Foreign-Exchange Nonprofit Banned From U.S. Program Over Job Placements

A nonprofit group that organized summertime U.S. visits for foreign students has been barred from a State Department cultural-exchange program for two years for placing participants in low-wage jobs at a candy-packaging plant, says The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Cetusa, based in California, supplied some 400 workers to a Hershey plant in Palmyra, Pa., last year using an element of the J-1 visa program designed to let foreign students earn money in America while traveling and practicing their English.

Cetusa participants, many from Turkey and Ukraine, staged a protest in Hershey, Pa., in August saying they were forced to work long hours for low pay, leaving little time or money for them to travel or get to know Americans. The State Department is reviewing the organization’s work in other exchange programs and is expected to announce new restrictions on what jobs J-1 students can hold while in the country.

The nonprofit group did not respond to the Inquirer’s calls for comment. Hershey has said it did not hire the students, who were brought in by an outsourcing firm, and that it has adopted a policy of not using J-1 visa holders at its plant.