This past 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.

But though 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.

Mendoza 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. Here’s more details on how we were able to report this story.

Mendoza became one of the first people 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.

Operation Blooming Onion is one of the largest H-2A trafficking investigations ever.

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.

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.

In each of those states, insurance regulators can’t point to a single penalty for ghost networks.