Human Trafficking, Going Down Right In Louisiana!!

By Cheryl Gerber, for USA TODAY (Ingrid Cruz, a robotics teacher in Baton Rouge, is among those from the Philippines.)

A story that definitely represents the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" phrase:

Hundreds of Filipino teachers recruited to teach in Louisiana schools were thrust into massive debt, unsavory living conditions and, in effect, indentured servitude, an attorney charges in a class action lawsuit to be filed today.

About 350 teachers were recruited through a placement service for Filipinos, which the lawsuit says charged them exorbitant application fees and transportation and housing costs and demanded up to 30% of their salaries their first two years.

"It was close to slavery," said Mary Bauer, lead attorney in the lawsuit set to be filed in federal court in Los Angeles by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Federation of Teachers and the law firm Covington & Burling. "There was fraud on a number of levels here."

Human trafficking going on right now in the Bayou, as if comprehensive immigration reform didn't need another reason to be worked on as soon as possible.

Amanda Kloer from Change.org puts this ridiculously under the radar story in its full perspective:

Together, the teachers have filed a lawsuit against the two employment agencies which set them up with teaching gigs in Louisiana — Universal Placement International (UPI), based in Los Angeles, and PARS International Placement Agency, based in Manila. The teachers claim these agencies, along with at least three employees of the East Baton Rouge school system, helped recruit Filipino teachers for what they claimed were lucrative jobs in America. However, the fees to get visas and be transported to the U.S. were exorbitant, and the cost of the substandard housing they received was highly inflated as well. Teachers were expected to turn over 30% of their salaries for the first two years.

UPI brought the teachers to the U.S. on H-1B guest worker visas. These visas, which are often used by traffickers and people looking to exploit workers, give the carrier permission only to work for their sponsoring company. So if any of the teachers chose to leave her position at UPI, she could be deported back to the Philippines. The H-1B visa makes it almost impossible for someone who comes to America and ends up in an abusive job to simply move to another company. And it's a system that creates a perfect opportunity for exploitation.

The H1-B visas are through the old Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, and seem to be a source of blatant misusage and immoral practices transpiring still in front of our eyes from private, under the radar, entities.

And the mastermind crackjobs behind this modern day servitude system, the UPI and PARS, last year were somehow able to fend off a lawsuit from both the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) and Louisiana Federation of Teachers on this exact issue.

Today, the ACT (Alliance of Concerned Teachers) over in Manilla came in full support of their colleagues enduring such hardships:

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Monday backed more than 350 Filipino teachers in Louisiana, USA who sued placement agencies for collecting illegal fees and forcing them to sign exploitative contracts.

“We fully support our fellow teachers abroad who are fighting for their democratic rights,” said ACT secretary general France Castro.

“These teachers were forced to work abroad because of the lack of better opportunities for them here in the Philippines, but are being exploited and cheated by placement agencies of their just wages.”

Castro also denounced the agencies which were responsible for exploiting the teachers.

With how the H-1B process is set up right now to open the door to this kind of behavior, who knows how many more cases like this appears around our nation? Heck, the terrific people at the Southern Poverty Law Center maybe filing another human trafficking suit for all we know.

So while the local government down in the capital of Louisiana lets basic indentured servitude transpire right in its jurisdiction (fat chance if Jindal does something on this), and our national government continues to look the other way, both the UPI and PARS will be apart of the many private groups still partaking in being proud owners of people.

And they will gladly keep on keeping on. For the "good of business", no matter how immoral it is, just can't be stopped.