Modern-day slavery on the Gulf Coast (Facing South)

[struggle4progress]

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

We are welders and pipefitters from Veracruz, Mexico, who entered the United States on H2B visas in July 2007 ... We came to work for a Texas shipyard called Southwest Shipyards ... Within days of our arrival we realized that recruiters had lied to us about the living and working conditions in the United States ... When we organized to ask for safer conditions, we were threatened ... Faced with retaliation, we ran away from Southwest ... 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 ... 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 ...

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2007/08/modern-day-slavery-on-gulf-coast.asp

[Vincardog]

1. This is jr's and the GOP dream

[DCKit]

2. Read the article folks. The South has risen... again. nt