Three Mexican citizens filed a proposed collective action in Colorado federal court Tuesday alleging a company lured them to work in the U.S. under guest worker visas with false promises, then trafficked them into forced labor in Colorado potato warehouses.

The lawsuit filed by Armando Rubio Flores, Alfonso Angeles Hernandez and Israin Hernandez Jacobo alleges that J&T Harvesting LLC lured them to work in the U.S. under the H2-A temporary agricultural worker program with lies about conditions and wages, then exploited them, forcing them to pay various expenses in violation of H2-A program rules, among other illegal acts.

"Plaintiffs traveled hundreds of miles from their hometowns in Mexico for the opportunity to work lawfully in the United States to provide for their families," the workers said. "Instead, plaintiffs incurred crippling debt as a result of the unlawfully charged recruitment fees and expenses."

They say they believed they were going to be working in Uvalde, Texas, but were instead forced to work in potato warehouse operations in southern Colorado.

"Once plaintiffs were put to work for potato warehouse defendants, J&T defendants exploited plaintiffs' indebtedness, housed them in substandard conditions (which they unlawfully required plaintiffs to pay for), restricted their movement and interaction with others, and cultivated a climate of fear, which compelled plaintiffs to believe they had no choice but to stay and work for defendants at lower wages than they were legally owed and had been promised," the workers said.

The workers say the potato warehouse companies, MountainKing Potatoes Inc. and Alpine Potato Co., understood what was going on and "enjoyed the benefit of plaintiffs' forced labor."

The workers allege that when J&T in 2022 submitted a job order and H2-A application to federal labor and immigration officials to bring in 99 agricultural workers to be placed at certain farms in Uvalde, the company knew the workers would really be going to the Colorado potato warehouses.

They were given no food or water while being transported from Texas to Colorado, they allege. They also say that for three weeks, the men were housed mostly in a run-down motel, with eight men in a room that had only a mattress and box spring to sleep on, split apart so more people could fit, and no heat. Others, the workers say, were made to sleep in a closed-down restaurant.

Later, J&T had 30 men live in a five-bedroom, two-bathroom house "in serious disrepair," with no furniture or beds, and charged each one $100 per week by deducting it from their pay, according to the lawsuit.

Some of the men tried to rent their own apartment from the same landlord that owned the house, but a man who ran day-to-day operations for J&T took over that rental agreement and forced them to pay to J&T about twice as much as they had negotiated to pay the landlord, according to the suit.

The workers say they were led to expect they would be paid $15 an hour for their work, but they never received even the federal minimum wage.

They allege J&T managers told them they had to give up their passports, which many workers did, and that they would report anyone who ran away to immigration authorities. The managers said they would then be deported and barred from returning to the country, according to the suit.

The workers claim they were isolated by J&T managers, who allegedly warned them not to talk to local workers at the warehouse or people from the nearby town. But they did eventually start talking to the local workers and supervisors, who sometimes gave them food and clothing.

Rubio Flores says he complained at one point to a supervisor for MountainKing about not getting paid for weeks, but word got back to J&T management, which warned him to stop talking to people and causing trouble.

The workers' lawsuit alleges violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act and state wage laws. The workers also assert claims for breach of contract, promissory estoppel, unjust enrichment, false imprisonment, outrageous conduct and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Counsel for the workers declined to comment. Efforts to reach the defendants for comment were unsuccessful.

The workers are represented by Jenifer C. Rodriguez, Deanna Tamborelli and David Valleau of Colorado Legal Services.

Counsel information for the defendants was unavailable.

The case is Rubio Flores et al. v. J&T Harvesting LLC et al., case number 1:24-cv-02853, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

--Editing by Linda Voorhis.