September 13, 2025 · View in browser

No, the case doesn’t involve the popular Outback Steakhouse appetizer. Federal investigators named it as a nod to farmworkers who harvested onions near Vidalia, Georgia. Their investigation revealed that the H-2A visa program has failed to protect migrant farmworkers from wage theft, forced labor, violence and death. 

Prosecutors withheld the names of the victims in the case in federal filings, which protects the identities of vulnerable sources but has made it difficult for the public to understand the full scope of the abuse and exploitation they faced. American farmers have increasingly relied on the H-2A program and may do so even more if undocumented laborers continue to be arrested by immigration officers. If our country is going to rely on these workers, I felt it was vital for the public to better understand the perils they faced in picking the produce that lines our grocery store aisles. So I obtained thousands of pages of records, called dozens of sources and traveled to five states to find workers. Along the way, I partnered with Zaydee Sanchez to tell the untold story of one of those unnamed victims. To protect that farmworker’s identity, we’ve chosen to call her Sofi. 

Sofi left behind her child in Mexico for the promise of providing him a better life. But the H-2A visa that allowed her to come to the U.S. legally ended up being a trap. The description of Sofi’s experience in the H-2A program is detailed in police records, court documents and testimony in federal court.

A labor contractor named Javier Sanchez Mendoza Jr. helped Sofi secure an H-2A visa for a job at a blueberry farm in Georgia. But he ignored the terms of her contract. She was not sent out to work in the fields like the others. She would not be paid at all.

Mendoza forced her to live at his house and sign a marriage license. He threatened to have her deported. He repeatedly raped her. But then she escaped. She called the police, and Mendoza was arrested.

After he was released from jail, Mendoza tracked Sofi down, kidnapped her and drove her to a cemetery. According to evidence detailed in a police report, on the way there Mendoza sought advice from a colleague in Mexico on what to do. The colleague said he should kill her.

Mendoza became the first person indicted in Operation Blooming Onion, which exposed widespread abuses of H-2A workers in Georgia. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in forced labor.

Mendoza himself brought over 565 people, with pending visa applications for hundreds more. He wasn’t the biggest player of them all. But a lead investigator testified that he was, unquestionably, the most brutal.

We reached out to Mendoza, who declined multiple requests for an interview and did not provide comments in response to ProPublica’s letters detailing the case. His lawyer has maintained that his relationship with Sofi was consensual. 

At Mendoza’s sentencing hearing, Sofi testified about the abuse she endured. A judge said that she believed Sofi, saying, “I would find by any standard of proof that she’s telling the truth,” and that “the rapes did occur.” Then, the judge turned to Mendoza.

“People think that there’s no slavery anymore,” she told him, moments before sentencing him to 30 years in prison. “There is, and you were doing it right here in our state.”

Although this case revealed how easy it is to exploit and abuse visaholders, little has changed. The Biden administration increased protections for H-2A workers, but several lawsuits filed by states including Georgia have prevented them from fully going into effect.

In June, the Trump administration went one step further, suspending any enforcement of the new program’s rules until that litigation is resolved. The number of H-2A visas issued has increased every year since Sofi arrived.

Thanks for reading, I hope you’ll continue on to the full story. 

-Max Blau

Reporter, ProPublica

P.S. I’m continuing to report on the state of the H-2A program in the months ahead. Are you an H-2A worker? Do you employ H-2A workers? Are you a regulator? Or do you have another role related to the H-2A program? I’d like to hear from you. Please get in touch with me here or reply directly to this email. 

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