2026-08-20T09:00:29.307Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
今年春季，亿万富翁共和党人里克·杰克逊在佐治亚州的电视荧屏上铺天盖地投放广告，承诺若当选州长将严厉打击非法移民。与此同时，他旗下医疗帝国旗下的一家公司正因对待移民员工的方式陷入代价高昂的法律纠纷。
外籍护士提起的诉讼指控Avant医疗招聘公司以美国梦为诱饵将她们诱骗至美国，却仅支付低于标准的薪资，并多年来将她们困在严苛的合同中。根据诉状，当她们试图辞职时，Avant威胁要联系移民海关执法局，并试图收取五位数的离职费用。
“Avant的‘雇佣’本质上就是契约劳役，”原告在起诉书中写道。
Avant否认存在不当行为。但在6月22日——即杰克逊成为共和党州长候选人数天后——该公司达成和解，将向5000多名现任和前任移民员工分配300万美元赔偿款，并豁免未缴费用。
截至目前，针对Avant的诉讼几乎未受关注，此前也未在佐治亚州州长竞选活动中被提及。但这一事件暴露了杰克逊旗下公司的商业行为与他竞选时的强硬移民议程之间的鲜明反差。
Avant专门为美国医院招聘外籍护士，其商业模式曾面临法律审查，有时还会与特朗普政府在移民政策上产生冲突。而杰克逊则在竞选活动中支持总统唐纳德·特朗普收紧移民体系，而他的公司恰恰依赖这一体系。
杰克逊的竞选活动与他的企业在移民问题上的论调时常存在分歧。例如，在今年春季助力他政治崛起的一则竞选广告中，杰克逊直视镜头说道：“我不在乎你是穆斯林还是蒙古族人，你无权将你的文化强加给我们的国家。”
但在Avant为外籍员工编写的美国文化冲击应对指南中，该公司却表示：“你不必在你来自的文化与你正在适应的文化之间做出选择。在两者之间找到和谐，能够塑造全面、多元文化的身份认同，既提升你的个人生活，也助力你的职业生涯。”
杰克逊在初选中击败该州特朗普支持的副州长，令共和党内部感到震惊。他如今将在今年最受期待的州长竞选之一中，对阵民主党候选人、前亚特兰大市长凯莎·兰斯·巴特斯。（巴特斯曾是CNN特约撰稿人。）
在给CNN的一份声明中，竞选发言人加里森·道格拉斯表示，杰克逊的关注点是“刑事非法移民和遵纪守法”。
“Avant的护士都是合法来到美国的，她们等待数年、学习英语、缴纳税款并拯救生命，”他说。“Avant达成和解是为了避免诉讼成本，让公司能够完全专注于填补关键的护士短缺问题，将美国医疗体系与合格护士连接起来。”
杰克逊的竞选团队未回应CNN关于他对合法移民看法的提问，包括他是否支持为外籍工人增加签证配额。
Avant的母公司杰克逊医疗集团的发言人杰西卡·莱西强调，审理此案的法院并未认定该公司的商业行为非法，和解协议是在附带损害赔偿的情况下驳回了针对Avant的诉讼请求。
与杰克逊的竞选团队类似，莱西表示：“Avant达成此次和解是为了避免持续诉讼带来的成本和干扰，继续专注于我们支持医疗组织、医疗专业人员及其服务患者的使命。”
现年72岁的杰克逊是蓬勃发展的医疗人员派遣行业的巨头，该行业主要为医院和诊所提供医疗工作者。他于2000年创立杰克逊医疗集团，如今该集团旗下拥有约20家公司组成的网络，专门招聘和派遣护士、医生、行政人员及前台工作人员等医院和诊所岗位。
杰克逊医疗集团拥有强大的盟友。其咨询委员会成员包括前佛罗里达州州长杰布·布什，以及曾担任特朗普首任卫生与公众服务部长的前佐治亚州国会议员汤姆·普莱斯。据《亚特兰大宪法报》报道，该公司在佐治亚州应对新冠疫情期间发挥了关键作用，获得了价值约10亿美元的无竞标护士合同。
杰克逊的商业成功是他向选民宣传的核心内容。他的竞选官网追溯了他的成长历程：从在佐治亚州寄养系统中长大，到领导一家业务覆盖全美50个州、市值30亿美元的医疗集团。
“里克分享这些并非为了炫耀——他分享这些是因为他的人生始终围绕着行动和影响力，”官网写道。
总部位于佛罗里达州的Avant医疗招聘公司是杰克逊庞大商业版图中相对较新的成员。2018年杰克逊医疗集团收购该公司时，称其为“国际医疗专业人员招聘与派遣领域的先驱”。佛罗里达州提交的商业记录显示，里克·杰克逊是Avant的管理人。
即便在被收购之前，Avant就因偏好外籍劳动力而面临法律审查。
美国司法部在2013年指控Avant通过招聘广告歧视美国工人，明确表示优先雇佣外籍工人，这可能违反了《移民与国籍法》。在当年达成的和解协议中，Avant承诺改变招聘方式，并支付了27750美元的罚款。
杰克逊医疗集团收购Avant后，该公司面临的法律成本要高得多。
护士拉托亚·刘易斯和露辛达·拜伦将Avant视为在美国开启新生活的敲门砖。刘易斯于2021年从牙买加抵达美国；拜伦原籍圣文森特和格林纳丁斯，2022年开始在南达科他州一家医院工作。
两人都与Avant签订了多年合同。根据2023年首次提起的诉讼，她们很快发现自己陷入了僵化的工作安排：几乎无法休假，薪资低于医院直接雇佣的同事，几乎没有晋升机会。诉状称，她们的工资难以维持生计。
当她们试图辞职时，Avant警告她们将面临赔偿美国境内安置成本的费用，诉状称。员工据称还威胁要联系移民海关执法局，并误导她们相信离职可能危及她们的移民身份。与许多外籍护士一样，她们持EB3签证入境，该签证附带绿卡，通常不需要她们留在帮助她们来到美国的公司。
诉状称，拜伦离职时，Avant向她索要41832美元，且要求她在30天内付清。
刘易斯和拜伦的律师辩称，这些合同以及Avant的强制执行行为违反了《贩运受害者保护法》和《公平劳动标准法》。她们的律师表示，刘易斯和拜伦无法接受CNN采访。
Avant辩称，招聘外籍护士并确保其移民合规需要巨额成本。在请求驳回此案时，该公司反驳称，拜伦和刘易斯签署的合同是明确的雇佣协议，他们有权获得全额赔偿，护士们能够——也确实——离开Avant这一事实本身就证明，拜伦和刘易斯并非强迫劳动的受害者。
但一名联邦法官拒绝驳回贩运指控。去年，此案移交至佛罗里达州法院，集体诉讼由此形成。
去年11月，双方达成初步和解，共确认5219名符合集体诉讼资格的现任和前任Avant医疗工作者。根据协议，每个人都有资格获得300万美元赔偿款中的一部分。
一名法官于7月批准了该和解条款。
莱西指出，“将获得经济救济的人中，大多数将获得约500美元或更少的赔偿。”其他人将豁免费用，但不会获得额外赔偿。
Avant并非唯一面临类似指控的公司。2024年，彭博法律网站发现至少有10起护士提起的集体诉讼，质疑她们签署的要求辞职后偿还雇主费用的协议。去年，纽约州总检察长莱蒂西亚·詹姆斯宣布，其办公室已从Advanced Care Staffing公司获得66万美元赔偿，原因是该公司强迫外籍护士签署被其称为“剥削性”的合同。
一些劳工律师将Avant使用的这类合同称为“留岗付费”协议。包括加利福尼亚州和纽约州在内的多个州已禁止此类协议，称其往往会利用最弱势的工人。
代表Avant诉讼案原告的律师雷切尔·登普西表示，签订此类合同的移民几乎都来自发展中国家。她同时也是非营利法律事务所“走向正义”的副主任，该事务所专门保护工人权益，处理过多起涉及移民医疗工作者指控被招募到美国的公司虐待的案件。
尽管登普西以和解协议为由拒绝就Avant案置评，但她表示，对于几乎不了解美国生活成本或护士通常薪资水平的移民来说，外籍护士的薪资在纸面看起来很有吸引力。
“当她们来到这里后，才意识到这些钱不足以养家糊口，”她说。
今年2月，就在Avant的和解协议敲定之际，杰克逊宣布参选州长。他仅有105天时间向佐治亚州共和党选民展示自己的主张，并自掏腰包数千万美元以提高知名度。
一则极具争议的反移民广告帮助他脱颖而出。据追踪竞选广告的AdImpact数据显示，该广告于3月首次播出，在佐治亚州电视台播放了近9000次。杰克逊直视镜头，承诺在他任内违法的移民将被“驱逐出境或遣送离开”该州。
《纽约邮报》披露了一名墨西哥裔美国人在杰克逊占地4.7万平方英尺的佐治亚州豪宅工作时受伤的另一桩诉讼细节后，他在初选中的对手对他在移民立场上的可信度提出了质疑。在一场共和党辩论中，一名对手问他是否雇佣过非法入境美国的移民，杰克逊回答：“我不知道。”
Avant的业务就是招聘外国人前往美国，并帮助他们应对美国复杂的移民体系。尽管杰克逊与特朗普的移民改革政策保持一致，但Avant有时会与政府持不同意见。
2020年，Avant起诉特朗普政府，原因是其试图从菲律宾引进的工人签证延误。签证获批后，此案最终撤诉。今年早些时候，Avant的管理层描述了在特朗普新签证政策下面临的困境，并对挑战H-1B签证新10万美元费用的诉讼表示乐观，认为该诉讼将取得成功。
“如果我们今年按照去年引进护士的规模通过H-1B签证招聘，这笔钱数额巨大，”Avant全球运营高级副总裁莱斯利·汉密尔顿在3月的一段视频中说道。“这笔钱……我现在一时也算不出来。”
当被问及在他的公司与特朗普政府在部分签证政策上存在分歧的情况下，他如何能有效与特朗普在移民问题上合作时，杰克逊的竞选团队并未回应。
Avant辩称，它正在填补一项需求。未来几十年，全美各地的医院都将面临劳动力短缺问题。美国劳工统计局估计，未来十年，每年将有约19万个注册护士职位空缺。
“Avant支持维护和加强针对合格医疗专业人员的合法移民途径政策，这是解决美国护士短缺问题的重要组成部分，”莱西说道。
登普西表示，医院之所以青睐由医疗人员派遣公司招募的外籍劳工填补护士职位，是因为这些工人的薪资通常更低。但她补充道，这意味着本土出生和接受教育的护士正越来越多地与更廉价的劳动力竞争。
“这会拉低所有人的薪资，”登普西说。
CNN就其公司是否帮助美国医院用外籍工人填补本可以由薪资更高的美国护士担任的职位这一问题询问了杰克逊的竞选团队。
他的竞选团队未予回应。
CNN的大卫·赖特为本报道贡献了内容。
He’s running for Georgia governor as an immigration hardliner. His company was accused of trafficking immigrant nurses
2026-08-20T09:00:29.307Z / CNN
As billionaire Republican Rick Jackson blanketed Georgia’s airwaves this spring with ads vowing a crackdown on undocumented immigrants if elected governor, a company in his healthcare empire was in the throes of a costly legal battle over the treatment of its immigrant workforce.
A lawsuit filed by foreign-born nurses accused Avant Healthcare Professionals of luring them to the United States with the promise of the American Dream, only to pay them substandard wages and trap them in rigid contracts for years. According to their lawsuit, when they tried to quit, Avant threatened to contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement and sought to charge them five-figure fees for leaving.
“Avant’s ‘employment’ is essentially indentured servitude,” the plaintiffs wrote in their complaint.
Avant denied wrongdoing. But on June 22 — days after Jackson became the GOP nominee for governor — the company agreed to a settlement that would give more than 5,000 current and former immigrant workers a share of a $3 million payout and waive unpaid fees.
Until now, the case against Avant has received scant attention and has not previously surfaced in Georgia’s race for governor. But it exposes a striking contrast between the business practices of a company Jackson owns and the hardline immigration agenda of his campaign.
Avant, which specializes in recruiting foreign nurses for jobs at US hospitals, has faced legal scrutiny over its business model and has at times clashed with the Trump administration over its immigration policies. Jackson, meanwhile, is campaigning to help President Donald Trump tighten the immigration system his company relies on.
At times, Jackson’s campaign and his business have struck different tones on immigration. For example, in a campaign ad that helped fuel his political rise this spring, Jackson looks directly at the camera and says, “I don’t care if you’re a Muslim or a Mongolian. You don’t have the right to force your culture on our country.”
But in a corporate guide to navigating culture shock in the US, Avant tells its foreign workers, “You don’t have to choose between the culture you came from and the one you’re adapting to. Finding harmony between the two creates a well-rounded, multicultural identity that enhances both your personal and professional life.”
Jackson’s primary victory stunned his party by toppling the state’s Trump-backed lieutenant governor. He now faces Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, in one of the most anticipated gubernatorial contests of the year. (Bottoms is a former CNN contributor.)
In a statement to CNN, campaign spokesman Garrison Douglas said that Jackson’s focus is on “criminal illegal immigration and following the law.”
“Avant nurses come to America legally, waiting several years, learn English, pay taxes and save lives,” he said. “Avant entered into the settlement to avoid the cost of litigation, allowing the company to focus entirely on bridging critical nursing shortages by connecting the U.S. healthcare system with qualified nurses.”
Jackson’s campaign did not answer questions from CNN regarding his views on legal immigration, including whether he supports additional visas for foreign workers.
Jessica Lacy, a spokeswoman for Avant parent company Jackson Healthcare, emphasized that the court in this case did not find that the company’s business practices were unlawful and the settlement dismissed the claims against Avant with prejudice.
Similar to Jackson’s campaign, Lacy said, “Avant entered into this settlement to avoid the cost and distraction of continued litigation and to remain focused on our mission of supporting healthcare organizations, healthcare professionals and the patients they serve.”
Jackson, 72, is a titan in the booming healthcare staffing industry, a business centered on supplying hospitals and clinics with medical workers. He founded Jackson Healthcare in 2000, and it now sits atop a network of roughly 20 companies that specialize in recruiting and placing hospital and clinic positions ranging from nurses and physicians to administrators and front desk staff.
Jackson Healthcare has amassed powerful allies. Its advisory board includes ex-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Tom Price, the former Georgia congressman who served as Trump’s first Secretary of Health and Human Services. The company became a key player in Georgia’s response to the Covid-19 crisis, racking up about $1 billion in no-bid nursing contracts, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Jackson’s business success is central to his pitch to voters. His campaign website traces his path from growing up in Georgia’s foster care system to leading a $3 billion healthcare conglomerate that works in all 50 states.
“Rick doesn’t share that to brag — he shares it because his life has always been about action and impact,” the site says.
Florida-based Avant Healthcare Professionals is a relatively recent addition to Jackson’s sprawling business portfolio. Jackson Healthcare called Avant “a pioneer in the field of international recruitment and placement of healthcare professionals” when it acquired the company in 2018. Business records filed in Florida list Rick Jackson as Avant’s manager.
Even before it was purchased, Avant faced legal scrutiny over its preference for foreign labor.
The US Department of Justice alleged in 2013 that Avant discriminated against American workers through job postings that expressed favoritism toward foreign workers, a potential violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act. In a settlement that year, Avant vowed to change its hiring practices and paid a $27,750 fine.
The legal costs Avant would incur after Jackson Healthcare took over would prove far more consequential.
Nurses Latoya Lewis and Lucinda Byron saw Avant as a ticket to new lives in the United States. Lewis arrived in 2021 from Jamaica; Byron, originally from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, began working at a South Dakota hospital in 2022.
Both signed multi-year contracts with Avant. According to a lawsuit first filed in 2023, they soon found themselves in an inflexible arrangement where they could take little time off, were paid less than colleagues employed directly by the hospitals and had little opportunity for advancement. They struggled to get by on their wages, the complaint said.
When they tried to quit, Avant warned them they would face fees to recoup the costs of bringing them to the US, the complaint said. Staff allegedly threatened to contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement and misled them into believing that leaving could jeopardize their immigration status. Like many foreign nurses, they arrived on EB3 visas, which come with a green card that generally doesn’t require them to stay with the company that helped bring them to the US.
Avant wanted $41,832 from Byron when she left and had 30 days to pay, the complaint said.
Lawyers for Lewis and Byron argued these contracts and Avant’s efforts to enforce them violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Lewis and Byron were not available to speak to CNN, their lawyers said.
Avant argued there were substantial costs to recruiting foreign nurses and ensuring their immigration compliance. In seeking to dismiss the case, the company countered that the contracts Byron and Lewis signed were straightforward employer compacts, that they had a right to be made whole and the fact that nurses could — and did — leave Avant was itself evidence that Byron and Lewis were not the victims of forced labor.
A federal judge, however, declined to dismiss the trafficking claims. Last year, the case moved to state court in Florida, where a class action lawsuit took form.
In November, the two sides reached a preliminary settlement after identifying 5,219 current and former Avant health care workers who qualified for the class. Under the agreement, each would be eligible for a chunk of a $3 million payout.
A judge approved the terms of the agreement in July.
Lacy noted that “those who will receive monetary relief, most will receive approximately $500 or less.” Others will have fees waived but no additional payout.
Avant is not the only company to face similar allegations. In 2024, Bloomberg Law identified at least 10 class action lawsuits filed by nurses challenging agreements that required them to repay employers if they quit. Last year, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced her office had secured a $660,000 payout from the firm Advanced Care Staffing for forcing foreign nurses into contracts her office called “exploitative.”
Some labor attorneys have characterized contracts like the ones used by Avant as “stay-or-pay” agreements. States including California and New York have banned them, arguing they often take advantage of the most susceptible workers.
The immigrants that work for these healthcare staffing companies on these contracts are almost exclusively from developing countries, said Rachel Dempsey, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case against Avant. She is also associate director of Towards Justice, a nonprofit law firm that specializes in protecting workers and has handled multiple cases involving immigrant healthcare workers that claim they were mistreated by the companies that brought them to the US.
While Dempsey declined to address the case against Avant, citing the settlement agreement, she said that the salaries generally offered to foreign nurses look attractive on paper for immigrants who have little experience with the cost of living in the US or how much nurses typically make.
“When they get here, they realize it’s not enough to support their families,” she said.
In February, as the settlement by Avant took shape, Jackson jumped into the race for governor. He had just 105 days to make his case to Republican voters in Georgia and spent tens of millions of dollars of his own wealth trying to get recognized.
A provocative anti-immigration commercial helped him stand out. It first aired in March and appeared almost 9,000 times on Georgia television stations, according to AdImpact, which tracks campaign advertising. Staring directly into the camera, Jackson promises that immigrants who break the law on his watch will leave the state “deported or departed.”
His credibility on his immigration stance was challenged during the primary by his opponents after the New York Post published the details of a separate lawsuit filed by a Mexican national injured while working at Jackson’s 47,000-square-foot Georgia mansion. When asked by one of his GOP rivals at a debate whether he has hired immigrants who came to the US unlawfully, Jackson responded: “I don’t know.”
Avant has built its business by recruiting foreigners to move to the US and helping them navigate America’s thorny immigration system. And while Jackson has aligned himself with Trump’s immigration overhaul, Avant has pushed back against it at times.
In 2020, Avant sued the Trump administration over visa delays for workers it was trying to bring into the US from the Philippines. The case was ultimately withdrawn after the visas were approved. Earlier this year, Avant’s leadership described the difficulties it has faced under Trump’s new visa policies and expressed optimism that a lawsuit challenging a new $100,000 fee on H-1B visas would be successful.
“That is a lot of money if we were to bring in the volume of nurses this year under the H1B that we brought in last year,” Lesley Hamilton, Avant’s senior vice president of global operations, said in a March video. “Money that … my brain can’t calculate right now at this minute.”
Jackson’s campaign didn’t respond when asked how he could effectively partner with Trump on immigration when his company is at odds with the administration over some of his visa policies.
Avant argues it’s filling a need. Hospitals across the country are bracing for a workforce shortage in the coming decades. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be about 190,000 openings for registered nurses each year over the next decade.
“Avant supports policies that preserve and strengthen legal immigration pathways for qualified healthcare professionals as an important part of addressing the shortage of U.S. nurses,” Lacy said.
Filling nurse openings with foreign labor recruited by healthcare staffing companies is attractive for hospitals because those workers are typically paid less, Demspey said. But that means American-born and educated nurses are increasingly competing against cheaper labor, she added.
“It brings down wages for everybody,” Dempsey said.
CNN asked Jackson’s campaign whether his company helped US hospitals fill jobs with foreign workers that could go to American nurses at higher wages.
His campaign did not respond.
CNN’s David Wright contributed to this report.