Two Mississippi catfish farms are accused of bringing workers from Mexico to the United States and paying them significantly higher wages for the same type of work than they previously paid local black farm workers. The lawsuit has been settled, lawyers for the plaintiffs announced Tuesday.
In August, the Southern Immigration Attorney’s Office and the Mississippi Center for Justice filed a lawsuit against Jerry Norville, his son Will Norville, and their farm on behalf of 14 black farm workers. The federal lawsuit alleges that black workers at the Nobile farm, which also grows corn and soybeans, were “systematically underpaid and denied employment opportunities for years in favor of non-black foreign workers.” Stated.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the case was concluded in a confidential settlement on “terms mutually agreeable.”
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The lawsuit against Norville Fish Farms was settled in February, according to court records. Rob McDuff, an attorney with the Mississippi Justice Center, told The Associated Press that the settlement was announced Tuesday because “all terms of the settlement have been fulfilled.”
“We hope our legal efforts will make it clear that farmers in the Delta and across the country need to pay local workers a fair wage,” McDuff said in a statement Wednesday. .
A lawyer for the Nobile farm was out of town Tuesday and did not immediately respond to a phone message from The Associated Press.
Two Mississippi catfish farms have settled wage discrimination lawsuits.
This is the eighth settlement on behalf of black farm workers who claim they were displaced after being hired by higher-paying immigrants on farms in the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest regions in the United States. Five of the settlements were reached without litigation, according to Southern Immigration Legal Services and the Mississippi Justice Center.
In December 2022, two farms settled lawsuits alleging they hired white workers from South Africa and paid them higher wages than local black workers for the same type of work.
All three lawsuits were against farms in Sunflower County, about 100 miles northwest of Jackson. The county has a population of just under 24,500 people, and about 74% of its residents are black, according to the Census Bureau.
The H-2A guest worker program requires employers to hire local workers before bringing in immigrant workers, said Hannah Wolf, a Southern immigration attorney in the case against Nobile Fish Farm. Stated. They lost their jobs and were replaced by guest workers. ”
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“We continue to investigate these allegations and take legal action where appropriate,” Wolf said.
