New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice

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.”