This farm has repeatedly violated federal labor laws. Why does the U.S. continue to grant it foreign workers?

Star Farms in Brighton again under federal labor investigation, hit with new wage demands from workers

BRISTOL — Seasonal Mexican workers stoop in the sweltering summer heat, bending low to cut cucumbers for farmers markets and produce aisles at Colorado’s big-box grocery stores.

Every year, the laborers arrive at Star Farms on temporary visas as part of the federal government’s H-2A program, which allows American employers to hire foreign workers for critical agricultural jobs.

They till the soil and tie the vines from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Others thin, prune, seal, pack, and load vegetables such as cabbage, peppers, onions, and others.

Despite federal regulations, workers and their attorneys claim that the farm’s owner does not provide clean water, forcing them to purchase and transport their own. They claim that the on-site restrooms go months without being cleaned. Workers, they claim, feel compelled to urinate and defecate in the fields because they have no other choice.

Furthermore, they claim that Star Farms employees have not received a paycheck in seven weeks.

“Every year it’s the same,” one laborer said through a translator to The Denver Post. The 28-year-old father of two, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said he’s been forced to borrow money from family to eat because he doesn’t have a regular income. His wife and children in Mexico are perplexed as to why he is still there. “They said it would change this year. But it’s a lie — every time we come, it’s the same thing.”

According to interviews and a Denver Post review of court documents and inspection reports, Star Farms and its owner, Angelo Palombo, have repeatedly stolen wages from migrant workers and violated federal labor laws for nearly two decades. The US Department of Labor discovered 191 violations of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act during a 2008 investigation.

As a result of federal investigations and settlement agreements in civil lawsuits, Palombo has been hit with at least $209,000 in penalties and back-wage repayments.

The federal labor department has announced that it is re-investigating the farm. In a new demand letter, the workers’ attorneys ask the Colorado attorney general and the state labor department to launch their own investigations.

“You continue to exploit these workers and profit off their labor while refusing to pay them the wages you have stolen from them,” attorneys from Towards Justice and Colorado Legal Services wrote in a demand letter to Palombo on Monday.

Despite repeated fines and violations, the same federal agency allows Palombo to hire and exploit seasonal workers year after year.

The plight of Star Farms employees highlights the exploitative nature of seasonal farm work in America. According to experts, under the federal H-2A program, these migrant laborers can only work for the employer who brought them into the country, making them captive and ripe for abuse. They cannot, unlike other laborers, switch jobs if working conditions deteriorate. They are also unlikely to report mistreatment, leaving the majority to suffer in silence.

“Once you find an employer, you don’t want to lose that,” Jenifer Rodriguez, a veteran farm worker attorney representing the Star Farms workers, said. “Like undocumented workers, these H-2A workers will put up with a lot more because they want to be able to return.”

Palombo told The Washington Post in an interview that he “pretty much” pays all of his employees on time. He claims that clean water is always available and that the bathrooms are cleaned every other day.

He filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy protection in July, and court filings show he owes creditors millions of dollars, including tens of thousands to dozens of his employees.

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Star Farms will open on September 12, 2023, in Brighton.

Lawsuits and investigations

Palombo has been cultivating vegetables in Colorado for over 50 years. According to an online biography, he grew up in Irondale, working on the farm with his father. Every morning, they would take their farm-fresh produce to Denver’s Denargo Market.

Palombo established Palombo Farms in Commerce City in 1975, expanding his vegetable selection. He eventually changed his name to Star Farms and relocated his operation to Brighton.

Sixty-five seasonal workers are now employed on the farm in Weld County, picking produce such as green beans, cabbage, cucumbers, and asparagus.

Palombo Farms Market, located off U.S. 85 in Henderson, is run by Palombo family members. The shop sells fresh fruits and vegetables from his farm and other local farms, as well as homemade mustards and dressings. (According to a spokesperson, the market is run by Palombo’s ex-wife and their son, Linda Palombo and Joseph Palombo. They claim Angelo Palombo has no connection to their company).

Star Farms vegetables are also available in local supermarkets owned by Safeway and Kroger.

However, for years, farm-fresh produce pickers have complained about poor treatment.

The US Department of Labor discovered nine violations at Star Farms in 2006, five of which were related to the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. Four more were Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations. Palombo was fined nearly $6,800 by the department.

Four years later, federal labor investigators discovered 191 migrant worker violations that affected 140 workers. The department fined Star Farms $12,200 and ordered that workers be paid $123,330.54 in back wages. (On the labor department’s website, public data only shows the number of violations and fines/back wages issued. The department has not responded to The Post’s Freedom of Information Act request for more detailed information on the violations.)

Star Farms was named a repeat violator of the Fair Labor Standards Act by the Labor Department in 2010.

Workers have sued Palombo and his company in federal court twice since 2008, alleging that the farm owner failed to provide drinking water in the fields, clean restrooms, and timely pay.

In a 2015 case, laborers’ attorneys described it as “systematic abuse and exploitation of low-wage, seasonal, agricultural workers.”

In her complaint, Juana Armijo, a 54-year-old worker, stated that she had to bring her own knife to cut herbs because the farm would not provide one. Workers were given no gloves or soap to wash their hands after using the restroom, which was 20 minutes away.

According to the lawsuit, Armijo’s supervisor told her to simply relieve herself in the cornfield.

She and another employee, Apolinar Valenzuela Ramos, both left the job without being paid in full. They only received money from Palombo after going to court.

Palombo agreed to settlements totaling $67,200 in both the 2008 and 2015 federal lawsuits, in which he paid these workers and other unpaid laborers. Moving forward, court-ordered consent decrees also required the farm owner to provide clean drinking water and sanitary bathrooms, as well as pay his workers on time.

According to David Seligman, executive director of Towards Justice, the farm owner still owes money from the 2015 settlement.

Palombo told The Washington Post that because the cases were so long ago, he couldn’t recall the specifics.

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Star Farms will open on September 12, 2023, in Brighton.

“I’m not closing the farm”

Palombo agreed to these terms in the second federal case nearly eight years ago.

However, workers and their attorneys claim that nothing has changed.

The bathrooms are still not cleaned. There is still no safe drinking water. And, they claim, the pay never arrives on time.

Furthermore, the workers’ attorneys claim that Palombo illegally passes on travel and visa costs to the migrant laborers. They claim that in previous years, he demanded $2,500 in illegal kickbacks to cover his expenses.

When the Mexican worker who spoke with The Post is paid, he says the majority of the money goes to repaying family members and sending cash to his wife and children. There isn’t much left over for food, clothing, or medical expenses.

He claims that finding another H-2A employer is difficult. So, despite living in a two-bedroom apartment with six other people, he returns to Star Farms year after year.

“I don’t have any alternatives,” he said through a translator in Spanish.

Palombo told The Washington Post that he does not pass on costs to his employees and that he pays them on a regular basis. He even allows his employees to borrow money from him, he claims.

“Tell them to come see me, and we’ll find out what happened,” Palombo said.

According to the workers’ lawyers’ demand letter, Star Farms’ actions violate the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Colorado Wage Claim Act, and H-2A visa regulations. They claim that Palombo’s actions are also a form of civil theft and may violate federal and state trafficking laws.

“More fundamentally, your failure to pay wages has had catastrophic consequences for our clients, with many of them experiencing severe food shortages as they struggle to afford basic necessities and many of them feeling scared and threatened to continue working for fear that if they do not, they will never receive the wages they have already earned,” the attorneys wrote.

A spokesperson for the United States Department of Labor said the federal agency is investigating Star Farms but declined to elaborate.

Palombo told a Post reporter on Thursday that investigators were at the farm speaking with workers.

Palombo is in the red, according to bankruptcy filings. The farm reported assets of $2.86 million and liabilities of $3.58 million. Almost 70 employees have filed wage claims ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. The Colorado Department of Labor and Unemployment, as well as the Colorado Department of Revenue, are also creditors.

According to Palombo, the bankruptcy is a reorganizational tool. He stated that he intends to hire H-2A workers again next year.

“I’m not closing the farm,” he stated emphatically.

Visa holders have few options.

According to government audits, the Labor Department has a “inability to consider debarment” — or banning companies — for the most serious offenders. It occasionally prevented its own employees from investigating whether businesses were breaking the law.

According to Greg Schell, a Florida lawyer who has represented guest workers for three decades, H-2A employers are “more likely to get hit by lightning” than to be debarred.

According to a 2020 study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, more than 70% of federal labor standards investigations conducted on farms uncover violations ranging from wage theft to inadequate housing and other infractions.

However, with one wage and hour investigator for every 175,000 workers, the federal labor department is likely to miss a wide range of violations, according to the study.

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“Farm employers can violate wage and hour laws and reasonably expect that those violations will never be detected,” the authors write.

Last week, the Department of Labor proposed new rules aimed at improving protections for seasonal workers.

This year, nearly 4,000 people came to Colorado through the H-2A program to work in agricultural jobs for 330 employers.

Palombo is “definitely one of the repeat bad actors,” according to Rodriguez, a long-time Colorado farm workers’ attorney.

It’s not uncommon for these workers to continue working even without pay, she says. Laborers believe that if they complain, they will not be invited back the following year. The boss may even order that other farms not hire them.

Meanwhile, workers who aren’t being paid believe that their only option is to stay, according to Rodriguez.

“If they want to come back on an H-2A, their options are really limited,” she explained.

The Mexican worker wonders if he’ll return to Colorado next year and repeat the experience.

“If things don’t get fixed,” he predicted, “probably not.”