Thread: Immigrant sisters admit charges in human trafficking

Immigrant sisters admit charges in human trafficking
Friday, August 04, 2006
BY JOHN P. MARTIN
Star-Ledger Staff
Two Honduran sisters admitted yesterday that they helped smuggle dozens of illegal female immigrants -- some as young as 14 -- into the United States, then forced them to live together and work at North Jersey bars.

The admissions by Noris Elvira and Ana Luz Rosales-Martinez, during a federal court hearing in Trenton, brought to five the number of guilty pleas in what authorities say was a case of indentured servitude.

Under questioning from prosecutors, the women said they helped oversee dozens of illegal Hondurans who were forced to work six days a week and live in cramped Hudson County apartments until they could repay smuggling fees as high as $20,000.

The immigrants earned $5 an hour, plus tips, by dancing and drinking with male patrons at bars in Union City and Guttenberg. One ring member said the girls were encouraged to prostitute themselves; another said they were beaten if they ignored the house rules.

The guilty pleas, taken by U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano, came five weeks before the Rosales-Martinez sisters were scheduled for trial. Neither is cooperating with investigators, but their pleas leave just one remaining defendant, Luisa Medrano, the bar owner who authorities say was the leader of the operation.

The prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ronald Wigler and Camelia Valdes, declined to say if Medrano has agreed to a plea deal. Her attorney did not return a call for comment.

The Honduran case is part of a wave of similar prosecutions in New Jersey in the past three years, signaling a push by federal law enforcement agencies to disrupt and dismantle suspected human trafficking operations.

"Human trafficking and forced labor violates human rights we hold sacred," U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said yesterday. "It represents a level of greed and indecency that we will not tolerate in New Jersey."

About 14 of the women detained when U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents raided two Union City apartments in early 2005 have since been designated trafficking victims. The women and their families received visas to stay in the United States.

One told agents she was forced to ingest abortion pills after ringleaders learned she was pregnant. She said she prematurely gave birth to a baby that died.

Medrano and nine others were named in a 31-count indictment stemming from the raids. Two have pleaded guilty. Three were captured in Honduras and are awaiting trial there. Another, described as a "coyote" who helped smuggle the women across the border from Mexico, is a fugitive.

Wearing tan prison uniforms and handcuffs, and with the help of an interpreter, the Rosales-Martinez sisters acknowledged participating in the ring between 2003 and last year.

They did not admit to trafficking, but pleaded guilty to forced labor, conspiracy and harboring of illegal aliens, charges that carry prison terms ranging from about five years to eight years more under federal guidelines. Jose Dimas Magana, a legal permanent resident from El Salvador who joined the ring after he began dating Noris Elvira Rosales-Martinez in 2004, also pleaded guilty to identical charges.

Defense attorneys in the case said the pleas were preferable to going to trial, where a conviction could have sent the women to prison for decades. They said the operation was not as organized or infused with threatened violence as prosecutors suggested.

"What our clients have told us is that they were here voluntarily and that everyone was here voluntarily," said Jean Barrett, attorney for Noris Elvira Rosales-Martinez.

Barrett said her client will explain at sentencing how the operation enabled Rosales-Martinez and dozens of other women to escape poverty and earn money for their families back in Honduras.

During the plea hearing, Noris Elvira Rosales-Martinez, 31, acknowledged she entered the country illegally in 1999 and later found work at Medrano's bars in Union City, the Puerta De La Union and El Paisano. She said she later served as a manager in the operation, arranging the immigrants' travel to New Jersey, housing them, collecting rent and food money from them and sending them to work at the bars.

Most of the aliens were told they could not stop working or move from the apartments until they repaid their smuggling debts, she said. They also were forced to contribute at least $250 a week into a pool of money that was used to repay the smuggling debts.

The sisters said they knew that some of the immigrants feared being beaten or deported if they didn't comply with the rules.

Pisano scheduled sentencing for Dec. 18.

John P. Martin covers federal courts and law enforcement. He may be reached at jmartin@starledger.com or (973) 622-3405.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/in ... thispage=1

what the hell is this?

About 14 of the women detained when U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents raided two Union City apartments in early 2005 have since been designated trafficking victims. The women and their families received visas to stay in the United States.

That's great.....give 'em visas.......who the hell made this decision?