Immigration

CAMPAIGN STRATEGY UPDATE FOR ALLIES OF THE INDIAN WORKERS’ CONGRESS

The Indian Workers Congress is fighting for justice after the workers were trafficked to the Gulf Coast
to work for Signal. They marched from the Gulf Coast to Washington D.C.; they held a 29-day hunger
strike. The campaign continues.

GOALS OF THE CAMPAIGN:

1) Pursue a criminal investigation of Signal International as human traffickers;

2) Expose the whole H2B guestworkers system as inherently flawed and open to this kind of worker
abuse;

3) Generate pressure from the Indian government on the United States for justice in this case and get a
comprehensive labor agreement that will protect the rights of future workers;

4) Win justice for the workers, including repayment of the $20,000 the recruiters defrauded them of.

CAMPAIGN STRATEGY:

· Force the U.S. Congress to hold hearings into the widespread abuses of the guest worker visa.

· Generate public pressure and campaign visibility so the US government cannot sweep the case under
the rug or deport the workers – focus the pressure on the demand for “continued presence” under the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

· Push the Department of Justice (DoJ) to do a criminal investigations into Signal for human trafficking,

· Purse a civil case of trafficking and racketeering with the help of their legal team (including the New
Orleans Workers Center, Southern Poverty Law Center, Asian American Legal Defense and Education
Fund, and the Louisiana Justice Institute).

What makes this human trafficking?

The Department of Justice says human trafficking is “the recruitment, harboring, transportation,
provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, for
the purpose of subjecting that person to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.”
These workers were defrauded and trapped, and like many guest workers in the US, they became forced
laborers. In this clear case of human trafficking, the Department of Justice should not be taking so long
to give the workers the protections they deserve.

Building the Campaign Beyond the Hunger Strike

The June 11 actions in Washington DC and across the country were successful in winning some key
objectives, resulting in workers suspending their hunger strike. However, there are still some key pieces
of the campaign to move. The DoJ has not yet responded to the Congressional letter, which is
disappointing but not unheard of. The DoJ has said that the workers must continue to be interviewed,
which a few workers are going to do as a show of good faith and cooperation. The New Orleans Workers
Center remains concerned that the lack of protection for workers will affect their ability to provide the
best information to help this case, and may re-expose them to trauma. In negotiating the terms of the
interviews, workers and their lawyers have been stressing that workers should not have to be
processed into immigration proceedings as part of cooperating with the investigation; the workers do
not want to have to go back to Mississippi, the site of the trafficking, for the interview; and the
workers should not have to do the interview at an ICE office, which is the agency that they are worried
about with respect to deportation.

As workers go into these interviews in July, they will be asking allies to accompany them in
public displays of support. Stay tuned for calls to action in support of the workers going in to
speak with the DoJ with no legal protections or guarantees.

Allies can support the workers by continuing to:

· Participate in public solidarity actions to accompany the workers into the interviews.

· Push Senators and Congressional Representatives to write letters and speak publicly in support of the
workers.

· Hold educational and media events to exposing the incredible injustice millions of workers in the Gulf
Coast region are facing on the third anniversary of Katrina, connecting the struggles of the displaced
and unemployed workers from the region and the super exploitation of immigrant guest workers brought
in to replace them.

· Help fundraise to support the campaign – the worker leaders need funds to cover basic needs around
housing, food, transportation, and phone bills.

· Demand that no worker who organizes to stop human trafficking be faced with the threat of
deportation.