...In one case, a single smuggler allegedly earned $900,000 over 15 months placing 6,000 migrants in jobs at Chinese restaurants across the upper Midwest.The only way to stop things like that is to enforce our immigration laws. Anyone who opposes enforcement of our immigration laws only encourages such abuse.
Shan Wei Yu, a 51-year-old Chinese-American, was sentenced in December to nine years in federal prison on charges involving the transportation of 40 of those migrants. Investigations involving the others continue.
Rick Hilzendager, special agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Grand Forks, N.D., said Yu connected 6,000 migrants from Latin America with jobs in Chinese restaurants in Illinois, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
...Yu allegedly charged a $150 finder's fee for each migrant while the drivers earned $300 per worker. Restaurant owners deducted the $450 from workers' first-month paychecks of $1,000.
...Nick Chase, assistant U.S. attorney in North Dakota, said Yu even offered to replace workers free of charge if one left within two weeks of starting.
"It was a 2-for-1 special — like a pizza," Chase said. "Everything about it was ugly."
The employees, housed in cramped apartments provided by employers, worked 14-hour days and had little outside contact. The case broke open in August 2004 after two Mexican migrants working at the Buffet House in Grand Forks fled poor conditions and were picked up along a highway by Border Patrol agents...
Immigration · Mon, 04/17/2006 - 12:25 · Importance: 1
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I agree that it's appalling the way these individuals are turning these peoples lives into a franchise but that does not mean i support immigration laws. Obviously if these people are willing to suffer through this abuse they find it better than the situations they were in in their homelands. Immigration laws are a travesty. We are America, "the home of the free", and yet we are here telling these people they have no right to be here. And we give them an exam like they were children, which, in all honesty the majority of natural born American citizens would not be capable of scoring a passing grade on, to determine if they are good enough to be in our country. America is not the land of history buffs or geniuses. It is the land of the free. These immigrants are working hard to do the jobs that are essential for our economy, like keeping our restaurants clean and picking our crops and manufacturing on assembly lines to get out all the products that our country profits off of and yet they are treated like dirt. To be able to make a living for themselves and see a chance for success they are willing to do all the jobs that the rest of us are "too good for". The jobs that many of us would turn down in a do or die situation just to save our dignity. Immigrants are some of the most hardworking and reliable people in our country. It is my opinion that these individuals should be praised, not ostracized. However they are judged as unwelcome outcasts just because they aren't registered citizens and don't pay taxes. It's not their fault that the rest of us have been already tagged by the federal government and are being overtaxed out the ass. They tax us when we earn our money and they tax us when we spend our money. Overall, without illegal immigrants our country's economic system would fall apart, regardless of the herecy that they are not welcome here.
Posted by: Jeff Bush at Aug 12, 2006 9:57 PM