Human Trafficking

The men were placed in labor camps in Mississippi and Texas by an oil rig company Signal International, and threatened with deportation if they protested the work conditions. A federal lawsuit alleges that officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were complicit in their mistreatment. According to company officials, ICE officials provided them with advice on dealing with “chronic whiners”: “Take them all out of the line on the way to work; get their personal belongings. Get them in a van and get their tickets and get them to the airport and send them back to India.”

ICE also promised, according to an internal company email, to pursue protesting workers, who sought support from the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, “to send a message to the remaining workers that it is not in their best interests to try and ‘push’ the system.”