And, they came here under a LEGAL program. This is one more reason why ALL legal immigration programs must be scrutinized right along with all of the illegal immigration everyone focuses on.
From AFP News:
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A Florida couple pleaded guilty to conspiring to hold 39 Filipino employees against their will working in country clubs and hotels, the US Justice Department said Friday.
Sophia Manuel, 41, and Alfonso Baldonado Jr., 45, were owners of a labor contracting service based in the Florida city of Boca Raton. [I would like to know the immigration status of Manuel and Baldonado–ed]
Manuel and Baldonado “conspired to obtain a cheap, compliant and readily available labor pool, by making false promises to entice the victims to incur debts,” read a Department of Justice statement, quoting court documents.
“The defendants then compelled the victims’ labor and services through threats to have the workers arrested and deported, knowing the workers faced serious economic harm and possible incarceration for nonpayment of debts in the Philippines.”
Imagine this, the alleged slave owner lied on his H2B visa application.
Manuel also pleaded guilty to lying in an application filed with the US Labor Department to obtain foreign labor certifications and visas under the federal H2B guest worker program.
We reported a very similar story back in June 2009 in Kansas. I put some of the blame on these hotel owners as well.
And, weren’t there some big wig hotel owners working with Republicans Grover Norquist and Tamar Jacoby (along with Leftwing Open Borders advocates) to plan a strategy to get more immigrant labor into the US. Yes, there were, here.
Even my US Senator, Democrat Barbara Mikulski (up for reelection this November), busied herself in 2006 and got the H2B visas increased to supply labor supposedly needed by big business in Maryland, here.