ICE investigates alleged enslavement of illegal immigrants
by khou.com staff

Posted on February 23, 2010 at 7:03 PM

Updated today at 7:04 AM

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HOUSTON -- Dozens of illegal immigrants say they were being held against their will inside a home in the 6500 block of Trail Valley in northwest Houston, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.

Deputies raided the house around 3 p.m. after receiving a tip at 2:30 p.m. from an individual who said his friend escaped from the house on Monday.

The house is located directly across the street from Ray Shotwell Middle School, which was placed on lockdown for 20 minutes.

Five people ran from the house, but were caught. It’s wasn’t immediately clear who was a victim and who was a suspect, deputies said.

In all, more than 23 people were discovered and the youngest was a 17-year-old girl, deputies said.

The victims told investigators that they were forced to work to repay their debts. The women were forced to work as maids and the men said they were forced to work with a roofing company doing repairs across the country, investigators said.

The immigrants found were from all over Mexico and Latin America. Some claimed they had been at the house for four months; some said they just arrived Monday.

A pregnant woman who owns the home was being questioned, investigators said. She was inside with several young children when the bust took place, deputies said. ICE agents are reportedly looking for her husband who was suspected of being involved with the roofing company.

Emergency crews checked them out and they all appeared to be healthy, deputies said.

No weapons were found in the house, deputies said. Deputies said they discovered that the alleged captors would collect the immigrants’ shoes to try to prevent them from running away. A ledger showed how much the immigrants owed and the amounts reached up to $9,000, investigators said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was taking over the case


http://www.khou.com/news/local/ICE-inve ... 25882.html