I read this article a few weeks ago and it gave me the chills.
For those who don’t read links, I’ll give a quick recap of it. Apparently, there are legal and documented immigrants who come to work in the US on a visa. When they get here, their Visas and passports are taken away, and treated like slaves. They are forced to work 16 hour shifts with no days off. They aren’t allowed to leave the property. They are forced to pay for their Visa and their living expenses (at a high price. One guy was charging his workers 1000 a month to sleep in a trailer with 10–15 other guys. ) They are required to perform sexual acts. If they don’t obey, their bosses threaten to call the police and report them as undocumented.
It’s illegal, but the local police officers are easily bribed. They frequently help out the employers by showing up in uniform and scaring the workers. Also, many employers say that if they get caught, they only have to pay a nominal fine. They don’t even lose their right to request these Visas from the he government and get more workers. So getting caught is no big deal, because they still earn huge profits even when they get the stiffest punishments the law currently allows.
I know it’s technically illegal, but when local, State and national government does almost nothing to stop it, it might as well be. I think the laws are lax about these workers because these employers give very large donations to their government officials to keep the laws light on it. Since many Americans seem to hate immigrants these days, nobody really cares enough to protest.
It’s sad, and it’s probably the closest thing to slavery we have. The only thing I can think of that’s worse are those southeast Asian and Indian rackets where they trick farm girls into being child prostitutes.