§1375b Protections for domestic workers and other nonimmigrants

Summary

Requires the Secretary of State, working with the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Labor, to make a plain-language pamphlet and a video about legal rights and help for people applying for employment- or education-based nonimmigrant visas. The materials must be shown in consular waiting rooms where many such applicants go, and the State Department can add video equipment if needed. The Secretary must consult nongovernmental groups with experience on worker rights and trafficking when creating the materials. The pamphlet and video must be translated or dubbed into the main foreign languages used by applicants, with the specific languages reviewed every 2 years with the Attorney General and DHS. The pamphlet and video must be posted on the websites of the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Justice, and Labor and on all U.S. consular posts that process these visas. The pamphlet had to be distributed in the required languages no later than 180 days after December 23, 2008, and the video had to be available in those languages no later than 1 year after March 7, 2013. The materials must also be made available to government agencies, advocacy groups, and foreign labor brokers. The content must explain the visa application process (including job portability), the legal rights of these visa holders under U.S. immigration, labor, and employment laws, and that slavery, peonage, trafficking, sexual assault, extortion, blackmail, and worker exploitation are illegal. It must describe victims’ rights, such as access to immigrant and labor rights groups, the right to seek court remedies, the right to report abuse without retaliation, the right to relinquish possession of a passport to an employer, the requirement for an employment contract, and what protections that contract should include. It must give information about victim services and hotlines, including federal anti-trafficking hotlines and the Operation Rescue and Restore hotline. A consular officer must confirm that an applicant received, read, and understood the pamphlet; if not, the officer must explain the listed rights and services in a language the applicant understands and answer questions. Defined terms: employment- or education-based nonimmigrant visa (the visa categories listed in the law and visas for personal or domestic servants accompanying an employer), “severe forms of trafficking in persons” (as defined in title 22, section 7102), “Secretary” (Secretary of State), and “abusing and exploiting” (conduct covered by 18 U.S.C. sections 1466A, 1589, 1591, 1592, 2251, or 2251A).