supplies water to at least 350,000 people in New Hanover, Brunswick, and Pender counties. The study measured untreated, raw water.

Cohen Milstein is Interim Co-Lead Counsel in this consolidated environmental toxic tort class action against E.I. DuPont de Nemours Company, and its former wholly-owned subsidiary, The Chemours Company.

Cohen Milstein’s team is led by Theodore J. Leopold, and includes S. Douglas Bunch, Jamie Bowers and Alison Deich.

The federal visa program for guest farmworkers, known as H-2A, has grown rapidly as the rural workforce has aged and as a crackdown against undocumented workers has intensified under President Donald Trump. Even as the White House has broadly restricted visas during the coronavirus pandemic, the administration has made exceptions for H-2A visas, deeming H-2A workers to be essential and calling the program “vital to maintaining and securing the country’s critical food supply chain.”

Federal laws are supposed to ensure decent working conditions, fair pay and safe housing for guest workers, who are tied to the employers who sponsor them and must return to their home countries after the short-term visas expire, as the program doesn’t provide a pathway to citizenship.

But as the H-2A program has expanded, it has left more guest workers vulnerable to abuse, an NBC News investigation has found. Over the course of six months, NBC News visited more than a dozen H-2A sites in Georgia and North Carolina; interviewed dozens of H-2A workers, labor advocates, industry leaders and former labor officials; and reviewed hundreds of pages of court documents.

Last year, the Labor Department closed 431 cases with confirmed H-2A violations — a 150 percent increase since 2014; the agency found about 12,000 violations under the program, with nearly 5,000 H-2A workers cheated out of their wages, according to federal data.

And those are only the documented problems. Workers are often reluctant to speak out against employers who are responsible for their housing, transportation and paychecks — and who control their ability to stay in the U.S. — workers and labor advocates say. The pandemic has created new hazards for these workers, who are transported together and often stay in cramped housing that their employers provide. COVID-19 outbreaks have infected farmworkers across the U.S., including large groups of H-2A workers in California, Washington and Michigan, according to health officials.

Labor advocates are especially alarmed about farmers’ growing reliance on contractors like Sanchez. As pressure grows to cut costs amid falling crop prices and competition from foreign imports, more farmers are outsourcing the time-consuming job of hiring, transporting, housing and managing H-2A workers. Labor contractors can also shield farmers from liability, curtailing their legal responsibility for the workers picking their crops should something go wrong.

While some farm labor contractors are well-established professionals, others are tiny, fly-by-night operations that cut corners — middlemen sometimes known as “enganchadores,” a Spanish word referring to the practice of “hooking” workers to come to the U.S.

Although they are still a minority of the companies bringing H-2A workers to the U.S. — submitting 15 percent of the federally certified applications for workers in 2019 — labor contractors are more than twice as likely to be barred from the H-2A program for violating the rules compared to other H-2A employers, according to NBC News’ analysis of federal data from 2016 to 2019.

. . .

From his first days in office, Trump has made it a priority to impose draconian new restrictions on immigration — most recently freezing all new H-1B visas for skilled tech workers, among other groups. But the White House has made a rare exception for the H-2A program, which has no annual cap on visas.

One difference? The farmworker program has drawn deep support from major agricultural groups and Congressional Republicans in rural districts. The administration openly says that these foreign workers are different, because they are doing work that Americans don’t want to do.

“The President supports legal immigration, and the growth of the H-2A program to provide critical labor to America’s farmers and growers for jobs that have been fairly offered to American citizens and left unfilled,” the White House said in a statement.

Trump himself has vowed to make H-2A workers more readily available to American farmers.

“We’re going to have them coming into our country in an easier fashion than even before. It’s very important for our business, for our farms, for our ranches. And we are going to make that a very, very much easier, less cumbersome program,” Trump said in July 2019 upon signing an agreement with Guatemala to restrict asylum applications to the U.S. in exchange for greater access to H-2A visas. “All of those workers that come in, we want them to continue to come in.”

Last year, the Labor Department approved more than 257,000 positions for temporary foreign farmworkers through the H-2A program — more than twice as many as it had in 2014, according to federal data. “Most everybody is going to this as a last resort,” said Chalmers Carr, a South Carolina peach farmer who is president of USA Farmers, a national advocacy group representing H-2A employers.

The Trump administration defended its oversight of the H-2A program, citing the Labor Department’s efforts to investigate violations and educate employers about the program’s requirements. In a statement, the agency stressed its commitment “to safeguard American jobs, to level the playing field for law-abiding employers, and to protect workers from being paid less than they are legally owed or otherwise working under substandard conditions.”

Industry leaders say the vast majority of employers abide by the rules, working hard to comply with the program’s complex requirements and high labor costs. H-2A workers are currently required to earn more than the minimum wage in every state, and they are supposed to get free housing, transportation and food or access to cooking facilities.

“Generally, our growers want to do the right thing,” said Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association. “As with any industry, when you’ve got a few bad apples, that always taints it.”

But labor advocates like Goldstein believe that the fundamental design of the H-2A program leaves workers at risk of exploitation — and that the industry’s shift to using contractors makes it even easier for abuses to fly under the radar.

“Farmers get a very, very productive workforce, because these workers are so vulnerable,” Goldstein said. “They do what they say, and very few of them will speak up about unfair or illegal conditions, because they fear the consequences will be even worse if they do.”

. . .

A country built on guest workers

For more than a century, America has relied on temporary foreign laborers to plant and harvest its crops.

During World Wars I and II, labor shortages prompted the U.S. to open its doors to farmworkers from Mexico. The U.S. government gave assurances that the temporary workers would be treated fairly under the Bracero Program, named for the Spanish word for “farmhand.” But oversight was minimal, and the program became notorious for brutal working and housing conditions, which contributed to its demise in 1964. By that point, Congress had established another pathway for temporary agricultural workers, which became the H-2A program in 1986.

For decades, the H-2A program remained relatively small. But over the past 10 years, demand for temporary farmworkers and ranch hands has taken off.

In 2011, Georgia passed a sweeping anti-immigration law requiring larger businesses to use E-Verify to vet new hires and imposing stiff fines and prison sentences for workers who used fake identification to get jobs. The law squeezed Georgia farmers, who had long depended on undocumented immigrants and domestic migrant workers to harvest blueberries, onions, peaches and other hand-picked crops.

Georgia is now a leading destination for H-2A farmworkers, along with Florida, North Carolina, California, Washington and Louisiana. Despite the president’s executive order to “Hire American,” even Trump’s own vineyard in Virginia was certified to hire 23 H-2A workers last year. Industry lobbyists are pushing Congress and the Trump administration to extend the program to new kinds of agricultural workers and to make it cheaper and easier to use.

The program’s growth has spawned a cottage industry of visa agents and growers associations to help farmers navigate the complex application process. But increasingly, farmers are turning to farm labor contractors like Sanchez to supply workers. Last year, the Labor Department certified 1,900 applications for H-2A workers from contractors — more than triple the number in 2014 — giving these contractors permission to bring more than 100,000 temporary farmworkers to the U.S., according to NBC News’ analysis of federal data. Many contractors are former farmworkers themselves.

“In theory, having labor contractors organize workers is actually a good thing, because the contractor specializes in finding work for crews and lets workers get more hours,” said Philip Martin, a labor economist at the University of California, Davis. But many of them compete by providing workers at rock-bottom prices, Martin said — creating an incentive to skimp on workers’ paychecks and housing, given the lack of vigorous oversight. “The Department of Labor has not been good about throwing the bad ones out,” he said.

In late 2017, Sanchez petitioned the Labor Department to bring 30 H-2A workers to Georgia to harvest pine straw, attesting that he had tried to recruit U.S. workers, as the program requires, but that none had applied for the jobs. He promised that the foreign laborers would be paid either $10.62 an hour — the minimum for H-2A workers in Georgia that year, based on a federal formula — or $1 per straw bale, hitting the same minimum hourly wage; they would be housed at a motel that had already passed government inspection, according to records obtained by NBC News.

Instead, workers said, they stayed for a week at a motel — sharing beds, with some forced to sleep on the floor — before Sanchez moved them to the decrepit house in Blackshear.

No one was likely to check up on Sanchez: Under federal law, housing needs to pass inspection only when an employer applies to bring H-2A workers to the U.S. After workers arrive — sometimes months later — no follow-ups are required.

Visiting more than a dozen H-2A sites in Georgia and North Carolina in November, NBC News found government-approved farmworker housing overrun with insects and spiders’ nests, as well as cardboard covering broken windows. A dilapidated trailer in Georgia had gaping holes in the walls; feral cats had crawled into the kitchen cabinet, an H-2A worker documented in a video sent to Georgia Legal Services, an advocacy group that represents farmworkers. “Rats are better than us,” the worker said in the video.

The Labor Department conducts unscheduled inspections of H-2A worksites across the country, including occasional investigations of housing; the agency’s Wage and Hour division can issue monetary penalties, force employers to pay back wages, bar employers from the program and refer cases for prosecution. But resources for enforcement haven’t kept pace with the program’s rapid expansion: Wage and Hour staff has fallen by 19 percent since 2016, according to federal records. And even when employers are prohibited from hiring more H-2A workers, which is relatively infrequent, the bans are usually only temporary — between one and three years.

State oversight, too, is limited. Using federal grants, state agencies help H-2A employers comply with the program’s requirements and carry out housing inspections required before workers move in. Despite the rapid growth of the H-2A program, federal funding to these state agencies hasn’t increased, and some got less last year than they did three years earlier, according to records made public as part of a 2019 lawsuit against the Labor Department. Georgia’s federal funding dropped by 15 percent, the state Labor Department confirmed.

Some states, like North Carolina and California, also have their own standards and inspection systems for farmworker housing, and they take action against H-2A employers who break the rules. But others, including Georgia, have few additional rules and limited enforcement authority.

Last year, the Trump administration acknowledged some of the “unsafe and unsanitary” conditions facing H-2A workers. In July 2019, the administration released a lengthy proposal that sought to improve housing standards and increase the bonds that contractors must obtain as proof that they can pay their workers.

But the administration’s plan — which the Labor Department is slated to finalize next month — would also relax rules for employers who have complained that the H-2A program is too slow, expensive and cumbersome. State agencies would be allowed to conduct less frequent housing inspections by having employers certify themselves. Workers, meanwhile, would be responsible for more of their inbound travel expenses; some would be paid less under a new federal formula for calculating minimum H-2A wages, while others would be paid more.

Some lawmakers are trying to push the program in a new direction. Last year, the Democratic-controlled House passed a bipartisan farm labor bill that would include a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants and H-2A workers. The bill would also add 20,000 year-round H-2A visas, which are currently unlimited but only seasonal.

But the chances that Congress will pass any kind of immigration overhaul are slim, with a pandemic gripping the country and a presidential election only months away.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has continued to keep the door open for H-2A workers, temporarily easing visa rules by allowing employers to hire guest workers more quickly and keep them in the U.S. longer. “The Trump administration is working to keep our farmers and growers competitive while ensuring that American workers have access to more opportunities and higher wages,” the White House said in a statement, adding that problems with H-2A workers’ health, safety, and employment “can be identified and resolved.”

Even as unemployment has climbed to the highest rate since the Great Depression, industry leaders say farmers are still scrambling to find enough workers to plant and harvest their crops — tough, manual labor that is usually in remote locations.

Labor advocates fear that America’s faltering economy could put these guest workers at even greater risk. While demand for produce sold in grocery stores has remained high, the pandemic has dealt a major blow to many farms that supply restaurants, cafeterias and other institutions.

That has increased the pressure for growers who rely on the H-2A program to cut costs — and that could ultimately mean skimping on wages, housing and other labor expenses, said Michael Hancock, a lawyer with Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, a civil rights and employment law firm. Hancock was a Labor Department official in President Barack Obama’s administration.

“Who are the most powerless people in this process, in the weakest negotiating and bargaining position?” Hancock said. “The workers.”

CFPUA has begun more frequent sampling of raw water from the Cape Fear River and sought guidance from state regulators after being informed Wednesday evening by Chemours that PFAS remediation work at its Fayetteville Works plant apparently had sent an increased volume of sediment into the river.

In an email sent at 7:32 p.m. Wednesday, July 22, Christel Compton, Fayetteville Works Environmental Manager, wrote:

“As you know, pursuant to a Consent Order with the State of North Carolina and Cape Fear River Watch, Chemours, as part of its commitment to reduce PFAS loadings to the Cape Fear River, is constructing a system to capture and treat flow in a conveyance at its Fayetteville Works referred to as Old Outfall 002. In connection with that construction, our consultants visually observed this afternoon an apparent increase in the quantity of sediments being carried from the mouth of Old Outfall 002 to the River. We have ceased, pending further review, the specific construction activity that took place over the last day that we believe may have contributed to this increase. We do not know at this time whether any increase in sediments will also result in a short term increase in PFAS levels downstream. We initiated expedited sampling this evening to determine if a sediment increase has resulted in an increase in such PFAS levels. We will notify you of the results of that sampling.”

Cohen Milstein is Interim Co-Lead Counsel in this consolidated environmental toxic tort class action against E.I. DuPont de Nemours Company, and its former wholly-owned subsidiary, The Chemours Company.

Cohen Milstein’s team is led by Theodore J. Leopold, and includes S. Douglas Bunch, and Alison Deich.

Studies say people with high levels of PFAS in their systems could be more susceptible to contracting COVID-19.

John Wolfe doesn’t know what else he can do to protect himself against the coronavirus.

The Wilmington boat captain follows all of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. He wears a mask and requires tourists on his boat to do the same. He practices social distancing and washes his hands frequently.

But Wolfe, like thousands of others who live downstream of the Chemours chemical plant on the Cape Fear River, worries that he may be more susceptible to the coronavirus.

He has reason to be concerned.

Late last month, the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released a report saying studies suggest that exposure to high levels of fluorinated compounds — commonly referred to as PFAS or “forever chemicals” — could suppress the immune system and increase the risk of getting COVID-19 and the severity of infection.

Studies have also shown that exposure to PFAS could reduce the effectiveness of childhood vaccines and adult flu vaccines.

The agency’s report was followed by an opinion piece from some of the nation’s leading PFAS researchers, including Jamie DeWitt of East Carolina University. The article was published July 6 in Environmental Health News.

Cohen Milstein’s team is led by Theodore J. Leopold, and includes S. Douglas Bunch, and Alison Deich.