Thread: Bust leaves tense feeling on Eastern Shore

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Bust leaves tense feeling on Eastern Shore
By GILLIAN GAYNAIR, The Virginian-Pilot
© June 19, 2006
Last updated: 1:49 AM


ACCOMACK COUNTY - Around here, longtime Hispanic dwellers seem to keep to themselves.

"Trabajo a casa y casa a trabajo," they say. Work to home and back to work. Weekends are for family, errands and, for some, Sunday services.

And that's how it remains in the weeks after federal authorities uncovered what agents described as a sex-trafficking and prostitution operation that catered primarily to Hispanic migrant workers on the Eastern Shore and in Salisbury, Md.

Its purported headquarters was a brothel in rural Mappsville, around the corner from the Stuckey's restaurant where folks stop to buy souvenirs, fill their gas tanks or grab a vanilla milk shake.

Few Hispanic business owners - some of whom climbed from field worker to entrepreneur - were surprised by the headlines. Nor were those who work with the Shore's migrant farmers, who start arriving next month.

Even as life's routine continues,

though, something in the atmosphere is different. What with the national debate about immigration reform, widespread fear of raids by federal officers, protest marches and the overarching uncertainty of what's next for the country's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, the climate is tense.

Now add to the mix this latest allegation that prostitutes were transported to the Shore from New York and New Jersey to work in a dilapidated house, earning $30 for 15- minute sessions. Earlier this month, six men were charged with running an interstate prostitution ring for nearly three years on the Eastern Shore.

Whether because of local or national events, "It feels like ... it wouldn't take much to turn the tide and for things to become more unfriendly" for Hispanics, said Jim Albright, who ministers to migrants on the Eastern Shore for the Catholic Diocese of Richmond.

Albright had heard rumblings of prostitution during his 10 years on the Shore, but he didn't know where or how often it happened. He remembers driving around on a Friday night in 1997, trying to locate the rumored brothel so he could hand out pamphlets in Spanish about AIDS. He never found it.


Although the place isn't abuzz with the discovery of the alleged prostitution ring, " it's not something that gives us a good reputation in the area," said Leo Bonilla, owner of El Remolino Tienda Hispana, a six-year-old convenience store in Tasley.

Bonilla sat behind a desk and cash register, surrounded by shelves of spices, canned foods, medicines and CDs. On this late afternoon, customers trickled in to pick up a bottle of guanabana juice, buy a calling card or cash a check.

In his native Colombia, Bonilla, 50, was the manager of a chain of Christian bookstores. He came to the Shore with his first wife.

He recalls traveling the desolate area, briefcase in hand, in search of work when he arrived. With few options, Bonilla took up odd jobs for a while, including transporting migrant workers to a health clinic and returning them to labor camps.

He remembers seeing a van of women being dropped off at the camps back then. "You assume things," he said.

Bonilla said he didn't know anything of prostitution or sex-trafficking until the news hit the papers, though. The day the FBI was in town, he figured it had to do with drugs.

There's been little chatter about the recent arrests because "here, people aren't very educated, so things like this, there isn't much reaction ... There haven't been many people talking."

"It could be here, it could be anyplace," Bonilla said. "The fact is that for good or for bad, they found out it was going on over here, but I'm sure it's going on in many places."

Residents such as Bonilla run their own businesses, do construction or work in chicken-processing plants at Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods. The area's farm workers - many of them from Mexico and Guatemala - come and go, picking vegetables, packing tomatoes, working in nurseries. Most are young men.

Just like youth in college or the military, Albright said, some of the workers are "looking for relief or fun."

"I understand the stress of being away from home, from your loved ones, and looking for that," he said. He stressed that he does not condone prostitution as an antidote. "I'd much prefer they do things that are healthier for their bodies, souls and hearts."

Bonilla agreed and suggested that some on the Shore think such activities are OK "because the men need it. If you don't give it to them, people are going to go crazy."


In nearby Onley, Nataly Hernandez finished up a bite in her restaurant, the lunch crowd long gone. She opened Los Tejones Mexican Restaurant a year ago after living and working on the Shore for more than a decade.

Hernandez, 35, used to clean migrant housing camps and pick cucumbers, banana peppers and bell peppers. With the help of a cousin, she eventually became a contractor, where, she said, she earned $1,000 a week. Over time, Hernandez saved $15,000 and with a loan from her cousin opened the restaurant.

She, too, had heard about what happened in Mappsville, although she said she didn't know who was behind it. Hernandez concentrates on her world, spending most of her time at the restaurant or with her family. Everyone is here now, except for a brother who lives in Mexico.

Like Bonilla, she said she believes that what federal agents say happened on the Shore could have occurred anywhere, in any community, regardless of people's origins.

Hernandez wasn't sure what others might be thinking these days of Hispanics on the Eastern Shore. She's busy with trabajo a casa y casa a trabajo.

"If they have a bad impression," she said, "they're not going to come here, to a Mexican restaurant."


• Reach Gillian Gaynair at (757) 222-5113 or gillian.gaynair@pilotonline.com.





© 2006 HamptonRoads.com/PilotOnline.com

I live about 40 minutes from Salisbury Maryland, and I never once heard about this on either of my local news stations.

What makes it so bad is both the local stations are located in Salisbury Maryland [/u]

Bonilla agreed and suggested that some on the Shore think such activities are OK "because the men need it. If you don't give it to them, people are going to go crazy."

Well we are giving them everything else. Why not? I mean we would not want to go crazy or anything.

Originally Posted by dlm1968

Bonilla agreed and suggested that some on the Shore think such activities are OK "because the men need it. If you don't give it to them, people are going to go crazy."

Well we are giving them everything else. Why not? I mean we sould not want to go crazy or anything.

guess they'll be marching in the streets to legalize prostitution -- if we could only be so lucky!

"the men need it?" and they're "going to go crazy?" -- we HAD laws against that too, but who knows

guess they'll be marching in the streets to legalize prostitution

Well, if you have sex to make an anchor baby, and you are getting paid by the government for that baby when tax time rolls around, and free health care, well isn't that.....well, ya know, the same?