A Santa Maria agriculture employer was sentenced to over a year in federal prison on Monday for illegally collecting thousands of dollars from Mexican farm workers in exchange for H-2A visas.
Jorge Vasquez, 65, from Santa Maria had illegally charged 162 farm workers between $8,000 and $15,000 for their H-2A visas in 2025, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California.
Vasquez also paid the workers more than $3 below their required hourly rate at Cuyama Valley Farms LLC and JJB Farms LLC — two businesses Vasquez oversees.
The H-2A visa program allows U.S-based agriculture employers to hire temporary foreign workers if they can’t find workers in the country.
It also prohibits them from charging temporary foreign workers for visa fees, equipment, transportation or housing.
U.S. Homeland Security Investigations agents working under ICE had arrested Vasquez and three others in connection to visa fraud after raiding JJB Farms LLC in November 2025, according to a report from ICE.
In May 2025, Vasquez had charged a worker $8,500 in exchange for an H-2A visa to work at JJB Farms LLC. He also charged another worker $7,500 for their visa at JJB Farms LLC that same month, among other cases.
Vasquez pleaded guilty for conspiracy to commit mail fraud on June 24.
When applying for H-2A visas through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Vasquez and other co-conspirators in the case lied about not getting paid by the prospective H-2A workers.
The federal government granted Vasquez the H-2A visas for his workers. In exchange, Vasquez made the foreign workers pay him thousands of dollars for the visas.
Vasquez also underpaid his workers below their proposed wage: H-2A workers at JJB Farms were paid $16.50 per hour — $3.25 less per hour than their proposed wage. Meanwhile workers at Cuyama Valley Farms were paid $16 — $3.50 less per hour.
U.S. Attorney Neil Thakor of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section prosecuted the case.
