Health advocates have lauded Michigan’s emergency order requiring COVID-19 testing for farm workers as a key strategy for containing runaway infection rates across agriculture industries. (Chris Yarzab/flickr)
On August 3, the state of Michigan ordered farms, meat plants and camps for migrant workers to test all of their workers for the coronavirus amid soaring infection rates in agriculture industries, particularly among Latino immigrants.
Several Latino workers and two Michigan farms filed a lawsuit against the order, saying that it unfairly targeted farms and Latino workers.
But a federal judge and the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the state’s rule as constitutional.
The parties filing the lawsuit last week moved to dismiss the case.
The Michigan Farm Bureau backed the lawsuit, saying the order unfairly targets migrant workers and drove some workers away from Michigan.
Many reports have indicated that migrant workers stayed in home countries this year due to high rates of infection and a lack of basic precautions on farms.
The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center applauded the testing requirements, and pledged to help curb “the spread of misinformation and fear regarding the order's requirements.”
An attorney for the group, Diana Marin, told Civil Eats that the lawsuit “created a false narrative that Latino workers don’t want to get tested (for COVID-19) and that they don’t need this protection.”
Read More:
Lawsuit Over Coronavirus Testing For Michigan Farmworkers Is Dismissed (Detroit Free Press)
A Battle Over Mandatory Farmworker Testing Reveals A Broken System (Civil Eats)
