Police consider J-1 student abuse a civil matter

Four students from Bulgaria who came to the United States through the J-1 Summer Work and Recreation Program spent nearly their entire visiting season working in Prowynstown, seeking help for problems with an abusive landlord. They contacted the Prowynstown police several times, but were told that their allegations, which included wage theft, battery, destruction of property and trespassing in their apartment building, were a "landlord-tenant issue" and should be handled in Orleans County court.

The students did not go to court, but sought help from Prowinstown officials, including the director of diversity, equity and inclusion and the director of health. After nearly eight weeks of escalating incidents and three' 's visits to police their host and employer Paul Schofield was arrested after Health Director Leslie Rovell witnessed him assaulting one of the students during a tour of their living quarters. The City of Prowynstown paid for the students to stay at a secure hotel for the last 16 days of their stay. The town is still trying to get back the $3,111 spent on hotels from Schofield and his husband, Dr. Andrew Jorgensen.

These events point to the lack of an ombudsman in Cape Cod.

who is dedicated to foreign workers, said Steve Katsourinis, a business owner and attorney who is a member of the Provincetown Board of Health. "We don't have an office in city or state government where' 'Foreign visitors can come forward and address their concerns,' Katsourinis said. "The local county government is ideally suited to hire one full-time person to work on this," he added. "Considering how many foreign workers are here, we should try to help them. "

Before Covid, about 5,000 students worked on Cape Cod during the summer months in the J-1

program

Paul Niedzwiecka, head of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, says that's 5 percent of the state's entire summer work and recreation program. There were 115,000 people working on Cape Cod in July 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so J-1 students made up 4.3 percent of the county's workforce that month. "It shows how dependent we were on J-1s," said' 'Niedzwieczwiecki. The program almost stopped because of Covida, when U.S. embassies abroad stopped interviewing J-1 students. There were just over 2,000 J-1 students on Cape Cod in the summer of 2022 and 2,700 this year, Niedzwiechecki said. That slow recovery has caused enough concern that state lawmakers have allocated funds for the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce to hire a housing specialist for J-1 students to help avoid "a permanent 3,000 person absence in the seasonal labor force," Niedzwiechecki said.

The head of one employer advised students to contact Donna Walker.

Director of the newly formed Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Prowinstown.

Walker took the position in' 'April 2022; it was created by a citizen proposal at Town Meeting in May 2021. "My office doesn't play a direct role in issues like this," Walker said, referring to employer-employee and tenant-landlord disputes. Still, "when they shared their story with me, it became clear that the best way I could help was to explore what resources might be available," she said. She called Arabajieva and colleagues at Town Hall and gave the students tips on contacting their program sponsors, regulators and potential sources of free legal aid. The town has put some of those resources on a new page for J-1 and H-2B workers on its Web site, Walker said. She included links to the office' 'The attorney general's Office of Fair Labor has much more authority to investigate allegations of unpaid wages, Katsourinis said. "My information says that if they receive a complaint, the first thing they do is a three-month audit," during which the company must provide records of all payments to each employee for the past three months. "The problem is that I'm not sure the employee is going to get their payment soon through that process," Katsourinis said. "State government is working very slowly. "

Katsourinis said he was glad the city's director of diversity, equity and inclusion was involved. "People who are in a desperate situation because they don' 'are citizens and have only been here for three months - these are the kind of people the office should be offering to help in these situations," Katsourinis said. "It doesn't have the authority to force action, but it can bring people together and try to find solutions." However, most cities don't have a director of diversity, equity and inclusion. Helping students in a difficult situation really isn't part of Arabadjieva's job description. "An ombudsman at the county or state level would be huge and could make a significant difference," Katsourinis said. "These kids are not here to be cheated.".