Federal prosecutors have unsealed an indictment accusing five people of running a labor trafficking operation out of Georgia in which foreign farm workers brought in through the H-2A visa program were allegedly exploited, robbed and threatened, Breitbart News reported.
The scheme, according to prosecutors, hinged on manipulating a visa category designed to supply American farms with seasonal labor. Instead, authorities say, the defendants obtained H-2A visas fraudulently, then used those visas to bring workers into the country and subject them to abuse and financial extraction.
The defendants
The indictment names Martha Aquino, 61; Evangelina Aquino De Galvan, 49; Julio Cervantes, 38; Marco Cervantes, 41; and Juan Felipe Romero-Lopez, 31. Romero-Lopez is described in the charging documents as an illegal alien.
Three of the defendants — Martha Aquino, Julio Cervantes and Marco Cervantes — have been arrested. Romero-Lopez was already in federal custody on prior weapons charges. Evangelina Aquino De Galvan remains on the run, according to the reporting.
What prosecutors allege
The core of the government’s case is that the defendants fraudulently secured H-2A visas to import foreign agricultural workers, then, once those workers arrived in the United States, forced them to hand over payments. Prosecutors also allege the defendants confiscated the workers’ passports and warned them they would face violence if they attempted to leave their farm jobs.
The alleged abuse did not end when the workers’ visas expired, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say the defendants facilitated the workers’ continued unlawful presence in the country and offered to transport them to other parts of the country for employment — on the condition that the workers keep paying.
Charges are spread across the group. Martha Aquino, Aquino De Galvan and Julio Cervantes each face counts of conspiring to commit visa fraud, visa fraud, and encouraging and inducing aliens to enter the United States illegally for commercial advantage and private gain. Marco Cervantes faces charges of conspiring to commit visa fraud and visa fraud. Romero-Lopez is charged with conspiring to commit visa fraud and with being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm.
A program under scrutiny
The H-2A program permits farms to bring an unlimited number of foreign workers into the United States each year to fill agricultural jobs. Critics have long argued that the structure of the program leaves workers vulnerable, and the indictment adds another case to a growing body of allegations that employers and intermediaries use it to obtain cheaper, more compliant labor than they could find domestically.
The workers in this case, prosecutors say, were not merely underpaid or overworked. They were allegedly stripped of their travel documents and controlled through threats — hallmarks of labor trafficking rather than ordinary workplace violations.
Prosecutors promise accountability
U.S. Attorney Margaret E. Heap framed the case as a defense of both the workers and the integrity of the visa program itself.
“Those who exploit immigrant workers and abuse the H-2A visa program for their own financial gain will be held accountable,” Heap said. “We will continue to partner with our federal, state and local agencies to protect these workers, safeguard the integrity of the H-2A program and prosecute those who turn a lawful employment program into a vehicle for profit and abuse.”
The statement signals that federal authorities intend to treat visa fraud and labor trafficking as linked offenses, rather than separate administrative problems. It also underscores the role of interagency cooperation in building such cases, which typically depend on victim testimony, documentary evidence of visa applications and coordination among federal, state and local investigators.
What comes next
Aquino De Galvan’s status as a fugitive adds an immediate operational dimension to the case. Prosecutors will need her in custody before she can be arraigned alongside her co-defendants, and her absence could complicate scheduling for the remaining defendants if the government seeks to try the group together.
Romero-Lopez, meanwhile, was already in federal custody on separate weapons charges before the trafficking indictment was unsealed, meaning he will face the new visa fraud conspiracy count while already detained. Marco Cervantes faces the narrowest set of charges among the five, limited to the visa fraud conspiracy and the underlying fraud count.
The case remains at the indictment stage. An indictment is an accusation, not a conviction, and all five defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in court. None of the allegations have been tested at trial, and it was not immediately clear from the reporting whether any of the defendants have entered pleas or retained counsel.
For the workers allegedly brought in under the scheme, the outcome of the prosecution may determine whether they are treated as trafficking victims or as immigration violators — a distinction that carries significant consequences for their ability to remain in the country and to seek relief. Federal trafficking statutes generally provide protections for victims who cooperate with authorities, though the specifics depend on how prosecutors handle the case.
The indictment was unsealed this week, according to Breitbart News, which first reported the details of the charges and the defendants’ identities.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/09/16/federal-indictment-labor-traffickers-used-h-2a-visa-program-to-exploit-foreign-workers/