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Sous: Visas Were Strong Motivation for Worker Charges

Submitted by Pat Beekman on Wed, 08/10/2011 - 01:18

Unmuzzled now that their criminal trial is over, the Sou brothers speak up

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Recap: The Sou brothers, who were the focus of outrage across Hawaii, the nation, and even the world for human trafficking, fought the charges and prevailed last week Thursday when U.S. Attorney Susan Cushman requested that the charges against the brothers be dismissed "in the interests of justice."

U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni said after the dismissal, “It was the right thing to do. We seek justice in every case.”

Five days after the end of their trial, the brothers sat down with Sara Lin of Civil Beat.

While there were 44 Thai workers in the group that came to Hawaii and worked on the farm, Alec said that it was just 32 who brought human trafficking charges against him and his brother. Two out of the remaining 12 contradicted the human trafficking charges leveled by the group of 32. Those two were persecuted by the government: it tried to deport them, Alec said. Another two of the 12 were singers and entertainers, plying their trade while at the farm. The whereabouts of the remaining eight are unknown.

Sara asked the brothers about living conditions at the Waianae house, where the workers charged at one time or another that they were imprisoned, not allowed outside the property and kept in overcrowded conditions. The brothers explained that this was formerly the Sou family home, and it was huge. There was a three-bedroom, two-bath home in front, a four-bedroom, three-bath home in back, and a warehouse that acted as a recreation room. There was 5,000 square feet under the roofs of the two homes, and another 5,000 square feet under the roof of the recreation warehouse. The three buildings were on an acre of land. Department of Labor personnel made several trips to the property in the process of approving the housing there for the workers, the brothers stated.

About 18 out of the 44 workers moved to the farm to cut down on travel time; to get away from incompatible members of the group; and to keep from having to miss work if the roads were impassable from water main breaks in Nanakuli, which Alec indicated were a recurring problem.

Alec said each of the complaining 32 workers received a quick T visa for cooperating in the case against him and his brother. He pointed out that immigrants have to wait many years to get the right to be here, but in the case of the 32, they received their visas "overnight," a tremendous motivation to press human trafficking charges against the brothers. He didn't say so, but an HPI investigation shows that the visas are good for four years. After three years of being on the T visa, the holder may apply for a green card (permanent U.S. residence), then after a few more years, for U.S. citizenship.

Addressing another concern among some of the public, Alec said that there is good evidence that the workers didn't pay the exorbitant amounts that they claimed. He said the brothers didn't realize it until it came out in court, but the law in Thailand is that the workers could have gone back to Thailand and been made whole. He said the law requires recruiters "in Thailand to pay back whatever they don't earn."

Moving on to another charge against the brothers, Alec stated that the workers' passports were never taken from them, other than to process their social security cards and IDs.

See the video [Honolulu Civil Beat] 31 minutes

Link:

Largest US human trafficking case in question after gov’t fails to convict Hawaii farm owners [Washington Post]

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