TALLAHASSEE -- More than four dozen farm workers from Immokalee gathered at the Old Capitol on Monday to protest harsh working conditions and enslavement of migrant farmworkers in Florida.

The Coalition of Immokalee workers helped organize the rally of migrant workers and religious and labor activists. The group called on the state to fight ''modern-day slavery'' and to improve wages and working conditions on Florida tomato farms.

In September, five farm bosses pleaded guilty to a scheme to enslave Mexican and Guatemalan nationals as farm workers in Immokalee. Prosecutors said the farm bosses were paying the workers minimal wages and had threatened them with violence.

Meghan Cohorst, co-coordinator of the Student/Farmworker Alliance, one of the groups at the rally, said she became involved in the fight for farm workers' rights as a student at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg.

Cohorst said while the enslavement of farm workers is rare, more work still needs to be done.

''We came to Tallahassee to say even one case of slavery is too many,'' she said.

In a move that could reduce the number of migrants smuggled into the state for farm work, the House Criminal and Civil Justice Policy Council on Friday approved a bill that would create a state law banning anyone from bringing someone into the state illegally.

A Senate version of the proposal cleared the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and Senate Children, Families & Elder Affairs Committee last week.

Federal law already bans human smuggling.

Breanne Gilpatrick can be reached at bgilpatrick@MiamiHerald.com

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