Posted on 06/22/2004 1:18:39 AM PDT by sarcasm
Cruel smugglers masquerading as a suburban Long Island family held dozens of illegal aliens as virtual slaves, seizing their wages and forcing them to live in squalor, officials said yesterday. Federal agents rescued 69 Peruvian aliens, including 13 children, the youngest a 1-year-old, officials said. The leaders of the shocking smuggling ring were an Amityville couple and their daughter, who neighbors thought were just an average middle-class family. But Mariluz Zavala, 42, her husband Jorge Ibanez, 41, and their daughter, Evelyn Ibanez, 20, were accused of running the smuggling ring since 2000. "These aliens were held in virtual servitude as they paid off their debts, proving that smugglers are more interested in profits than in people," said Martin Ficke, special agent-in-charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officials said the family not only stripped their captives of their dignity, they also took most of the money that was earned at factory jobs. "I'm so surprised it was going on right under my nose. It's terrible," said Dennis Johnson, 65, who lives across the street from the family's home on Great Neck Road. "I'd see people leaving early in the morning and get home late at night." As many as 30 people lived in small cubicles in the house, garage and tool shed. The garage and shed had no running water or toilets, officials said. The other illegal aliens lived in houses the family owned in Brentwood and Coram. "I'm outraged now that I know what was going on," said Deborah Ammann, 44, who lives near the family's home on Fourth Ave. in Brentwood, which has a white picket fence. Ammann said she would see the victims working on the house after they got home from a full day at the factories. "It's inhuman," Ammann said. "I hope they put the creeps who did this away for a long time." Ibanez and his family routinely berated the aliens, telling them they were "nothing" and threatening to have them deported if they dared to cross them, Customs Enforcement Agent Leigh Senzatimore stated in an affidavit released yesterday. Federal agents said Zavala and Ibanez garnished the wages to pay off the smuggling fees, which averaged nearly $7,000 per visa. "Ibanez deducted the cost of room, board, transportation and repayment of the visa fee . . . leaving \[the aliens\] with approximately $50 or less per week," Senzatimore stated. A Huntington woman, who would only give her name as Blanca, said she befriended one of the aliens who lived in Amityville. She said the woman she knew as Marietta worked with her at a shampoo factory. "She wasn't happy," said Blanca. "She would cry and say she had to pay Mariluz all her check. She didn't have money to do anything."
Why are liberals so shocked? They're the ones who think illegal immigration doesn't harm any one, not even the people who are its primary victims, namely the illegal aliens themselves.
Paging President Bush, please pick up the white courtesy phone in the lobby...
Pretty sick.
None of these neighbors wondered about 30 people living in onehouse? Or maybe one of them did wonder and dropped the dime on the perps.
Now, put the perps in jail and send the illegals home. Possibly auctioning off the smugglers property to refund the illegals their hard earned money.
The authorities should learn where the aliens worked and investigate those factories' hiring practices. They can then round up more aliens who turn up from those inquiries. Word spreads and self-deporations go up.
It's not that hard.
Firstly, they can't be called slaves if they were allowed to keep some of their money, right? Second, the "masters" were just practicing good old fashioned capitalism, right? Third, the "slaves" were just taking jobs that Americans won't do, right?
I wish my screen name were "Sarcasm" so I wouldn't have to put the tag.
You would think it wasn't. Why is it so hard for Bush and his administration?
The garage and shed had no running water or toilets, officials said.
Just their way of making them feel at home....just like being back in the "old country."
Is Amityville a Hispanic neighborhood now? It used to be upscale.
Well, I'll be...
Two comments. First, for those on FR who think the border activists are just a bunch of Mexican bashers, I say check the nationality of these illegal aliens.
And next, this just bolsters my argument for calling the coyotes what they really are - Slave Traders.
When will America wake up? /rhetoric
Actually, that's (no running water or toilets) pretty common in drop houses. The slave traders are really smart, they know that an excessive use of water is going to bring the authorities out to check on them.
Right.
If they were illegal immigrants why would they have visas?
I don't defend what this family was doing but it doesn't look like these were illegal immigrants, just uneducated and ignorant of our laws.
A) If these were south of the border illegals, the living conditions were pretty much what they were accustomed to - if not better. B) our government does not wish to stop this slave trade, and C) we the people continue to allow it
They're just becoming the slaves that Americans won't become. < /sarcasm>
It always just boils down to the almighty dollar doesn't it?
Have you seen any of the LEO intel reports saying that the characteristics and foot soldiers of the drug trade are being shifted to the Slave Trade?
So far it is less risky (regarding legal consequences) to deal in illicit human cargo than it is to deal drugs, and easily as lucrative. Crooks can be dumb, but not blind.
Watch, a "War on Slavery" will get started that'll be just as effective as the "War on Drugs" has been. Bigger Government, more bureaucracies and not much actually accomplished.
I don't defend what this family was doing but it doesn't look like these were illegal immigrants, just uneducated and ignorant of our laws.
I'm betting the way they obtained those visas was illegal, which does indeed make them illegal aliens. Regardless of their legal status, they're being placed into indentured servitude which - when I last looked - is not legal.
Just damn.
If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
America is already awake. Every poll I've ever seen shows a majority of every race, creed and color of American citizen are against illegal immigration.
It's our politicians that are the problem.
We need to throw most of them out.
You think?
DHS has already started to take the lead on this. They're certainly spending a whole lot more money on stopping border crossers and rounding up illegals inland...
If we follow your theory, we need to keep our eyes open for a re-layering of bureaucracy. The consolidation of several agencies into the DHS was supposed to eliminate that excess overhead.
My company just did that - they eliminated 5 managers - I went from being a manager of writers to being just one of the writers - and I'm waiting to see how they reallocate 200 hours of management oversight per week among the remaining managers.
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