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Response to New York Times Editorial on Human Trafficking

Kioni Dudley

by Dr. Kioni Dudley

Dr. Kioni Dudley is a retired educator and community activist. He can be reached by email.

The editorial "In an Ugly Human-Trafficking Case, Hawaii Forgets Itself" is an amazing example of how juicy an untrue story can get. Based entirely on sensationalized news articles written by others, this "creatively-written" article has little connection with reality.

There are two brothers here in Hawai'i who are Loatian immigrant farmers. They did hire 44 Thai workers through a Thai recruiter who did charge the workers $16,000 - $20,000 in recruitment fees. The brothers, however, believed the recruitment fee would be $8000--certainly an exorbitant price, ten times the amount allowed by Thai law, but an average fee among Thai recruiters in the huge Thai Work Abroad program. The brothers took no part of any recruitment fees.

The workers signed contracts renewable for three years. They knew that, working for one year, they could pay off their recruitment loans, and that because of the exchange rate of 1 US dollar to 32 Thai baht, over the next two years they could make a half million dollars in Thai purchasing power before returning home.

Once in Hawaii, the workers generally found the farm situation satisfactory. After only five months, however, the US government, unexpectedly, and offering no reason, refused to extend their work visas. Rather than send the workers back to Thailand and to certain financial ruin, the brothers released them from the farm. The workers stayed in touch with each other. Most of them had worked abroad before, many had two or three previous tours. And some knew that if they claimed abuse on the farm, they could get work permits and visas to stay in the US until their claims came to trial, and beyond. Twenty-four filed complaints.

When investigating their claims, the FBI asked questions that addressed typical trafficking charges: confiscated passports, workers held captive in squalid conditions, beaten, given poor food and little or no pay, and their families threatened with financial ruin if they did not work satisfactorily. Initially some workers stated that they had endured all of these things. But questioned separately, at different times, over a year, a third of them stated that the charges were not true.

While withholding the eight, contradictory, worker interviews from the brothers' lawyers, and threatening the brothers with a super-indictment of five additional secret charges, the US prosecutor pressured them into accepting a non-negotiable guilty plea agreement, and barreled ahead pursuing the case. The shock value of the charges made wonderful headlines and great material for stories, and the press jumped on it.

However, after carefully studying the case, on September 9, the judge laid aside the plea agreement. The brothers have now pleaded innocent and will be tried on November 9.

Meanwhile, the US prosecutor has rewarded the workers for their false charges with T (trafficking) visas which will allow them to bring their families here, and to apply for permanent status.
It is not at all true that the people of Hawai'i rallied around the defendants. Just the opposite. The community has accepted as true the unending barrage of ever uglier news stories. And the reputations of Alec and Mike Sou have been so completely destroyed that they won't ever regain the respect of the people. How terribly, terribly unjust!

A fascinating, easy to read, in-depth study of this case, based primarily on court documents, and written by this author, is published at http://hawaiipoliticalinfo.org/node/3319

Links:

NY Times Writes Misinformed Editorial on Sou Brothers [HPI]

Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent (book) [Amazon.com]