Three charged with trafficking Mexican agricultural workers into forced labor on farms in Virginia and other states

NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Three people are facing federal charges for allegedly trafficking Mexican agricultural workers into forced labor on farms in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida.

The federal trafficking charges come just months after a settlement was reached between agricultural workers and a labor contractor and Virginia farm over alleged labor law violations.

Background: Agricultural workers sue Las Princesas and Tankard Nurseries

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Las Princesas Corporation is a farm labor contracting company owned and operated by Martha Zeferino Jose, also run by her husband and her adult son, based in Washington, N.C., that recruited workers from Mexico to come to the U.S. on temporary H-2A agricultural visas. 

Las Princesas reportedly entered into a contract with Tankard Nurseries, located in the town of Exmore in Northampton County, to provide workers that Las Princesas hired and paid, according to Tankard Nurseries' legal team.

On May 29, 2024, four migrant workers filed a federal class action lawsuit against Jose and her business, Las Princesas, as well as Tankard Nurseries Inc., in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia due to allegations of labor rights violations. The workers sought reimbursement of wages and coverage of legal fees.

Ed Tankard is reportedly the president and day-to-day manager of Tankard Nurseries, according to the complaint. The Virginia State Corporation Commission's website lists C. Arthur Robinson II as Tankard Nurseries' registered agent.

All but one of the four plaintiffs reportedly worked for Tankard Nurseries and Las Princesas in 2021 and/or 2022, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit alleged that Las Princesas violated H-2A contracts in several ways, including:

• Not providing adequate meals for employees in Virginia
• Overcharging for those meals
• Not paying the minimum hourly wage rates for all hours worked in a workweek
• Deducting excessing meal charges from wages of employees in Virginia
• Not timely or completely reimbursing workers for the costs of their transportation to the U.S.
• Confiscating employees' passports and visas

Additional allegations against Las Princesas outlined in the complaint included threats made by Jose, the restriction of workers' movement and access to medical care being denied, among others.

A hearing was held on Dec. 4, 2025, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, during which the settlement was granted between plaintiffs and Tankard Nurseries and Las Princesas.

Tankard Nurseries denied wrongdoing throughout the suit, claiming no knowledge of alleged violations by Las Princesas and its owner-operator.

Tankard and Las Princesas entered into consent orders with the workers days later, officially settling, on Dec. 12, 2025, to "avoid further litigation and dispute."

Following the settlement, Tankard Nurseries reportedly began relying solely on its own employees that its hires and no longer contracts any agricultural labor providers as a result of the alleged violations by Las Princesas, the nursery's legal team told 8News.

Las Princesas indicted on federal trafficking charge, among others

In a separate federal criminal case against Jose, her husband and son, the DOJ shared in a press release on Feb. 23 that the three were indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina for trafficking Mexican agricultural workers into forced labor on farms in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, and harboring them in the U.S. after their visas expired for their own financial gain.

The DOJ release contains no mention of Tankard Nurseries, specifically, and the indictment itself focuses on allegations in "North Carolina and elsewhere," without mentioning Virginia.

The criminal case outlined by DOJ alleged that Las Princesas charged workers significant fees to come to the U.S., confiscated passports and visas to prevent them from leaving, forced the workers to labor in degrading conditions with extensive work hours without adequate breaks or access to water, provided improper housing, paid inadequate wages, withheld food, denied workers medical care and imposed strict rules limiting workers' movement.

In addition, DOJ said in the press release that when the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division launched an investigation into Las Princesas, Jose and her partner allegedly obstructed the investigation. They allegedly returned workers' confiscated passports and identification documents before investigators arrived, and instructed workers to tell investigators that everything was fine or they would face deportation for telling the truth.

DOJ said Jose, her husband and son were charged with forced labor, conspiracy to commit forced labor, alien harboring for financial gain, conspiracy to commit alien harboring for financial gain and document servitude offenses.

Jose is also charged with visa fraud, her partner is charged with obstruction, and they are both charged with conspiracy to obstruct proceedings before agencies.

If convicted, DOJ said they could face maximum penalties of 20 years in prison for each count of forced labor and conspiracy to commit forced labor, with the potential for more.

Additionally, Jose faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for visa fraud, her partner faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for obstruction, and the pair face a maximum penalty of five years in prison for conspiracy to commit obstruction.

Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report it to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

8News has reached out to all involved parties for comment.

Legal representation for the four workers in the class action lawsuit provided the following comment below:

We commend the victims who bravely came forward and reported the abuse they suffered. Cases like this are unfortunately all too common. The fact that labor traffickers can operate entirely within the system, as Ms. Zeferino Jose did for years, is a prime example of the many flaws in the H-2 visa program. Ms. Zeferino Jose was a licensed farm labor contractor, and the government approved the contracts she submitted that resulted in her trafficking these workers.  Farmworkers are essential to our economy; they literally are key to putting food on our plates, and they deserve stronger enforceable protections. Attorney Marissa Baer with the Legal Aid Justice Center

Legal representation for Tankard Nurseries in the class action lawsuit provided the following comment available in full below:

Tankard Nurseries entered into a contract with Las Princesas Corporation, an agricultural labor provider, for Las Princesas to provide it with workers that Las Princesas hired and paid. Pursuant to that contract, Tankard Nurseries paid Las Princesas a specified sum per worker per hour and Las Princesas, the employer of these workers, was obligated to then pay Las Princesas’s employees based on its own employment agreements with those employees. Tankard Nurseries had no role whatsoever in the recruitment, hiring, paying or immigration arrangements of Las Princesas and its employees. No one from Tankard Nurseries had any knowledge, or even suspicion, of any illegal actions by Las Princesas or any of its owners or employees.  

The class action filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia did not allege any human trafficking counts against Tankard Nurseries. The only claims asserted against Tankard Nurseries were under the theory of “joint  employer” under federal and state wage and hour laws whereby Tankard Nurseries would be jointly liable to the plaintiffs if plaintiffs’ employer, Las Princesas, failed to pay its employees assigned to work at Tankard Nurseries under the  agricultural labor contract in compliance with such federal and state laws. Joint employer liability under these laws does not require involvement or even knowledge of the claimed violations by Tankard Nurseries and it strenuously denied either.

The four counts in the plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint that alleged human trafficking were asserted only against Las Princesas and Martha Zeferino Jose. Furthermore, the criminal indictment in the Eastern District of North Carolina as described in the press release from the US Attorney’s Office there does not allege any involvement by Tankard Nurseries and Tankard Nurseries operates exclusively in Northampton County, Virginia.  In the Amended Complaint, the plaintiffs alleged Las Princesas provided workers to multiple agricultural businesses in North Carolina.

The settlement reached in the Eastern District of Virginia expressly denied any wrongdoing by Tankard Nurseries and clearly stated the settlement was solely “to avoid further litigation and dispute.”      

As a result of its experience with Las Princesas, Tankard Nurseries no longer contracts with any agricultural labor contractors and relies solely on employees that it hires directly.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this matter and to clarify that the criminal indictment does not involve Tankard Nurseries.                Glen M. Robertson, the attorney who represented Tankard Nurseries in the class action lawsuit