A semi-trailer carrying 513 Illegal aliens was detained, using x-ray camera.

[The Backlash Cometh]

Truly unbelievable that someone could put people through this ordeal. They charged seven thousand dollars each to the hopefuls who were crammed into a semi. Some holding onto straps to stand up. They came from five different countries.

Where do poor people get $7000.00 dollars? How much you want to be that this encourages crime in their own country to get the ticket to come here?

Very sad situation.

Source MSNBC.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. They don't "get" 7,000, they "owe" 7,000 so have to work it off. Forever.

It is an old old world wide scam. Perpetual indentured servitude.

[monmouth]

2. Yep, the new migrant workers for the picking season coming up..n/t

[KittyWampus]

8. I know a number of people from country X who pooled money to send one person over-

And once that person got here, they worked to send money down to send the next member.

None of them are migrant laborers.

So some may be in the indentured servant model you mention, but not all. Maybe it's regional.

I am in the North East on the coast.

[Liberal_in_LA]

25. Yep. Family borrows the money. Back home, someone's in debt for life.

[dkf]

3. Which is why Amnesty will never solve Illegal immigration.

Unless there are no benefits and only eternal enforcement there is no disincentive for illegal immigration.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. You know, I haven't heard one case of a illegal alien trafficker getting

sentenced. Maybe they need to make them more public to deter them? Also, if they have a base in Mexico, we need Mexico's support to get the jefes.

[dkf]

6. They don't make the front page unless they are accused of slavery.

Hawaii Home To Largest Human Trafficking Case in US History

FBI: Thai Workers Brought To Hawaii, Mistreated
POSTED: 10:28 pm HST September 2, 2010
UPDATED: 10:58 pm HST September 2, 2010

HONOLULU -- Six labor recruiters have been accused of luring 400 farm workers to Hawaii from Thailand and mistreating them in what the FBI said is the largest human trafficking case ever charged in U.S. history.

An indictment unsealed in Honolulu Thursday charges six people with conspiracy to commit human trafficking, including four employees of Global Horizons Manpower, Inc., a labor recruiting company. Two other recruiters based in Thailand were also charged in the case.

http://www.kitv.com/news/24866750/detail.html

[Hannah Bell]

10. "charged". not "sentenced".

[dkf]

29. They pled guilty then recanted. It's going back to trial in a few months.

In January 2010, the brothers pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit forced labor involving 24 of the 44 workers, bringing down their maximum federal sentence from 15 years to 5 years.

The brothers also agreed to pay an estimated $8,000 per worker or $192,000 help defray money the Thai nationals lost when they were forced to pay high recruitment fees – as much as $20,000 – before coming to Hawaii.

Several workers, still living in the islands, are on the verge of leaving their families homeless and destitute in Thailand because the banks they were directed to borrow money from by the Thai recruiters are about to foreclose on their loans.

However, this September, Chief Federal Judge Susan Oki Mollway threw out their guilty plea after the Sous’ attorneys claimed the plea they originally agreed to is now inaccurate.

Since, there have been a number of manipulations by the Sous defense to delay the court proceedings and high drama surrounding the allegations both locally and internationally.

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/feds-up-the-ante-human-trafficking-charges-against-aloun-farms-owners-multiply-four-fold-after-defends-back-out-of-plea-deal/123

[CreekDog]

18. Punishing economic refugees is cruelty

i can understand punishing those who do the smuggling and profit from it.

but i can't sign onto abject cruelty. economic refugees are often in the position they're in out of desperation and circumstances that they cannot control.

jeez, for once have a heart, but i've never seen you post anything that suggests you consider someone else's pain as troubling as your own.

[dkf]

30. My pain is for our own people who can't find jobs because wages are undercut using illegal labor.

Many can't stand my pov because I would rather educate and have people find jobs rather than receive assistance. There is no security that comes out of depending on the goodwill of others.

This is why I have little sympathy for teachers and give them a hard time. Everytime they blame poverty for bad test scores I get so mad I can barely stand it. If people have sympathy for those who are poor, they need to help them learn how to get to where they need to be.

Teach a person to fish for chrissakes.

[begin_within]

5. This reminds me of two horrifying incidents.

Warning: Read these only if you want to be horrified and disturbed.

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/04/us/boxcar-survivor-describes-ordeal.html
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1987-07-04/news/8702260311_1_el-paso-border-patrol-smugglers

and then again 15 years later, almost the same thing...
http://blue.utb.edu/labad/skeletons_in_rail_car_in_iowa.htm

[marginlized]

7. What's the role our Ag Subsidies play in this?

Subsidized agricultural exports force small farmers off their land. They then migrate north where big business likes their cheap unorganized labor.

[jmowreader]

9. 'Crammed' is the right word for it

A semi trailer is 52 feet long x 8 feet wide on the inside. (They're 53' long x 8.5' wide on the outside.) Or, 416 square feet of floor space.

Each of the 513 illegals received 0.81 square feet of floor space, or an area 9-1/2" x 12".

How, exactly, did they pack that many people into one of these trailers?

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. Two trucks.

I picked up the information from the telly. But there's an article that gives good details.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[jmowreader]

24. What a joy. Now it's 1.6 square feet per person

They don't pack sardines that tightly.

Try this article...http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/05/18/mexico.migrants/

I cannot imagine the horror that would have ensued if they'd have actually made it across the border: the trailers would have been taken to drop yards and left sitting there until the US-based drivers hired to haul the people to wherever they'd be forced to "work off their debt" showed up.

This is the weather report for Laredo, Texas:

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/78045

If any of those people survived it would have been a miracle.

[spin]

11. It's long past time to stop the political games and develop a rational immigration policy ...

It might be difficult but that's why we elect people to represent us in Congress.

The problem is both parties are more interested in their own future and success and not the future and success of our nation.

[ileus]

12. They'll probably sue for the radiation exposure...and win 7k each.

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Much better article here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4854860

The immigration institute said in a statement that 410 of the migrants were from Guatemala, 47 from El Salvador, 32 from Ecuador, 12 from India, six from Nepal, three from China and one each from Japan, the Dominican Republic and Honduras. There were 32 women and four children among them.

[RegieRocker]

14. Ahem, that truck would've weighed roughly 125, 000 lbs. That is

45, 000 over gross. Dumb de dumb dumb.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Two trucks were involved. I posted what I heard on MSNBC, but

must have missed that point. Here's a better thread on the issue:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[EFerrari]

15. Sometimes these people sign a contract because they don't have $7K.

That becomes the basis for their essential enslavement. :(

[moondust]

19. "Greyhound Trucking"

Some of us knew this was going to happen years ago when they started talking about allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads.

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. Hmmm....

I didn't make that connection.

[moondust]

21. "Mexican trucks ready to cross into U.S. territory"

MEXICO CITY | Sun Mar 6, 2011 3:59pm EST

(Reuters) - Mexico said on Sunday it expects its first truck to cross into U.S. territory in about four months, a move that would end a long-standing cross-border trucking dispute with its main trade partner.

President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the United States and Mexico had finally found a "clear path" to resolving the dispute although the proposal has yet to be approved by U.S. lawmakers.

~more~

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/06/us-mexico-usa-trucking-idUSTRE7252J520110306


I don't know if the trucks carrying the 513 were anticipating the opening of the U.S. border but fortunately they didn't get that far. Some of us had guessed that Mexican trucks might be fitted with fake compartments to stow migrants as they crossed into the U.S.--eerily similar to East Germans inventing all sorts of ways to cross into West Berlin after the wall was built.

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. What if the U.S. knew they would risk nothing because they knew they

had the x-ray capabilities?

[moondust]

23. It could be

that the U.S. is planning to x-ray every truck it allows to cross. Not much choice really.

[jmowreader]

26. They are already X-raying trucks that go north from Laredo

[moondust]

27. American trucks?

At checkpoints inside the U.S. or weigh stations or something?

I sense some privacy issues coming down the pike, so to speak.

[moondust]

28. Never mind. More info.

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2009/June/Pages/CustomsEmploysSee-ThroughTechnologyatBorder.aspx

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/10/17/x-rays-scanning-cars-at-us-mexico-border-crossing-causing-all-sorts-of-entirely-too-predictable-controversy/

[jmowreader]

31. There's a Border Patrol checkpoint about 10 miles north of Laredo

Right now only trucks selected for "secondary inspection" get x-rayed, but it's quite conceivable they could put an x-ray system (it's actually a gamma ray system because that can penetrate the walls of a trailer with less power required) on each lane and pass every truck through it.

Kentucky x-rays every truck at weigh stations. I'm certain there are others...as far as privacy goes, you're doing 5mph when you go through the x-ray machine in Kentucky so you'd have to be carrying something pretty severe to get pulled over. It won't find the porn in your sleeper.