By VANESSA SÁNCHEZ PULLA, TRISHA AHMED, BRITTANY NICOLE GADDY, LUCIANA PEREZ URIBE GUINASSI, CARMEN MOLINA ACOSTA, SOPHIA SORENSEN AND AADIT TAMBE/The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
FISHING CREEK, Md. (AP) — Despite the pandemic, more than 12,000 workers received U.S. approval in the last fiscal year to leave their homes in Mexico for jobs in American seafood processing plants. Yet the federal government did not establish COVID-safety rules for their bus travel or require virus testing. The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism found that Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina also failed to provide migrant seafood workers with critical protections, leaving that up to employers. The Howard Center found COVID-19 outbreaks at seafood processing plants in all three states.