Camp Access: Legal Bases for Access, Recent Litigation, and Addressing Access Challenges

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This panel session will explore federal and state legal theories for permitting advocates to access farmworkers at employer-controlled housing and will provide examples of strategies for responding to access challenges. It will also examine recent and current litigation around camp access, including Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, Colorado Livestock Association v. Colorado, and potential legal challenges to the 2024 H-2A Rule. Lastly, the panel will discuss best outreach practices.

Upon completion, participant will be able to describe the legal bases for camp access and strategize ways to respond to camp access challenges, assessing potential risks and benefits.
Upon completion, participant will understand advocacy strategies and arguments that have been successful in stopping ag employers from weaponizing Supreme Court jurisprudence on private property rights to thwart camp access.
Upon completion, participants will be able to create guidance focused on best practices and safety measures for conducting effective and secure outreach at farmworkers camps.

Kristin Donovan

Senior Staff Attorney

Legal Aid Justice Center

Kristin is a Senior Staff Attorney with Legal Aid Justice Center's Worker Justice Program. Since joining LAJC in 2017, she has represented clients in a variety of worker rights and immigration matters. Previously, Kristin worked as an outreach paralegal with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Program in Atlanta, Georgia, where she supported litigation on behalf of low-income immigrant workers in the South. She graduated from American University Washington College of Law as a Public Interest/ Public Service Scholar in 2017.

Manuel Gago, n/a

Director, Worker Justice Program

Legal Aid Justice Center

Manuel is a journalist and human rights defender originally from Venezuela. He has worked as a TV producer for several channels in Venezuela and the US. Since 2006, Manuel has been involved with Amnesty International, starting as an activist and then as a campaigner and press officer. In 2016, Manuel decided to get more involved in organizing the latino communities in Florida and Virginia, focusing on civil and political rights. Since 2018 he has been part of LAJC, and after many miles doing outreach, now he is the First Co-Director of the Workers Justice Program, leading the organizing and outreach efforts especially to farmworkers across the Commonwealth.

Kelsey Eberly, JD

Senior Attorney

FarmSTAND

Kelsey is a Senior Attorney with FarmSTAND, where she engages in strategic litigation and movement-centered advocacy to fight corporate control and expose abuses in the industrial animal agriculture system, representing workers, consumers, and nonprofit organizations. Before joining FarmSTAND, Kelsey was a lecturer and litigator with the Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School, a policy fellow at the Brooks McCormick, Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School, and an attorney with the Animal Legal Defense Fund. She graduated from UCLA School of Law, and now lives in Vermont with her family.

Trent Taylor, n/a

Staff Attorney

Colorado Legal Services, Migrant Farmworker Division

Trent Taylor is a Staff Attorney for Colorado Legal Services' Migrant Farmworker Division. Trent has been practicing as an employee side labor and employment attorney for over 14 years. Prior to joining Colorado Legal Services as its Staff Attorney in 2024, Trent served as Farmworker Justice's Staff Attorney for 3 years, where he, along with FarmStand and Jenifer Rodriguez of Colorado Legal Services, represented intervenor-defendants in a number of grower-led challenges to state migrant worker camp access provisions. Trent's experience extends to all levels of litigation, including trial and appeals, and has represented workers and their unions under a variety of statutes including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA), National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), Railway Labor Act (RLA), Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA),The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Norris LaGuardia Act (NLGA).