They never expected to end up as the focal point of an international workers´ rights action aimed at forcing the United States to stop denying documented immigrants access to federally funded legal services.

A coalition of immigrant advocates from both sides of the border, spearheaded by the Oregon-based Northwest Workers´ Justice Project, filed a petition with the Labor Secretariat Thursday calling for Mexico to initiate a procedure sanctioned by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) labor side accords, known formally as the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation.

The issue: Does the United States violate the labor accord´s requirement of equal rights for native-born and immigrant workers by prohibiting lawyers funded by the Legal Services Corporation from helping foreign-born workers with non-agricultural visas?

Michael Dale, the lead attorney for the petitioners, says it does, citing a quirk in the law that allows guest agricultural workers to take advantage of free legal help, but not workers with a non-agriculture visa, called an H2-B.

"That leaves these workers with no efficient legal recourse in situations where their labor rights have been abused," Dale said.

He pointed to the experiences of Peña, Hernández and the other migrants from Nayarit in whose names the petition was filed. Upon their arrival in Colorado, according to the complaint, the workers learned the corn-packing work they were contracted for wasn´t available. Instead they were put to work picking cherries at US$1.50 a bucket, earning below the US$6.26 they were promised.

"Not only was that in violation of their contract, it also violated U.S. minimum-wage law," said Fabiola Flores of the Texas Equal Justice Center.

It also violated the condition of their H2-B visas, which exclude field work. "There´s nothing more agricultural than picking cherries," Dale said.

Furthermore, the petition alleges, the company didn´t give the promised free lodging or the five months of full-time work, dismissing the workers after just a month. Instead of being in a position to send remittance, many had to borrow money just to get home.

Bill Frye, a spokesperson for Mountain Fresh Corn, LLC, the company that contracted the Nayarit workers, said he wasn´t aware of the petition when contacted Thursday, but he denied the company had violated any workers´ rights.

"We treat our people fairly and follow all the rules," he said. "Our employees are generally satisfied and come back year after year."

The object of the petition, however, was not specifically to redress the Nayarit workers´ grievances but to assure future H2-B visa holders access to legal aid. The Nayarit workers were turned down when they sought legal help, as will others in the future unless the law changes.

"This is a population that´s very vulnerable to start with," said Ana Paula Hernández, of the Tlachinolla Human Rights Center in the state of Guerrero. "And then they go legally to the United States to work, with valid visas, and they still can´t protect themselves when they´re confronted with grave abuses."

Under the NAFTA labor accords, one of the three signatory nations, rather than any individual, must initiate a labor complaint. That´s why the petition was filed with the Mexican government, urging it to act.

In fact, this is the second such complaint filed in the last year in the name of migrant workers refused legal aid after their labor rights were violated in the United States. The Labor Secretariat has yet to take action on the first one.

"They´re still considering it, but their attitude seems to be that the workers were compensated, so the matter is resolved," Dale said. "But the central problem hasn´t changed, which is that the U.S. Labor Department isn´t following the law [as outlined in the NAFTA labor agreement]."