Attorney, law clerk were barred from visiting migrant farmworkers
Maryland Legal Aid has filed a federal lawsuit against
Montgomery County challenging the constitutionality of a no-trespass
order issued by county police to Legal Aid employees who attempted to
visit migrant farmworkers at a local farm.
Nohora Rivero, a Legal Aid attorney and plaintiff in the suit,
attempted to visit employees of Lewis Orchards in Dickerson with a
summer law clerk on Aug. 18 to inform the workers about their rights and
refer them to legal and other social service providers, according to
the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.
But the farm’s owners confronted Rivero and Spencer Evans, ordering
them to leave, the suit states. The owners then called the county
police, and an officer who was dispatched to the farm also told them to
leave the property despite being shown a copy of a Maryland attorney
general’s opinion affirming Legal Aid’s right to visit the workers, the
suit states.
The officer, Alexander Kettering, issued no-trespass warnings to the
Legal Aid employees, barring them from returning to the property for one
year, the suit states...
...Lewis Orchards employs 12 migrant farmworkers from Mexico, who have
work visas for seasonal agricultural work, according to the lawsuit. The
workers depend on their employer for transportation back to their home
country.
On Aug. 18, Rivero and Evans planned to speak with the workers about
the legal services available to them and to distribute brochures about
workers’ rights, the Affordable Care Act and complying with U.S. tax
laws, the suit states. They spoke with workers at one migrant camp at
the farm, who told them they were required to work overtime but were not
paid at a time-and-a-half rate, a labor law violation.
“If you don’t know your rights, you cannot fight for your rights,”
Rivero said. “It is very important for the farm workers to see us and
others that want to see them.”...
http://thedailyrecord.com/2016/04/21/legal-aid-files-suit-against-montgomery-co-over-no-trespass-order/?utm_source=WhatCounts+Publicaster+Edition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AM+Insider+042216&utm_content=Legal+Aid+files+suit+against+Montgomery+Co.+over+no-trespass+order
Forbes.com
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