http://www.nowcrj.org/2008/11/ice-raid-target-snares-victims-of-human-trafficking/ building worker power, advancing racial justice, and organizing workers to build a social movement in post-Katrina New Orleans Thu, 19 May 2011 11:11:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.nowcrj.org/2008/11/ice-raid-target-snares-victims-of-human-trafficking/comment-page-1/#comment-27 ptr » Why I May Vote For Roger Calero Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:40:21 +0000 http://nolaworkerscenter.wordpress.com/?p=83#comment-27 [...] Now it turns out that some of these workers got counterfeit documents and applied for work in North Dakota at an ethanol plant (will complain about ethanol in another post).   Their employer then reported them to the government, and the government arrested them despite  that they were claiming trafficked status.  The nut graf: “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. “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.” [New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice 10/29/08] [...] [...] Now it turns out that some of these workers got counterfeit documents and applied for work in North Dakota at an ethanol plant (will complain about ethanol in another post).   Their employer then reported them to the government, and the government arrested them despite  that they were claiming trafficked status.  The nut graf: “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. “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.” [New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice 10/29/08] [...]

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