How Did They Get Into the USA?

[Gaybutton]

In the thread below, "Thai slaves in USA," (see: http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1034 ) the story is about 48 migrant Thai workers who were held as virtual slaves in the USA by a human trafficking ring.

 

That story is certainly a sad one, but it does bring up a question: How did they get into the USA in the first place?

 

It is extremely difficult, and most often impossible, for so many Thai people to get a visa to enter the USA, so how did these workers manage to get in? Unless I'm missing something, nothing is included in the article to suggest they entered the USA illegally, so each of the workers who were duped must have had a visa to enter the USA. How did they get it?

[Bob]

GB, when a company needs foreign workers here in the US, it really isn't that hard to get them papers to get into the country. They fill out the paperwork (saying they can't find US citizens to take the jobs and showing what efforts they made) and it isn't that difficult after that to get the papers. What I am guessing, though, is that the paperwork falsified the type of work as I doubt if it is legal to import workers for working on a bridge or other iron work.

For example, it is legal to bring in foreign workers to do domestic work in the hotels and resorts. A few resorts in Northern Michigan do that every year (because nobody else will take the jobs at minimum wage).

[Guest kenrfc]

It's as Bob says. The H-1B Visa program was started decades ago to legalize migrant farm workers to help with the crush of seasonal harvests and led to all kinds of abuses. It has been kept on the books and expanded by corporate and right-wing intrests to help kill trade unions and keep blue collar wages down in the US. Hence the ludicrous hiring of Welders from Thailand probably with the excuse that they can't find any in the US. Of course NOW there's all sorts of squawking about it since its being used to hire cheap IT professionals from India with the excuse they can't find enough in the US!

Organized Labor and Blue collar workers have been complaining about this program for decades. Now that the white collars are starting to get hit with it its suddenly an "issue".

 

I'm sorry to say the abuse of these Thai workers is a sadly common thing in the USA.

 

(Soapbox Mode: OFF)

[Gaybutton]

I'm sorry to say the abuse of these Thai workers is a sadly common thing in the USA.

 

Then I must be very naive. All this time I thought that's what the USA is supposed to be fighting against.

[Bob]

Then I must be very naive. All this time I thought that's what the USA is supposed to be fighting against.

 

 

Actually, it doesn't happen that often and the current case is the exception. Michigan, for example, has both laws and inspectors to make sure that the migrant workers are housed, paid fairly, and treated fairly (of course, the laws were made because of past abuses).

 

The bottom-line, as always, is dollars. Dollars buys you a lobbyist which results in a law that makes money for the rich guy/company. That, in US terms, is what we call perfectly legal corruption. Other people call it campaign financing.