There have been at least two stories recently in northern Utah about owners of companies that bring non-citizens to work in the United States and then refuse to pay them the wage agreed upon.
Human Trafficking.

One company hired workers to run snowplows and failed to pay them. The workers have to live in disgusting overcrowded homes.
The owners treat them badly and won't pay them.


And then there is another story on KSL about farm workers being trafficked and made to work without pay.

If Mr.CEO is a mormon, should he pay his workers first or his tithing?

https://ksltv.com/576403/president-of-utah-farm-bureau-arrested-for-assault-investigated-for-human-trafficking/

I remember reading the story about the snow plow company, and laughing...

The perpetrators, capitalizing on the Spanish they learned on their missions, went deep down into Mexico and hired Mexican farmers to run snow plows in Utah...

I know there's no excuse for treating them like farm animals and taking advantage of them financially, but the idea of hiring Mexicans from way south of the border to run snow plows...  You'd think it was an SNL sketch!

I didn't know they had been on Spanish speaking missions. What scum balls.
Did they hire Mexicans that they had converted to Mormonism?

Okay, I made up the part about them being on Spanish-speaking missions...

I recall that one of the alleged perpetrators (perpetraidores) charged had a Hispanic surname, but then, yeah, I used a photo from a mission outing in Guadalajara, and claimed it was from when the plot was being hatched.

I was just practicing journalism in the 21st Century.

"Pedro the Perpetrador" would have made an excellent screen name.

A HUGE fine for employing people illegally would go a long way to solving a lot of problems. I will stop there as to not get too political.

Back in the day, the paperwork at the company 'proved' that the company had acted in good faith in trying to hire only those who could legally be hired.  

Their belief that 'Reasonable Doubt' was their defense appeared to be justified.  They weren't trying to scam the workers, just the system.  Does that make it any better?

kinda-sorta runs into the immigration mess in congress right now, eh?

I would GLADLY speak my peace on this if asked & welcome here!

I think utah, under some pressure, was (among) the first to issue 'non-ID' driver's licenses.

Being trafficked is a ticket to a Green Card. The snowplow driver is entitled to free legal representation, work authorization, protected status, a T-visa, help with housing and household expenses, and a Green Card.

I can imagine immigrants waving their arms saying "Traffick me, traffick me!".

That's a disgusting post, bradley.

    I met, up close and personal, a small number of Argentinians in the mid-1980s who said that getting busted for staging phony auto accidents was worth more to them than what they made for staging the accidents.

    The insurance companies wanted them to feel some pain, but law enforcement needed them to be happy and cooperative as they pushed up the ladder, trying to nail the doctors and attorneys involved.

    I get that Bradley's interpretation of the process rubs good people the wrong way, but it's possible that while the tone was unpleasant, the facts were entirely accurate.

Being trafficked means being subjected to slavery, often sexual, and beaten, drugged, and otherwise abused. It means losing your physical autonomy as well as your safety with no way out. And most of the trafficked are children, not adults.

That was surely not the case with the thieves you describe. No one ever raped them, they were paid for their work, and when they decided to get out of the business they were able to do so.

Surely the situations are not comparable.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2024 09:44PM by Lot's Wife.

Okay, I get it now:  "Trafficked" is a trigger word.

You are correct; the Argentinians (all from Rosario and all Italian in ancestry) were not trafficked into the USA; they all flew up on tourist visas.  Ever so many went back via freighter, with literal boatloads of merchandise that they bought on credit.

Yes, although I don't think it is a "trigger word."

What you describe--organized criminal activity--differs fundamentally from trafficking. The former is generally voluntary and, as in the case you describe, something from which one can usually withdraw. By contrast, trafficking is involuntary, imposed almost exclusively on powerless children and women, and from which the subjects do not garner any meaningful compensation. Quite the opposite: escape is exceptionally difficult and often fatal.

I hope bradley was thinking the way you were, but if that is the case I submit that you are both wrong. Trafficking is not a "trigger word" description of sexual slavery.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2024 10:26PM by Lot's Wife.

https://www.ksl.com/article/50856312/box-elder-county-commission-hopeful-is-charged-in-human-trafficking-case

The snow removal case:

https://www.ksl.com/article/50801140/owner-partners-of-utah-contracting-business-charged-with-labor-trafficking

I was humor-trafficked from Nevada to Mexico in 1965; then, in 1967, the perpetrators trafficked me to Provo, UT where I was treated like prime beef on the hoof.  (Despite whatever Gladys might say, I really was!)

Those company owners and managers are just a bunch of delightful human beings, aren't they? Pillars of the community, I'm sure.

A lot of righteous types say that these people are being brought in to do "hard to fill" jobs. They never ask why the jobs are really hard to fill in the first place, and instead say it's because the unemployed Americans are lazy.