Slavery: US Crackdown on Forced Labor
Jim Kouri, CPP
July 27, 2005
Ten people were indicted last week, all alleged members of a ring operating in the United States and Honduras that smuggled young, undocumented Honduran women into the US and forced them to work off their smuggling debts in bars in Hudson County, New Jersey.
The women, mostly from rural, poor villages in Honduras – some as young as 14 – were recruited under the false promise of getting legitimate jobs as waitresses in restaurants in New Jersey. Once brought to Hudson County by way of a safehouse in Houston, Texas, however, they were put to work at several bars owned by the ringleader and subject to physical and emotional abuse, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The 31-count Indictment describes, among other abuses, young victims being raped while smuggled to the United States; victims sometimes far younger than 21 forced to continually drink alcohol and dance with male customers at the bars to raise money to pay human smuggling fees of between $10,000 and $20,000; victims being beaten if they were not compliant; victims forced to work in the bars up to seven days a week from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.; threats of deportation or harm to them and their families in Honduras if they did not comply with the ring’s demands.
Young women who became pregnant were forced to terminate pregnancies to maintain them as income-producers for the ring, according to the Indictment. In one case, a 21-year-old victim was allegedly forced to take pills intended to induce a spontaneous abortion. The next day, the victim gave birth to a live baby girl, who died shortly afterward.
The indictment charges the 10 individuals with violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (authored by Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey), including counts of conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor, alien smuggling and harboring illegal aliens. The Indictment supersedes and consolidates three earlier indictments and adds two new defendants, including the suspected ringleader in Hudson County, Luisa Medrano, who was arrested along with Rosalba Ortiz, one of the ring’s so-called “enforcers.”
Medrano, 50, of Cliffside Park, a US citizen and native of El Salvador, is the owner of three bars in Union City and Guttenberg where the young women who were trafficked to Hudson County were put to work, according to the Indictment. Medrano also owned three multi-unit buildings in Union City, where the victims were allegedly forced to live while they worked to pay off their smuggling debts. Included in the Indictment are two forfeiture counts, in which the government seeks to seize the buildings.
According to the Indictment, the ring employed recruiters in Honduras to locate attractive, innocent young woman – most in their teens and early 20s; used smugglers, commonly known as “coyotes,” to get them into the United States illegally, and “enforcers,” who advised the Honduran women upon arrival in New Jersey of the true nature of their work, that they were required to repay a smuggling fee of up to $20,000 and then used physical abuse and intimidation to control and use them to make money for the conspirators.
The young women received $240 for approximately 48 hours of work per week plus an amount related to the sale of drinks to customers they met at the bars. But they were required to pay virtually all their earnings to the ring, at the rate of between $250 and $500 a week, according to the Indictment and earlier criminal complaints.
The Indictment details circumstances of 10 victims. But in searches of two Hudson County apartments in January by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the US Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, approximately 30 young women were arrested as illegal immigrants.
Three of those named in the Indictment are in custody in Honduras following their arrests there in early June. Honduran authorities have worked closely with US law enforcement to bring all the ring’s participants to justice. The Republic of Honduras, while it has an extradition treaty with the United States, does not typically extradite its own nationals. However, those individuals are now charged with alien smuggling in Honduras, and officials there expect to charge them with money laundering as well.
The victims, though illegal aliens, are receiving counseling, education and other social services provided by the US government. All those referred to in the Indictment, as well as others originally arrested, have been qualified for special visas that will allow them to stay in the United States and become naturalized citizens. Their immediate families can join them and are eligible for the same status.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act was passed by Congress to combat human traffickers and the forms of coercion, such as physical and psychological intimidation, they use to hold their victims in conditions of servitude and forced labor. Despite indictment, all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Sources: US Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Hudson County, NJ Police Department and Prosecutor's Office, AmeriCop USA, American Federation of Police and Concerned Citizens
The women, mostly from rural, poor villages in Honduras – some as young as 14 – were recruited under the false promise of getting legitimate jobs as waitresses in restaurants in New Jersey. Once brought to Hudson County by way of a safehouse in Houston, Texas, however, they were put to work at several bars owned by the ringleader and subject to physical and emotional abuse, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The 31-count Indictment describes, among other abuses, young victims being raped while smuggled to the United States; victims sometimes far younger than 21 forced to continually drink alcohol and dance with male customers at the bars to raise money to pay human smuggling fees of between $10,000 and $20,000; victims being beaten if they were not compliant; victims forced to work in the bars up to seven days a week from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.; threats of deportation or harm to them and their families in Honduras if they did not comply with the ring’s demands.
Young women who became pregnant were forced to terminate pregnancies to maintain them as income-producers for the ring, according to the Indictment. In one case, a 21-year-old victim was allegedly forced to take pills intended to induce a spontaneous abortion. The next day, the victim gave birth to a live baby girl, who died shortly afterward.
The indictment charges the 10 individuals with violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (authored by Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey), including counts of conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor, alien smuggling and harboring illegal aliens. The Indictment supersedes and consolidates three earlier indictments and adds two new defendants, including the suspected ringleader in Hudson County, Luisa Medrano, who was arrested along with Rosalba Ortiz, one of the ring’s so-called “enforcers.”
Medrano, 50, of Cliffside Park, a US citizen and native of El Salvador, is the owner of three bars in Union City and Guttenberg where the young women who were trafficked to Hudson County were put to work, according to the Indictment. Medrano also owned three multi-unit buildings in Union City, where the victims were allegedly forced to live while they worked to pay off their smuggling debts. Included in the Indictment are two forfeiture counts, in which the government seeks to seize the buildings.
According to the Indictment, the ring employed recruiters in Honduras to locate attractive, innocent young woman – most in their teens and early 20s; used smugglers, commonly known as “coyotes,” to get them into the United States illegally, and “enforcers,” who advised the Honduran women upon arrival in New Jersey of the true nature of their work, that they were required to repay a smuggling fee of up to $20,000 and then used physical abuse and intimidation to control and use them to make money for the conspirators.
The young women received $240 for approximately 48 hours of work per week plus an amount related to the sale of drinks to customers they met at the bars. But they were required to pay virtually all their earnings to the ring, at the rate of between $250 and $500 a week, according to the Indictment and earlier criminal complaints.
The Indictment details circumstances of 10 victims. But in searches of two Hudson County apartments in January by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the US Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, approximately 30 young women were arrested as illegal immigrants.
Three of those named in the Indictment are in custody in Honduras following their arrests there in early June. Honduran authorities have worked closely with US law enforcement to bring all the ring’s participants to justice. The Republic of Honduras, while it has an extradition treaty with the United States, does not typically extradite its own nationals. However, those individuals are now charged with alien smuggling in Honduras, and officials there expect to charge them with money laundering as well.
The victims, though illegal aliens, are receiving counseling, education and other social services provided by the US government. All those referred to in the Indictment, as well as others originally arrested, have been qualified for special visas that will allow them to stay in the United States and become naturalized citizens. Their immediate families can join them and are eligible for the same status.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act was passed by Congress to combat human traffickers and the forms of coercion, such as physical and psychological intimidation, they use to hold their victims in conditions of servitude and forced labor. Despite indictment, all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Sources: US Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Hudson County, NJ Police Department and Prosecutor's Office, AmeriCop USA, American Federation of Police and Concerned Citizens
Print
Email
