How U.S. Immigration Law Enables Modern Slavery
Chris Lapining, a Skadden Fellow at Asian Americans Advancing Justice, in the Atlantic (“How U.S. Immigration Law Enables Modern Slavery”) reminds us of the role that U.S. immigration law plays in modern exploitative labor arrangements, human trafficking (a $10 billion industry), and slavery:
“Like many of the immigrant workers that I represent at the legal-services nonprofit I work for in Los Angeles, [Lola] Pulido’s [Pulido was the family slave of the Tizon family, which was revealed after her death in an Atlantic article] legal status in the U.S. was inextricably tied to her employer. This feature of U.S. immigration law gives exploitative employers a powerful tool to control their immigrant workers, whose lack of familiarity with the laws and customs of the United States already render them vulnerable. Aware of this advantage that they hold, some employers believe they can abuse employees with impunity. If workers complain or threaten to seek help, they are told that leaving their employer may very well lead to deportation. For many immigrant workers, who may have borrowed significant amounts of money to come to America, leaving the U.S. early may mean financial ruin at home. U.S. immigration policy, in other words, leaves them no choice but to endure their employers’ abuse.”
In a lawsuit filed on May 31, two former prisoners at a California private immigration prison have filed a class-action lawsuit against the operator of the facility, claiming they were forced under the threat of additional punishment to do work around the prison for as little as $1 a day.
According to the lawsuit, plaintiffs Sylvester Owino and Jonathan Gomez accused CoreCivic, one of the largest private prison companies in the country, of forcing them to do things like clean bathrooms and medical facilities and run the prison law library. They also claim that they were forced to perform clerical work for CoreCivic, which owns and operates the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, where the two men were held.
“In some instances, CoreCivic pays detainees $1 per day, and in other instances, detainees are not compensated with wages at all, for their labor and services,” according to the lawsuit. It added that “CoreCivic reported $1.79 billion in total revenues” in 2016.
KJ