http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/news_f35e42e03786009e004f.html
http://tinyurl.com/2b487 The U.S. Justice Department has begun to investigate a new case of slavery in Florida involving a group of undocumented Mexican farmworkers who say they were forcibly detained and threatened with violence by labor contractors. The facts of the case were first made public in an article in The Palm Beach Post Dec. 7, part of the newspaper's recent series, Modern-Day Slavery. In that article, a 28-year-old Mexican man said that on more than one occasion in late 2002, he and other migrant tomato pickers were locked inside a trailer in the town of Wimauma, in Hillsborough County, by a family of farm labor contractors who claimed the workers owed them money. Those alleged debts were smuggling fees the workers incurred while being transported clandestinely into the U.S. from Mexico. The man, who used the alias Jose Moreno, claimed he and the other laborers had to work off those debts before they could change jobs, were chained in the trailer at times and threatened with violence if they tried to leave. Such actions violate anti-slavery laws. According to sources close to the case, two Justice Department attorneys flew from Washington to Tampa Monday. They, plus two FBI agents, met with Moreno that day at the Beth-El Mission, a religious facility in Wimauma. "The meeting lasted five hours," said one source who was at the mission during the meeting. "He (Moreno) said that they asked him about everything that was in the article.... The meeting went well." Looking for corroboration One of the attorneys was identified as Susan French, who has been active in previous cases of slavery and indentured servitude in Florida. Federal courts have convicted several Florida labor contractors in such cases during the past six years. The latest trial was in 2002 when two contractors were sentenced to 12 years and another to 10 years for an incident in the central Florida town of Lake Placid. French, reached by telephone, refused to comment on the Wimauma case. The other attorney was not identified. But one of the sources said Moreno had offered to help the Justice Department find some of the other young men locked up with him, which is essential to the case. Moreno told The Post at least 10 others were victimized at the same time as he was. The men have since dispersed; some may still be in the U.S. working, and others may have returned to Mexico. Moreno, according to the source, told the attorneys that one of the men was a distant cousin of his and that he would try to locate him through other family members. He said he also knew the hometown of a third alleged victim, which might make it possible to find that individual. Moreno returned to Mexico last week to visit his family but is expected back after New Year's. According to the source, in order to facilitate his cooperation in the case, the Justice Department attorneys had Moreno sign two immigration forms: a Form 102, which will allow him to receive temporary permission to enter the U.S. legally, and a Form 765, which will allow him to work here legally when he returns. Such provisions are often made so that potential witnesses will be available to prosecutors. Moreno told The Post that, in early October 2002, he was smuggled through the Sonora Desert into Arizona by a man who, along with several of his brothers, operates as both a people-moving "coyote" and farm labor contractor. Moreno said he and others brought to the U.S. with him were promised tomato picking work in and around Wimauma, work that paid well and would allow them to rapidly pay off hundreds of dollars in smuggling fees. But he said the work was sparse and scarcely paid during the first weeks after they arrived in Florida. He said the contractors, afraid the workers would try to escape, began to guard them at all times and, on some occasions when no guard was available, locked them in a trailer that was secured with a thick chain, a padlock and windows that were nailed so that no one could get out. Moreno said he and others complained but the brothers threatened them with violence. Moreno says he was never struck, but his cousin, Gustavo, fought with the brothers over lack of pay and sustained a broken bone in his arm or hand. Men denied church visit On a Sunday in December last year, an elder from the nearby Good Samaritan Mission, a Christian church, arrived at the trailer to invite some of the men to services, but he was denied permission to take them. Moreno, who insisted on his right to attend church, was eventually allowed to go, but he was the only one. That same week, the youth pastor from the church went to investigate and said he found the young men locked in the trailer. He and the church elder told their stories to The Post, and the newspaper tracked down Moreno, who by then was working in Ohio. He confirmed what the two churchmen had said. Referring to the men who had locked him up, Moreno said: "Those apes were denying me my right to worship." He said he wanted to see them in prison. xponent Atrocious Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
