NEW ORLEANS – A lawsuit filed against a Louisiana sugarcane farm alleges “extensive and deliberate” violations of federal immigration law.
Plaintiff Jose Luis Mojica Alonso, a Mexican citizen who was employed by defendants Louisiana Sugar Cane Cooperative Inc. and Lasuca Farm LLC, filed his lawsuit October 16 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
According to his 27-page complaint, filed on his behalf and others similarly situated, the defendants hire “hundreds” of foreign workers such as himself each year “under the guise of farming.”
But Alonso contends the defendants actually employ most of their workers at a sugar mill and its associated trucking and mechanic shop businesses as truck drivers, mechanics, machinists, maintenance workers, electricians, welders, dispatchers, shuttle drivers, cooks and kitchen workers.
“To gain the government’s permission to import these workers from Mexico and Central America, Defendants lie under oath, claiming that the workers will harvest sugarcane and perform other agricultural tasks that Defendants know the workers will not perform,” the lawsuit states.
“By misrepresenting the work to be assigned, Defendants not only gain access to foreign workers, they gain an excuse to pay illegally low wages and they deny job opportunities to U.S. workers.”
According to his suit, Alonso and others were regularly employed more than 40 hours each workweek; however, LASUCA and LFL never paid their H-2A workers overtime wages.
“Defendants breached the terms of the employment contracts with Plaintiff and his co-workers by failing to pay them the proper hourly wage rate for the non-agricultural work they performed and by not paying overtime,” the complaint states.
Alonso contends LASUCA and LFL violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Louisiana Wage Payment Law, and Louisiana’s law of contracts.
Alonso was employed by the defendants as a mechanic, machine maintenance worker, and water tester in 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026.
Prior to that, he was employed as a mechanic and machine maintenance worker, first by LASUCA on H-2B visas from around 2006 through 2017, and later by LFL on H-2A visas from 2017 forward, he claims.
The H-2A visa program authorizes the admission of foreign workers to perform agricultural labor or services of a seasonal or temporary nature.
U.S. employers may import foreign workers to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary nature if the U.S. Department of Labor, or DOL, certifies that there are insufficient available workers within the U.S. to perform the job, and the employment of foreign workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly situated U.S. workers.
Foreign workers admitted in this fashion are commonly referred to as H-2A workers.
Meanwhile, the H-2B visa program allows employers who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign workers to the U.S. to fill temporary non-agricultural jobs.
Again, an employer in the U.S. may hire foreign workers to perform temporary non-agricultural labor if the DOL certifies that there are insufficient available workers within the U.S. to perform the jobs; and the employment of foreign workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly situated U.S. workers.
Alonso’s lawsuit notes that an unlimited number of workers may be admitted under H-2A each year, while H-2B is subject to a statutory cap of 66,000 workers each year.
Also, his suit notes that the minimum wages that must be paid to H-2A workers are calculated differently than the minimum wages that must be paid to H-2B workers.
LASUCA and LFL are based in St. Martinville, Louisiana. LASUCA operates a sugar mill that turns harvested sugar cane into raw sugar and black strap molasses. LASUCA transports and sells its raw sugar primarily through its integrated business relationship with Louisiana Sugar Refining based in Gramercy, Louisiana, where it has a refinery.
LASUCA wholly owns, operates, and controls LFL.
Alonso seeks money damages, declaratory and injunctive relief, consequential and compensatory damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, and attorney’s fees
Caitlin Berberich, a trial attorney at Southern Migrant Legal Services in Nashville, Tennessee, and Daniel Davis of Estes Davis Law LLC in Baton Rouge are representing Alonso in the action.
