In Florida and elsewhere, migrant workers who do not enjoy the legal protections that come with legal paperwork are easily subjected to abuses, near zero pay and even violence. Conditions on some farms amount to slavery, and the US Justice Department has prosecuted at least 7 such farms in the last decade.

There are far more cases of individuals living in slave conditions than there are cases being investigated, and the lack of documentation allows abusive operations to prevent workers from seeking help. A first step for a just society must be to give asylum to any workers that have been subject to such conditions, so a proper criminal investigation can be launched and slavery eradicated in the US.

With such profound abuse and injustice operating at the margins of our economic system, the economic progress and common justice for all is threatened; our system of commerce and our system of laws are both deeply undermined by this kind of abuse. How can we uncover and eradicate slave-labor conditions and abuses once and for all?