The Foreign Service Journal, December 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2022 41 cants, who will be performing work in the United States, should be informed of their legal rights under federal immigration, labor, and employment laws. He highlighted known complaints of labor trafficking among TN workers, including court cases such as Martinez-Rodriguez v. Giles , and similarly disturbing reports from nongovernmental organizations. As he delved further into the issue, Mr. White was concerned to find that “many American companies that could not get tempo- rary nonimmigrant H-2 visas because the job was not seasonal were instead recruiting Mexicans to apply for TN visas with fake job letters,” he tells the Journal . “Consular officers did not have time to scrutinize every TN visa or every company; there is already immense pressure to adjudi- cate a large volume of visas quickly. I knew I had stumbled onto something that needed to be addressed.” Mr. White maintained that informing TN applicants of their labor rights as standard practice might help curb these issues and prevent abuse of workers in the U.S. Some in leadership opposed this change, citing costs of printing pamphlets and added time during the interview. Despite fear of jeopardizing his opportunity for tenure, Mr. White repeatedly shared his concerns with Mission Mexico leadership. Even after departing fromHermosillo for his next assignment, Mr. White believed the TN visa issues were still prevalent, and in 2021 he decided to formally voice his dissent through a Dissent Channel message. Mr. White showed great initiative and courage in reaching out to Michael White, right, celebrates his A-100 flag day event in December 2018 with his class mentor, Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis. top-level department leadership to highlight this important issue. Thanks to his efforts, Mission Mexico is consolidating all TN visa adjudications from10 to three posts to limit inconsistencies and improve training, and the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) and other stakeholders across the govern- ment are engaging on broader questions of treaty interpretation to further improve TN visa policy. CA has also pledged to update the FAM to require consular offi- cers to inform TN visa applicants of their labor rights, although this revision has not yet been made. Mr. White believes further changes are necessary. But his dissent promoted safe, legal travel to the U.S., and also protected workers who may have otherwise been exploited by their employers, furthering the department’s implementation of the President’s National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, in the United States. “Receiving this recognition is a vindication of all the hard work that went into this issue, and I’m honored to have played a part in bringing about change,” says Mr. White. “Some people actively discouraged me from pursuing it. I was an untenured officer and worried about the consequences of pushing an issue the Mis- sion Mexico consular leaders did not want to confront. I received immense help frommy fellow FAST [first- and second-tour] officers in Mexico and my A-100 colleagues.” Mr. White says he often looked to the State Department’s cul- ture of constructive dissent when advocating for change to TN visa standards: “I would not have had the courage to see this through without the example set by previous awardees. I hope my recogni- tion encourages others to engage on critical issues; sometimes all it takes to fix the problem is for someone to say something.” Michael White joined the Foreign Service in October 2018 as a management-coned officer. After serving in Hermosillo, he worked as the assistant human resources officer in Islamabad. He is currently a general services officer in Doha. Mr. White previously served as a medic in the U.S. Army, and holds a master’s degree in public administration and a bachelor’s degree in government and politics fromGeorge Mason Univer- sity. Hailing fromDallas, Texas, he is married to a fellow Foreign Service officer.