|
The Southern Poverty Law Center created the Immigrant Justice Project in 2004 to address the unique legal needs of migrant workers, a group particularly vulnerable to workplace abuse. IJP litigates cases that can result in systemic, industry-wide change. Prior to the establishment of IJP, there was no entity providing legal representation to most immigrant workers in the South.
IJP presses for reform in the agricultural and forestry industries through litigation and community outreach. In the spring of 2006, IJP filed a lawsuit against subsidiaries of the food giant Del Monte Fresh Produce on behalf of migrant workers who were underpaid.
IJP also has filed lawsuits on behalf of migrant forestry workers and participated in a Congressional briefing highlighting many of the abuses migrant workers face on the job. IJP published "Beneath the Pines: Stories of Migrant Tree Planters" to document the personal stories of migrant "guest workers" imported into the United States by the forestry industry.
After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005, IJP added another initiative to its agenda. In New Orleans and the surrounding area, IJP found immigrants doing backbreaking cleanup work while being ruthlessly exploited by U.S. companies. IJP filed major lawsuits against companies working in New Orleans and is advocating stronger federal enforcement of worker protection laws. The stories of these workers are documented in "Broken Levees, Broken Promises: New Orleans' Migrant Workers in Their Own Words."
In 2006, IJP launched Esperanza, a project aimed at ending gender discrimination and sexual harassment of immigrant women in the workplace. The project educates immigrant women about their rights, informs the public about the problem and files gender discrimination lawsuits against companies breaking the law.
|
