Slave Next Door (58 page)

7. “Wisconsin Couple Convicted on Human Trafficking Charges,” U.S.

Newswire, May 27, 2006.

8. U.S. Department of Justice, “Two Milwaukee Doctors Each Sentenced to

Four Years in Prison for Forcing Woman to Work as Domestic Servant for 19

Years,” press release, November 16, 2006, www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/

November/06_crt_772.html.

9. “Man Sentenced to 16 Months in Prison in Human Trafficking Case,”

Associated Press, May 12, 2006.

10. “Woman Sentenced to Probation in Human Trafficking Case,” KGBT 4,

May 12, 2006.

11. Florrie Burke, human trafficking consultant, interview, December 21,

2007.

12. Frank Eltman, “NY Couple Convicted in Slavery Case,” Associated

Press, December 17, 2007.

13. Robert E. Kessler, “Muttontown Woman in Slave Case Sentenced to 11

Years,” Newsday.com, June 27, 2008.

14. Frank Eltman, “Second NY Millionaire Convicted of Enslaving Indonesian

Workers Sentenced to Prison Time,” Associated Press, June 27, 2008.

15. U.S. State Department, “Report of the Visa Office 2007,” Table XVIb,

“Nonimmigrant Visas Issued by Classification,” http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/

statistics/statistics_1476.html.

16. Quoted in Helena Smith, “Slaves in the Land of the Free,”
New

Statesman,
September 9, 2002.

17. Briefly, four arguments can be made for denying diplomatic immunity

in slavery cases: (1) slavery violates the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S.

Constitution, and no treaty can overcome the provisions of the Constitution;

(2) slavery and trafficking are fundamentally commercial activities and thus not

covered by the Vienna Convention; (3) slavery and trafficking laws and interna-

tional agreements are accepted as
jus cogens
laws, norms that transcend and

trump any other laws, including the treaty concerning diplomatic immunity;

and (4) the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act guarantees to all victims the

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right to pursue civil remedies. For further information, see Mani Kumari

Sabbithi, Joaquina Quadros, and Gila Sixtina Fernandes, plaintiffs, v. Major

Waleed KH N. S. Al Saleh, Maysaa KH A. O. A. Al Omar, and State of Kuwait,

Case No. 07-CV-00115-EGS, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia,

www.aclu.org/pdfs/womensrights/20070530sabbithioppositiontomotiontodis-

miss.pdf.

18. Quoted in Frank Langfitt, “Servants: Diplomat Held Us as Suburban

‘Slaves,’” National Public Radio, March 1, 2007, www.npr.org/templates/

story/story.php?storyId=7626754.

19. Quoted in ibid.

20. “Congressional Briefing on Migrant Domestic Workers (Bill H.R. 3244:

Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 1999),” testimony of Xiomara Salgado

at the Campaign for Migrant Domestic Workers’ Rights Public Briefing,

Washington, DC, February 15, 2000, www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/

hhs/vasap/domesticworkerscongressionaltestimony.pdf.

21. Ibid.

22. Workers in social service agencies helping victims of trafficking and slav-

ery told the authors of these tough choices. Most did not want to be identified

with this complaint against government policy lest it threaten the resources they

did receive.

23. Free the Slaves,
Hidden Slaves.

24. “Christina: Narrative as Told to Peggy Callahan for Free the Slaves,

February 24, 2005, Washington, DC,” excerpted from “In Their Own Words:

Christina Elangwe,” interview, www.freetheslaves.net/NETCOMMUNITY/

Page.aspx?pid=349&srcid=208, in
To Plead Our Own Cause: Narratives of

Modern Slavery,
ed. Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd (Ithaca: Cornell University

Press, 2008).

3 . S L AV E S I N T H E PA S T U R E S O F P L E N T Y

1. Laura Germino, Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), interview,

January 6, 2007.

2. Greg Asbed, “Coalition of Immokalee Workers: ‘!Golpear a Uno Es

Golpear a Todos!’ To Beat One of Us Is to Beat Us All,” in vol. 3 of
Bringing

Human Rights Home,
ed. Cynthia Soohoo, Martha F. Davis, and Catherine

Albisa (New York: Praeger, 2007), 1–24.

3. Lucas Benitez, CIW, interview, January 7, 2007.

4. Ibid.

5. Greg Asbed, CIW, interview, January 8, 2007.

6. Lucas Benitez, interview, January 7, 2007.

7. John Norris, U.S. DOL wage and hours inspector, Ft. Myers, FL, inter-

view, March 28, 2007.

8. Greg Asbed, CIW, interview, January 8, 2007.

9. Oxfam America, “Like Machines in the Fields: Workers without Rights

in American Agriculture,” Report, March 2004, www.oxfamamerica.org/

newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art7011.html/OA-Like_

Machines_in_the_Fields.pdf, 36.

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N O T E S T O PA G E S 4 8 – 6 1 / 2 8 1

10. Cindy Hahamovitch,
The Fruits of Their Labor: Atlantic Coast

Farmworkers and the Making of Migrant Poverty, 1870–1945
(Chapel Hill:

University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 123.

11.
Dying to Leave,
dir. Chris Hilton, “Wide Angle” special, PBS, 2003.

12. Antonio Martinez, CIW, interview, December 2, 2007.

13. Asbed “Golpear a Uno.”

14. Laura Germino, interview, January 20, 2007.

15. Ron Soodalter,
Hanging Captain Gordon: The Life and Trial of an

American Slave Trader
(New York: Atria Books, 2006), 254.

16. Lucas Benitez, interview, January 7, 2007.

17. Laura Germino, interview, February 2, 2007.

18. Greg Asbed, interview, January 8, 2007.

19. Lucas Benitez, interview, January 7, 2007.

20. Laura Germino, interview, January 6, 2007.

21. Asbed, “Golpear a Uno.”

22. Ibid.

23. Laura Germino, interview, January 20, 2007.

24. Asbed, “Golpear a Uno.”

25. Laura Germino, interview, January 6, 2007.

26. Greg Asbed, interview, January 8, 2007.

27. Allen Davies, formerly sergeant of the Hendry County, FL, Sheriff’s

Office, interview, February 14, 2007.

28. Mike Baron, formerly Border Patrol agent-in-charge, Pembroke Pines,

FL, interview, March 27, 2007.

29. Laura Germino, interview, February 2, 2007.

30. Armando Brana, former U.S. DOL senior investigator, interview, April 3,

2007.

31. United States v. Miguel A. Flores, Sebastian Gomez, Andres Ixcoy,

Nolasco Castaneda, indictment, Criminal No. 2:96–806, U.S. District Court of

South Carolina, Charleston Division, October 10, 1996.

32. Transcript of sentencing hearing, Criminal No. 2:96–806, 59–60.

33. Armando Brana, interview, April 3, 2007.

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid.

36. Mike Baron, interview, March 27, 2007.

37. Ibid.

38. Laura Germino, interview, February 2, 2007.

39. Greg Asbed, interview, January 8, 2007.

40. Soodalter,
Hanging Captain Gordon,
254.

41. “Labor Camps Kept Workers in Servitude with Crack Cocaine,”
Naples

News,
September 23, 2006.

42. “Labor Camp Owner Given 30 Years in Prison,”
Florida Times-Union,

January 27, 2007.

43. CIW, “CIW Anti-Slavery Campaign,” 2008, www.ciw-online.org/

slavery.html.

44. Greg Asbed, interview, January 8, 2007.

45. Mike Baron, interview, March 27, 2007.

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46. Laura Germino, interview, February 2, 2007.

47. Ibid.

48. Soodalter,
Hanging Captain Gordon,
262.

49. “CIW, McDonald’s, and Their Suppliers Reach Agreement to Improve

Farmworkers Wages and Working Conditions,” April 9, 2007, www.escr-net

.org/news/news_show.htm?doc_id=483476.

50. Interview with Lucas Benitez, April 12, 2007.

51. “Statement from Burger King,” February 7, 2007, www.namcnewswire

.com/releases/content/view/845/2/.

52. Lucas Benitez, “CIW Response to Burger King Statement of 2/5/07,”

press release, February 6, 2007 (no longer available on the CIW Web site).

53. “Statement from Burger King.”

54. “Burger King Pledges Cage-Free Food,”
New York Times,
March 28,

2007.

55. Quoted in Soodalter,
Hanging Captain Gordon,
262.

56. Amy Bennett Williams, “Burger King Puts Self on Grill,”
Ft. Myers

News-Press,
April 28, 2008.

57. Eric Schlosser, “Burger with a Side of Spies,”
New York Times,
May 8,

2008.

58. “Brutal Farm Labor Bosses Punished, but Not the Growers Who Hire

Them,”
Miami Herald,
April 3, 2007.

59. Lisa Butler, attorney with Legal Services, Florida Rural Legal Services,

interview, March 1, 2007.

60. Dan Werner, legal director, Workers’ Rights Law Center, interview,

March 12, 2007.

61. Ibid.

62. Kevin O’Connor, U.S. attorney for the State of Connecticut and DOJ

chief of staff, interview, April 2, 2007.

63. Michael Wishnie, clinical professor of law, Yale Law School, interview,

March 13, 2007.

64. O’Connor, interview, April 2, 2007.

65. “Suit Charges That Nursery Mistreated Laborers,”
New York Times,

February 8, 2007.

66. Kevin O’Connor, interview, April 2, 2007.

67. “Settlement Ends Workers’ Suit,”
Hartford Courant,
June 26, 2007.

68. Michael Wishnie, interview, July 24, 2008.

69. Kathleen Kim and Dan Werner,
Civil Litigation on Behalf of Victims of

Human Trafficking
(Los Angeles: Legal Aid Foundation, 2005), www.lafla.org/

clientservices/specialprojects/VictimsTrfficking0405.pdf.

70. U.S. DOJ, “Jury Convicts New Hampshire Couple of Forced Labor,”

press release, September 2, 2003.

71. Mary Bauer, “Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United

States,” report, Southern Poverty Law Center, 2007, www.splcenter.org/pdf/

static/SPLCguestworker.pdf, 7.

72. Mary Bauer, director of Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant

Justice Project, interview, July 23, 2008.

73. Bauer, “Close to Slavery,” 42.

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N O T E S T O PA G E S 7 0 – 7 9 / 2 8 3

74. Ibid., 39.

75. Ibid., 15–17.

76. Quoted in ibid., 27.

77. Ibid., 17.

78. Complaint, Muangmol Asanok et al., Plaintiffs, v. Million Express

Manpower, Inc. et al., Defendants, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District

of North Carolina, Western Division, Case 5:07-cv-00048-BO, filed February

12, 2007, 8.

79. Kate Woomer-Deters, staff attorney, Legal Aid of North Carolina,

Farmworker Unit, interview, March 14, 2007.

80. Complaint, Asanok et al. v. Million Express Manpower et al., 1.

81. Ibid., 2.

82. Ibid.

83. Ibid., 8–9.

84. Ibid., 1.

85. Kate Woomer-Deters, interview, March 14, 2007.

86. Ibid.

87. Ibid.

88. Mary Bauer, interview, March 16, 2007.

89. U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Education and Labor,

“GAO Investigation Finds Labor Department Not Effectively Fighting Wage

Theft, Department Not Using All Its Tools to Collect Back Wages,” press

release, July 15, 2008.

90. “Wage Theft, Bush Style,”
People’s Weekly World,
July 23, 2008,

www.pww.org/article/articleview/13416.

91. Bauer, “Close to Slavery,” 28.

92. Ibid., 29.

93. Mary Bauer, interview, March 16, 2007.

94. Patricia Medige, attorney, Colorado Legal Services, Migrant Farm

Worker Division, interview, March 20, 2007.

95. See Moffat County Sheriff’s Office, “Mission Statement” and “Vision

Statement,” 2007, www.moffatcountysheriff.com.

96. Kevin Bales and Steven Lize, “Trafficking in Persons in the United States:

A Report to the National Institute of Justice,” August 2005, www.ncjrs.gov/

pdffiles1/nij/grants/211980.pdf, 140.

97. Patricia Medige, interview, March 20, 2007.

98. Mary Bauer, interview, March 16, 2007.

99. Bauer, “Close to Slavery,” 41.

100. Laura Germino, interview, February 2, 2007.

101. Bauer, “Close to Slavery,” 41.

102. Robert J. Allison, “The Origins of African-American Culture,”
Journal

of Interdisciplinary History
30 (Winter 1999): 475–81.

4 . S U P P LY A N D D E M A N D

1. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, “Case Study #3,” available

from LIRS, 700 Light St., Baltimore, MD 21230. According to Annie Sovcik,

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staff attorney at LIRS, the “Maria” story is a composite of cases involving a few

girls, whose histories were combined both to protect the individual victims and

to educate various groups as to “how many potential opportunities there often

are for identifying and rescuing victims that go unrealized.”

2. Kevin O’Connor, U.S. attorney for Connecticut, interview, June 13,

2007.

3. Interestingly, prior to the Civil War, when slave trade cases were being

heard in northern federal courts, a number of lawyers who made their living by

defending accused slavers had been U.S. attorneys and assistant U.S. attorneys

before going into private practice.