“If what [these temporary visa programs] are saying is that we don’t have enough labor here in the US to do these jobs, then that’s fine. We should import that labor, but we should make them permanent members of our communities, not temporary workers,” Knoepp said.In 2010, over 200 Filipino teachers trafficked to work in Louisiana public school districts filed a US federal class suit against United Placement International, a California-based recruitment agency owned by Lulu Navarro.
However, for some teachers, the very real concerns around losing their temporary work visas and the idea of being deported back to the Philippines scared them away from the suit.” recalled Mairi Nunag, one of the lead plaintiffs in the Louisiana case who helped organize her fellow teachers against Navarro.
“Some of them told me upfront: 'Mairi, we cannot support you. We’re here to work. We don’t wanna take the risk of being sent home,'" Nunag added. “And thatTungohan said that the dynamic between Filipino recruiters and migrant workers is often more complicated than it appears.: of bending your head down and just working really hard. And they deploy that to their ends,” she said.