new protections are now in place for New Jersey's immigrant workers acting Governor Tahesha Way today signed legislation requiring civil penalties be put on any employer who disclose or threaten to disclose a worker's immigration status in order to cover up their own labor violations these are things like wage theft or breaking tax laws that often go unreported because immigrant workers are too intimidated to come forward it comes on the heels of a complaint filed claiming the state is violating the Constitution by excluding Farm Workers often immigrants from wage and hour laws senior political correspondent David Cruz reports when you're thirsty do you go to the water fountain and get yourself a cup of water Edgar Aquino Huerta remembers his days as a farm worker and how a simple glass of water was hard to come by on a hot afternoon of picking vegetables on a farm what started as a summer job has become his mission he's an organizer for the committee in support of agricultural workers or CATA the message that I want to get across is that we're all humans and the bare minimum that we could all have is at least have the same rights as workers and as human beings but in New Jersey where the minimum wage has hit the $15 an hour goal for most workers Farm Workers make around $12 an hour and that's not some arbitrary number that's in the New Jersey state minimum wage law overtime nah Farm Workers are explicitly carved out here and it it aligns with what we know about Farm Workers generally that they are um especially here in New Jersey they are primarily Latin they are Spanish speakers they are often times migrant Farm Workers so they're coming here seasonally they're not New Jersey residents they can't vote in a state and they by and large don't have access to legislators in the same way that industry does the ACLU of New Jersey where Molly Linhorst is an attorney has joined with the center for social justice at seen Hall Law School in filing a suit to force the state to see and treat Farm Workers like every other worker mainly by raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour and making them eligible for overtime Jenny Brook Condon of the Center for social justice at Sean Hall says the state law updated in 2019 is based on decades old federal laws that were intended to discriminate against minority workers it didn't justify the law and in fact there is no justification for the law um I teach constitutional law here at Sean Hall and you know as I teach my students about equal protection it's a really basic and fundamental principle that groups that are alike should be treated alike and Farm Workers have the need for fair wages a livable wage dignity safety and their health just like every other worker and yet they are targeted for exclusions under New Jersey law that other similarly situated workers receive and there's no justification for that health is one of the things that they don't prioritize because they don't want to miss a day of work because they don't want to lose out on money um not only that but also groceries groceries are getting expensive over like as the years ago buy and and that's another thing that they won't they will not worry as much about about the cost of the groceries the suit was filed this week so it's in its earliest stages but Farm Workers hope that the state will come to the table and recognize that the Jersey Fresh label couldn't exist without laborers who make up the farm part of the farm to table movement I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight news w [Music]