New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice

High Plains Reader editorial by Zach Kobrinsky

Nov. 20, 2008

A century-and-a-half after the Emancipation Proclamation, these United States of America are still sick with the grossest kind of exploitation—slavery. We have come a long way in terms of human decency, but not nearly far enough.

The U.S. Bureau of Public Affairs defines human trafficking as “modern-day slavery, involving victims who are forced, defrauded or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation.  Annually, about 600,000 to 800,000 people—mostly women and children—are trafficked across national borders, which does not count millions trafficked within their own countries.”

On the global scale, the issue is far more severe. Slavery in Niger only officially became illegal in 2003, and even then, an estimated 8 percent still remain in bondage. The trafficking of sex slaves is even more appalling. A report by DePaul University’s International Human Rights Law Institute said an estimated 30,000 women (some as young as six) die annually from abuse, torture, neglect and disease, as a result of sexual slavery worldwide.

Sex slavery and bonded servitude may seem like opposite ends of the slavery spectrum, but slavery is slavery, no matter how you look at it. The willful exploitation of another human being should simply not be tolerated.

Signal International

Right now, 23 Indian men sit in the Cass County Jail, as a result of human exploitation. Their story began in Pascagoula, Miss. where they were employed by Signal International as welders and pipe-fitters to help in the post-Hurricane Katrina rebuilding effort.

The Cass County 23, along with a couple hundred other Indian workers, claim that they paid $20,000 to come to the United States and work for Signal International in exchange for permanent resident status. They said that the promise of a green card was not kept, and that they were given only temporary worker visas. Once could argue that a language barrier is accountable for this discrepancy, but that seems far-fetched.

The Indian men of Signal International said the living conditions were unspeakable, and that they were mistreated, abused, and threatened with deportation. Through a long and perilous series of events, including an Immigrations raid, 30-day hunger strike, and a grievance with the U.S. Department of Justice, these men ended up dispersed throughout the country.

Their visas were null and void, having left the worksite, and they remained stranded in the U.S., without money or legal status. Twenty-three of them found employment at an ethanol plant near Casselton. On Oct. 29 they were arrested by Immigrations, and have resided in the Cass County Jail ever since.

The Cass 23

India has an estimated 40 million bonded laborers within its borders. How cruel that these men should spend such a horrendous amount of cash in the name of a better life, only to be tricked and trampled on by the boot of America.

Maybe if we spent more time and effort investigating companies that utilize such questionable hiring tactics, and less time investigating the employees, we might stumble upon an important piece of the puzzle.

Men like the Cass 23 had no intention of being illegal aliens. They were promised the world, and when it didn’t pan out, they were left with no choice but to break immigration laws. Who is to blame here? Why are we spending so much time and effort incarcerating victims of human trafficking, instead of seeking out American employers who force the situation upon them?

In a 2006 report (under the direction of George W. Bush), called the Assessment of U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons, necessary steps to combat human trafficking are listed.

“In the September 2005 Assessment, four recommendations were made for improving the U.S. Government’s efforts to combat TIP [Trafficking in Persons]:

- The U.S. Government, its state and local partners, and nongovernmental organizations (“NGOs”) need to improve their ability to find and rescue victims.

- The U.S. Government should conduct more research to determine an accurate estimate of the scope of the trafficking problem in the United States, including both domestic and foreign victims.

- The U.S. Government should attempt to measure the impact of its anti-trafficking activities both domestically and internationally, including, for example, enhancing U.S. embassies’ abilities to monitor and evaluate anti-trafficking projects, requiring grantees to provide self-assessments of their anti-trafficking projects, and conducting more site visits.

- The U.S. Government should ensure that its Task Forces are well-functioning and should encourage states to adopt and aggressively implement their own anti-trafficking laws.

This notion of helping victims of human trafficking was apparently ill-achieved under Bush’s reign. Perhaps now, with a new, promising president, we can reach a new age of human decency. Don’t let us down, Barack.

As for the Cass 23, that is in our hands. We urge everyone to learn as much as they can about this case, and to take action. Write some senators. Stand on a soapbox. Do whatever it is you do, but do something. They stand trial on Jan. 12. If we don’t do something now, it could be too late by then.

High Plains Reader – “Catch 23: You Don’t Have to Go Home (But You Can’t Work Here)”

By Richard Schaan on November 20, 2008

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines truth as “the state of being the case—fact.” Flip the page to the word fact and you will find “the quality of being actual—actuality.” For actuality it says “the state of being actual—fact, reality.” Actual?  It says: “not false.” Even with a dictionary, truth can be hard to find.

In the case of 23 men from India who await a key decision on their fate inside the Cass County jail, the facts may be uncertain, but they do know that there are actual walls surrounding them and actual guards standing between them and freedom. And if you believe the story of how these men ended up where they are today, this reality is nothing new.

And what a story it is. Whoever invented the term “storyline” must have never encountered a tale like this. If they had, it would be called a story-square because of its multiple sides, multiple angles. The only way to cover something this complex is to break it down, one side at a time.

The Tale of the 23

The men locked in Cass County jail were all recruited, along with hundreds of others, in India by a firm working on the behalf of the Mississippi based company Signal International. They were brought to the U.S. to work as welders and pipe fitters on rebuilding projects following Hurricane Katrina. These are two facts that both the workers and Signal agree on.

The stories diverge however, when the workers tell about the promise of permanent residence, a green card, which was made to lure them into paying $20,000 for the chance to work in the U.S. They borrowed from relatives, sold their land, and cashed in life savings for one shot at the American dream. Then they arrived, and according to their story, the nightmares began.

“They trapped us in their labor camps and used us like slaves,” wrote Christopher Glory in a letter written in jail and released to the press.

The men allege that upon arrival they discovered that their visas were H-2B guest worker permits, a temporary status instead of the green cards they had expected. They also claim that they were forcibly held in the camps, which were overcrowded and unsanitary.

“They forced us to eat rotten food, making us sick, and would tell us, ‘You are animals, you eat what we give you, or don’t eat,’” Glory wrote.

Though the men were paid standard local wages for their jobs, a ten month permit would allow them to earn just enough to break even by the time they paid off both the recruiter and the $1050 monthly rent for a bed in the windowless bunker they shared with 24 other workers.

They were also at the mercy of their employers, who could deport them at any time and without compensation for lost wages and recruitment fees.
“When we protested, they attacked us with guns,” Glory wrote.

After six workers were detained for deportation by Signal employees, several of the others contacted Sacket Soni, the executive director of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. Soni helped 100 of the 290 men to leave the camp and to file a trafficking complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Soni said the men marched on foot from New Orleans to Washington, D.C. to put pressure on the DOJ to investigate the case and to allow them “continued presence,” a temporary visa status that allows victims of trafficking to work in the country while the investigation is still ongoing.
“The workers in Fargo are victims and witnesses in this investigation,” Soni said.

In the nation’s capital, the workers went on a 30-day hunger strike and also garnered the support of 18 members of Congress, including two-time presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey requesting he “take the steps necessary to ensure the workers’ continued presence so that DOJ can continue this important investigation of modern-day slavery, human trafficking, and forced labor and bring these traffickers to justice.”

Despite these efforts, the men were denied continued presence status and 23 of them broke off from the rest of the group to seek employment at an ethanol plant in Casselton, ND.  On Oct. 29 they were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for allegedly using false documents to obtain employment in the U.S.

They remain in custody as they await their Jan. 12 trial date.

Signal International’s Side

Following the workers’ filing of a trafficking complaint with the DOJ, Signal International released an official statement that tells a much different story.

According to the statement, “Signal spent over $7 million constructing state of the art housing complexes for these workers.” They also state that the facilities contained a mess hall catered with Indian cuisine and recreational facilities with “big screen televisions, pool tables and computers with Internet access.”

Further stating that “a few of the workers whom Signal had recruited” made allegations about the living conditions in the work camp, the company added that the “vast majority of the workers” were satisfied with their employment and that these workers “hope that Signal continues this program.”

While Soni said the DOJ investigation is ongoing, Signal International stated that their “employment practices and facilities have been inspected by representatives of the Department of Labor, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of State.”

Also claiming to have invited journalists to tour their facilities, Signal asserts that the collective conclusion of all these entities was “that Signal’s practices and facilities are fully compliant with the law and that its facilities are more than adequate.”

Brad Crocker of The Mississippi Press wrote “An investigation by The Mississippi Press last year revealed cramped quarters, but no squalid conditions or signs of mistreatment workers alleged.”

The Raw Story

An Apr. 13, 2007 story by Lindsay Beyerstein and Larisa Alexandrovna of the investigative news website rawstory.com sheds some light on the differences between the workers’ allegations and Signal’s official denials.

Beyerstein and Alexandrovna write about Michael Pol, a Mississippi sheriff’s deputy who “is also the president of Global Resources, Inc., a placement firm that recruits Indian workers to fill jobs in the US.”

In an interview with Signal’s camp manager, James Sanders, the writers discovered that Sanders was initially told by Pol that the men would pay only $2,000 in recruitment fees to Global Resources Inc., not the $15,000 to $20,000 they had been charged by Pol.

The rawstory.com article also states that “Signal demanded that Pol refund half the money that each worker had paid. When he refused, Signal terminated Pol’s contract.”

The Fargo Prosecutor’s Case

Three weeks ago, an early morning raid resulted in the arrest of the 23 workers in Casselton. On Wednesday, a prayer vigil to support the prisoners was held in front of the downtown post office. Rev. Jeff Sandgren of Olivet Lutheran led a prayer, and organizer Barry Nelson made a statement to the assembled media.

“In no way are we here to criticize local U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley, who is only doing his job in a case that is separate from the original situation these men were put into,” Nelson said.

In an earlier interview, Wrigley’s Assistant U.S. Attorney, Nick Chase, spoke about the case to make it clear that their current prosecution is not related to the DOJ’s investigation of Signal.

“I don’t believe or disbelieve the allegations against Signal International. But those allegations, from two or three years ago, in another district, involving another company, do not necessarily justify the alleged conduct in the current case we are proceeding with,” Chase said.

While Chase did say the DOJ was contacted early on, he also stated that they were not looking for permission to continue their prosecution.
“It wasn’t really for them to green light or not,” he said.

He also added that he has been involved in many immigration cases and that false promises by recruiters are unfortunately the norm for many of the defendants facing deportation.

“If you show me an illegal immigrant, I will show you someone who has been exploited thousands of times,” he said.

Christopher Glory’s Letter

The last few paragraphs of the letter read as follows:

“All my life I heard about America. ‘It’s god’s land.’ Even in God’s land you can be treated like an animal. Instead of punishing me, America should punish Signal International and the recruiters, so that what befell me does not happen to anyone else.

“Please don’t pray for me to get out of here, for me to be released soon, or for my legal papers. Please just pray for me to be brave, and that my spirits don’t go down so I can stay in this fight. I know it is not going to be easy.

“Don’t spend your time trying to release me. Spend your time to fight so that the Department of Justice sees the truth.
The truth will set us free.”

Backers rally for Cass 23

Patrick Springer

The Forum – 11/20/2008

The 23 itinerant workers from India who have spent 22 days in the Cass County Jail are victims of human trafficking in the eyes of their supporters and illegal immigrants in the eyes of prosecutors.

More than 20 supporters of the Cass 23 gathered Wednesday in subzero weather to offer prayers and pleas on their behalf in front of the Federal Building in downtown Fargo.

A short time later, federal prosecutors filed a motion seeking re-evaluation of their status as indigents, arguing the $69,000 they collectively drew in their last paychecks might make them ineligible to receive public defenders.

The activities Wednesday were the latest in the maelstrom of rhetoric and legal actions that have ensued since the workers were arrested Oct. 28 at the offices of a local contractor.

The defendants, who speak three or four different Indian dialects, worked as welders and pipe fitters at the ethanol plant under construction near Casselton.

The men are skilled tradesmen who travel abroad to support their families. All are from a region of north India that converted to Christianity centuries ago.

Some worked in the Middle East before coming to the United States to help rebuild the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

They entered the country with legal temporary work visas, but are accused of later obtaining counterfeit Social Security cards and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship.

The men and their advocates contend they were lured by false promises that they would obtain permanent legal residency and would be able to work legally to support their families back in India.

When they got here they found a different situation, said Barry Nelson, an organizer of Wednesday s prayer vigil. They found out their green cards they were promised were in fact guest worker passes.

Initially, 500 guest workers came from India to work repairing oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico at yards in Texas and Mississippi. Of those, 250 remain in the United States, including the 23 jailed in Fargo.

The workers, some of whom traveled to Washington and went on a hunger strike to press their case, have asked for legal status allowing them to remain in the U.S. pending the outcome of a criminal investigation into the human trafficking allegations.

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has written justice officials to urge that they grant the Indian workers continued presence protection so they can help with the U.S. Department of Justice s ongoing criminal investigation of their reportedly appalling treatment.

Advocates have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the workers, claiming they were victims of an exploitative recruiting scheme by Signal International, a marine contractor that builds and repairs oil rigs.

The men paid up to $20,000 a sum that is the equivalent of two or three generations of labor in north India to come to the United States with promises of gainful employment and permanent legal residency.

Instead, they were placed in overcrowded labor camps where they were unable to leave and subject to a campaign of psychological abuse, coercion, and fraud designed to keep them captive employees of Signal, the lawsuit claims.

Signal declined The Forum s requests for comment Wednesday. Earlier, the company has called the allegations baseless and unfounded, and said several federal agencies, including federal labor officials, found them in legal compliance.

The Criminal Section of the Justice Department s Civil Rights Division has an open and ongoing investigation into the matter, Jamie Hais, a Justice spokesman, said Wednesday. Nothing to add beyond that.

Drew Wrigley, U.S. attorney for North Dakota, reiterated Wednesday that his office was aware of the allegations of human trafficking as well as the Department of Justice s criminal investigation before filing charges.

We re not moving ahead with our investigation without the full knowledge of the Department of Justice in Washington, he said. Human trafficking allegations of people facing illegal immigration charges are not uncommon, he added.

The Rev. Jeff Sandgren, a pastor at Olivet Lutheran Church in Fargo, was one of those who turned out for the prayer vigil. He believes the workers came to the United States believing they were on track to have permanent residency to enable them to work legally.

I have absolutely no doubt that these folks came with the best of intentions, Sandgren said. These folks were brought here under false pretenses.

Sandgren happens to be Wrigley s pastor, and each describes the other as a good friend. Both men have spoken about their divergent views of the case. Each credits the other with being sincere in his beliefs.

But they don t appear to agree on much else concerning the Cass 23.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522

Indian Justice ’08

A blog in which Indian Workers’ Congress supporter, ally, and advocate Bincy Jacob travels first to Delhi for an event targeting Supreme Court Advocates in India, then to visit workers’ families in Kerala. Please visit!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT SAKET SONI — 504 881 6610

New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice

ICE Raid Targets, Snares Human Trafficking Victims

Victims Demand Access to Their Legal Counsel, but ICE Refuses

Oct. 29, 2008—Over 20 Indian Guest Workers who triggered a high-profile federal investigation into human trafficking were targeted this morning by a raid carried out by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency near Fargo, North Dakota. Despite workers’ repeated demands for their attorneys, ICE blocked workers’ access to their legal counsel, outraging national experts and advocates.

The workers were among approximately 500 individuals trafficked to the United States after Hurricane Katrina by Gulf Coast employer Signal International, LLC. Workers were subjected to forced labor in Mississippi and Texas labor camps. They escaped the labor camps earlier this year to come forward and report human trafficking to the Department of Justice. The workers triggered a major criminal trafficking investigation, which is still open, filed a federal class action lawsuit in New Orleans against Signal International, LLC, and labor recruiters in the U.S. and India, and staged a hunger strike in Washington, DC, to push for the prosecution of Signal.

“It is an outrage that workers who courageously came forward at great personal risk to cooperate with the Department of Justice in a federal trafficking investigation were targeted by ICE and then denied access to their own legal counsel,” said Marielena Hincapié, Executive Director of the National Immigration Law Center. “This is yet another example of immigration enforcement run amok. ICE terrorizes and detains workers rather than targeting bad employers,” added Hincapié.

Upon realizing that they were being targeted by ICE, the workers presented letters explaining they were victims and witnesses to the federal crime of human trafficking. The letter listed their attorney’s name and contact information. They communicated that they did not want to be questioned without legal counsel. ICE summarily refused the workers’ requests and questioned them individually without attorneys or interpreters.

“Why isn’t ICE spending national resources investigating criminal traffickers, instead of targeting and terrifying the victims?” asked Saket Soni, Director of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. “Since these workers have come forward to report Signal International, LLC, to the Department of Justice, they have faced ICE surveillance, ICE arrests, and now an ICE sting operation.”

U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley held a news conference today, briefing the press on the ICE sting operation. Wrigley omitted to mention that workers were cooperating in a DOJ investigation into human trafficking.