Today, December 18, 23 Indian workers who are fighting to enforce human trafficking laws in this country will begin a fast in the Cass County jail, where they are being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. They will be joined by Congressman Keith Ellison and 29 religious leaders and clergy, who will demand that ICE release these workers and that the DOJ prosecute the traffickers. Join Congressman Ellison at a press conference at 2:30 today. Background on the issue and what you can do after the jump…

The journey to justice for these Indian workers began almost from the moment they arrived in the United States. Signal National LLC, a major defense contractor, recruited about 500 workers from India to work in the shipyards of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Workers were told that if they paid a fee of $20,000, they would get good work, green cards, and the chance to bring their families to the United States. Many sold ancestral land and mortgaged farms to come. They also agreed to pay off some of the fee through their work in New Orleans.

When workers arrived, they faced a different reality. Instead of giving them green cards, Signal brought workers to the United States on H2B visas, part of a guestworker program that only grants workers legal status in the United States if they are employed by a company that recruited and hired them. They were also told that they could only stay in the country for 10 months. Unable to earn enough to pay off their $20,000 fee to the company, workers essentially worked in involuntary servitude and lived in labor camps in Texas and Mississippi.

Workers ultimately filed human trafficking charges against Signal. They also lost their jobs, rendering them ineligible to work in the United States. In the Spring, workers marched from New Orleans to Washington in the spirit of Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement to demand that the Department of Justice investigate Signal. Over several months, the Department has interviewed 8 workers and taken non conclusive action.

Workers, in the meantime, needed to be able to earn money for themselves and their families. They dispersed across the country. 23 arrived in Fargo and began working on an ethanol plant. When the work was completed, ICE raided the facility and put workers in jail. They face three felony counts.

The fight these workers are waging is also WIN’s fight. We join this struggle with them because:

• We are tired of living with broken laws that hurt workers and benefit employers.
• We are tired of living with broken governmental agencies, more interested in practicing politics than protecting workers.
• We have a vision of an economy that protects workers and meets their needs first, a vision threatened by employers who would engage in unscrupulous acts to make a larger profit.

Here’s what you can do!

• Fast on December 18 in solidarity with workers.
• Join religious leaders, labor leaders, and Congressman Keith Ellison for a press conference on December 18 at 2:30 at the federal building in downtown Minneapolis.
• Call Congressman John Conyers at 202-225-3951 and Senator Patrick Leahy at 202-224-7703. Congressman Conyers and Senator Patrick Leahy chair the judicial committees in the House and Senate. Thank them for supporting these workers, and ask them to intervene. Ask them to call on the Department of Justice to grant Indian workers trafficked into the US by Signal National LLC “continued status” and ask them to ensure that the Department of Justice prosecutes the traffickers.
• Pray for workers! You can also reach them by email at courageincaptivity@gmail.com