• Welcome to the new Internet Infidels Discussion Board, formerly Talk Freethought.

Modern Day Slavery Found in South Georgia

S

southernhybrid

Contributor
Joined
Aug 12, 2001
Messages
8,987
Location
Georgia, US
Basic Beliefs
atheist
https://www.ajc.com/news/this-has-b...y-uncovered-in-ga/SHBHTDDTTBG3BCPSVCB3GQ66BQ/

The criminals were smuggling immigrants into the country to be used as slaves, on South Georgia farms. I've quoted part of the article which is probably behind a pay wall. It also said that the passports were taken away from these folks, making it impossible for them to return to their home countries. Because this is happening in rural areas, nobody realized what was going on.
This is devastating, but I am relieved to know that the criminals were discovered and are being charged. It does make me wonder if this is happening in other places in the country. Now, we don't even know if the produce we buy has come from slave camps.

A yearslong human trafficking operation trapped migrant workers in “modern-day slavery” on South Georgia farms, according to a federal indictment unsealed last week.

Victims include over one hundred laborers smuggled from Mexico and Central America into “brutal” and “inhumane” working conditions. Under the threat of gun violence, some were allegedly forced to dig for onions with their bare hands, earning only 20 cents for each bucket harvested. At least two people died on the job. Another was allegedly repeatedly raped.


When not out in the fields, workers were detained in work camps surrounded by electric fencing, or held in cramped living quarters, including dirty trailers with raw sewage leaks. There was little to no access to food or safe drinking water.
Click to expand...

Twenty-four accused members and associates of the criminal enterprise that perpetuated the exploitation now face a slew of felony charges, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia. The multi-agency cooperation that yielded the indictment – dubbed “Operation Blooming Onion” – may be one of the largest-ever human trafficking and visa fraud investigations in the country, VICE News reported.
Only two of the defendants are described as South Georgia business owners in the indictment; most were labor contractors or recruiters. Their alleged criminal mistreatment of workers took many forms.
Click to expand...
 
Who’d of thought that criminals gangs would take advantage of lax border security? Totally unforeseeable.
 
Trausti said:
Who’d of thought that criminals gangs would take advantage of lax border security? Totally unforeseeable.
Click to expand...
Wow. Your compassion for these people is overwhelming. /s

Not sure that you understand this situation. There is a huge shortage of people willing to work in the fields.These workers believed they were coming to the US legally, but the criminals that brought them here used fraudulent H-2A guest worker visas. This has nothing to do with lax border security. It has everything to do with disgusting people making massive amounts of money by exploiting the labor of the poor, who were told they were coming in legally to do farm work, not to be kept as slaves.

Per the indictment, the exploited foreign workers were admitted to the U.S. through fraudulent use of the H-2A guest-worker visa program, which has been booming in Georgia as farmers struggle to find domestic sources of labor. According to the federal Office of Foreign Labor Certification, Georgia had 27,614 H-2A positions certified in fiscal year 2020, up from roughly 5,500 in fiscal year 2010. Georgia is second only to Florida for most H-2A workers in the nation.

Under the H-2A program, worker’s legal status in the U.S. is contingent on remaining under the employment of the party that sponsored their visa. Mercado-Spencer said that structure can put workers at disadvantage, with limited worker protections included in the program being overlooked.
Click to expand...
 
southernhybrid said:
Trausti said:
Who’d of thought that criminals gangs would take advantage of lax border security? Totally unforeseeable.
Click to expand...
Wow. Your compassion for these people is overwhelming. /s

Not sure that you understand this situation. There is a huge shortage of people willing to work in the fields.These workers believed they were coming to the US legally, but the criminals that brought them here used fraudulent H-2A guest worker visas. This has nothing to do with lax border security. It has everything to do with disgusting people making massive amounts of money by exploiting the labor of the poor, who were told they were coming in legally to do farm work, not to be kept as slaves.

Per the indictment, the exploited foreign workers were admitted to the U.S. through fraudulent use of the H-2A guest-worker visa program, which has been booming in Georgia as farmers struggle to find domestic sources of labor. According to the federal Office of Foreign Labor Certification, Georgia had 27,614 H-2A positions certified in fiscal year 2020, up from roughly 5,500 in fiscal year 2010. Georgia is second only to Florida for most H-2A workers in the nation.

Under the H-2A program, worker’s legal status in the U.S. is contingent on remaining under the employment of the party that sponsored their visa. Mercado-Spencer said that structure can put workers at disadvantage, with limited worker protections included in the program being overlooked.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
It's the same model used to build Dubai: promise legal work to the poor and ignorant and then steal their passport and relegate them to a work camp when they appear.
 
Such idiotic commentary from the right.
Forget compassion for those being taken advantage of on behalf of libbertard capitalism. Forget that the last (criminal) administration put the hurt on farmers and migrant workers alike, resulting in this modern day slave system.
There is no heinous act that the right cannot commit and then blame on the “lib’ruls”.
 
Trausti said:
Who’d of thought that criminals gangs would take advantage of lax border security? Totally unforeseeable.
Click to expand...
The criminal acts occurred across multiple Presidental administrations and so your post just failed miserably. The truth is that greed is a recurring thing in human nature and presents problems. Economically well off and corporations will take advantage of workers and their treatment is the worst-case scenario of deregulation and removal of minimum wage and we see that worst-case scenario in our history. And we also see the same types of things in other countries, notably in China and Southeast Asia. In the US, by implementing regulation and worker protections, we've made a lot of human progress but greedy people will try to get around those protections from time to time. They are the root cause of the problem, not merely border security regardless of whether Obama, Biden or Twitler was President at the time. The greedy people would do the same thing to US citizens if we give them the economic conditions to do so.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom