SC father and daughter plead guilty to exploiting Mexican farm workers in Lexington

A father and daughter pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to charges they exploited workers they brought legally from Mexico to work on Lexington and Charleston farms for long hours, low pay and bad food.

Sentences for the father, Enrique Balcazar, 36, and his daughter, Elizabeth Balcazar, 20, will be issued later.

Enrique Balcazar faces up to 20 years in prison for obtaining labor by force or threats of force and for not keeping promises to workers brought into the country. Because he is a Mexican citizen, he could be deported at the end of his prison sentence, noted Judge Sherri Lydon during a hearing at the Perry federal courthouse in downtown Columbia.

Elizabeth Balcazar, who was born in Greenwood, faces up to five years for fraud in foreign labor contracts.

During the plea hearing, assistant U.S. Attorney Elliot Daniels told Judge Lydon that the arrests grew out of an investigation that began in August 2021 and targeted the Balcazars and their company, Balcazar Nature Harvesting.

The investigation showed that the workers at three Lexington County locations had “worked longer hours than promised, for lower pay than promised... their passports were confiscated and their food and medical care was inadequate,” Daniels said.

Workers were promised a 40-hour work week, but some actually worked 70 hours a week, Daniels said. They were promised $11.81 an hour but only paid $10.25 an hour, according to pay stubs, he said.

When they worked at a Charleston farm, they would wake around 3 am in Lexington County and not get back home until 11 pm, Daniels said. During those weeks, they were only paid for 40 hours of work, he said.

One victim told agents that Enrique Balcazar carried a gun that he brandished and would shoot at times, Daniels said.

The Balcazars brought the workers from Mexico under a program that issues visas for temporary agricultural workers.

Under that program, companies can bring workers from other countries, but employers have to keep promises about work conditions, pay and how many hours per week they will work.

By August, 12 of the 45 workers at Balcazar had fled their living sites because working conditions “had become so intolerable,” Daniel said. The Balcazars, who were indicted in December, told the other workers they better not leave and posted an armed guard through the night to make sure they didn’t slip out, Daniel said.

The produce picked by the workers was eventually distributed to grocery stores and restaurants throughout the Midlands by Clayton Rawl Farms, Daniel said.

Enrique Balcazar was represented by attorney Stanley Myers. Elizabeth Balcazar by Will Lewis.

The investigation was carried out by agents from Homeland Security, the State Law Enforcement Division and the U.S. Department of Labor.

Agents gathered evidence in the case from interviewing witnesses, surveillance, business records and defendants’ cell phones.

Mexican farm workers in the Midlands have made news before.

In 2015, a federal judge levied a $1 million fine against HW Group, LLC, a closely held family firm that serves as the umbrella group for five corporate entities, including Walter P. Rawl & Sons, a well-known, large vegetable producer. An investigation found the company had used between 300 and 350 illegal immigrants as workers, according to court filings.