Modern-day slavery on the Gulf Coast

Since Hurricane Katrina, many employers on the Gulf Coast have turned to the federal H2B "guestworker" visa program to meet their need for employees. But labor rights advocates have long warned that the program is prone to abuse, since it ties foreign workers to a single employer for the entirety of their U.S. stay, creating a relationship of extreme dependence that's ripe for exploitation.

Today we got word from folks with the New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition about allegations of extreme abuse involving a Pascagoula, Miss. law enforcement official, a Texas shipyard, an Alabama labor recruiter and 30 Mexican men who came to this country looking for an opportunity to better support their families. Instead, the Mexicans are now hiding in New Orleans, without work or money.

The next time you hear President Bush or other politicians calling for expanding "temporary worker" programs, remember that this is what they're talking about:

For Immediate Release
August 22, 2007
New Orleans, LA
Contact: Saket Soni - 504 881 6610

Pascagoula Police Captain Kidnaps Guestworkers

Mexican H2B visa workers charge ranking officer with kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, and gross civil rights abuses; File Notice of Intent to announce that they will bring major lawsuit.

More than 30 Mexican nationals who entered the country on H2B visas were kidnapped in Pascagoula, Mississippi by Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula police department and a US labor recruiter.

Workers and advocates charged Tillman with State and Federal crimes kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, human trafficking, and violations of the workers' civil and constitutional rights. They filed a Notice of Intent declaring that that they will sue Tillman and the Pascagoula Police Department.

Workers released a formal statement today that recounted their journey as guestworkers across the post-Katrina Gulf Coast:

We are welders and pipefitters from Veracruz, Mexico, who entered the United States on H2B visas in July 2007. We are fathers and husbands, with families to feed. Like all workers we came to the United States because of economic desperation. We are here to feed our children, to send money to our families. We came to work for a Texas shipyard called Southwest Shipyards, LP.

Within days of our arrival we realized that recruiters had lied to us about the living and working conditions in the United States. Several of our co-workers sustained life-threatening injuries on the job. One man was electrocuted. When we organized to ask for safer conditions, we were threatened.

Faced with retaliation, we ran away from Southwest. We went to Alabama, where a recruitment agency named Black Hawk promised us jobs. We signed up with Black Hawk, but the agency packed all 30 of us in two trailers in rural Alabama -- and abandoned us. We stayed in the trailers for 6 days without food or transportation.

Desperate again, we escaped from the Alabama trailers to Pascagoula, Mississippi. There we were kidnapped by Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula Police Department.

On the night of August 2, 2007, Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula Police Department arrived at our doorstep in uniform, with his badge and gun. He was accompanied by another officer and the recruiter from Black Hawk. Tillman told us that the recruiter from Black Hawk was our "owner," and that we had to go with him. He said that if we didn't, we would face prison and deportation.

We resisted. But we were forced to pack our bags and get into vans. We were transported to a new location. Tillman and the others packed all 30 of us into three rooms. He warned us that the area would be monitored by the police.

The next morning the recruiter returned to take mugshots of us and videotape us. With the help of several organizations, we escaped, hid in a Walmart, and eventually fled to New Orleans, where we have been living in hiding without work or money.

Workers and advocates challenged federal officials to recognize that the H2B program is creating slave-like conditions for workers across the Gulf Coast. Thousands of guestworkers have arrived to work for US companies after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said Daniel Castellanos, organizer with the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity, a Gulf Coast-wide organization of guestworkers. "I am a guestworker and I know the realities of the H2B visa," said Castellanos. "We are brought here on false promises. Our members report being sold, being kidnapped, being told they are owned. Meanwhile survivors of Katrina and Rita are still shut out of work two years later. The federal government is allowing this. They've traded the old slaves for new slaves."

Nsombi Lambright, director of the American Civil Liberties Union-Mississippi called on Mississippi lawmakers to ensure that legislation outlawing kidnapping and human trafficking are enforced. "We can't leave it up to conscience to ensure that people of color and poor people are protected from the hundred of Tillmans out there. We have laws. They need to be enforced."

Workers and advocates called on US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate the abuses of civil and constitutional rights guestworkers face in the Gulf Coast. Advocates pointed out that law enforcement seldom protects and often intentionally violates the civil rights of H2B visa workers. "Corporations, law enforcement agencies, and recuiters work hand-in-glove to coerce and control workers. Police often enforce company policy, not US law," said Bill Chandler, director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance.

Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice called Tillman's actions "immoral, unjust, illegal -- but not uncommon. Tillman's abuses tell us we need policy changes in Washington DC. But meanwhile, Tillman's going to have to pay up in Pascagoula."