People smuggler forced teen migrants from Guatemala into egg farm work

Source: Guardian

People smuggler forced teen migrants from Guatemala into egg farm work

Cleveland federal court prosecutors say the boys were taken from US custody by conspirators posing as friends or family, forcing them to work as virtual slaves

Associated Press
Monday 24 August 2015 22.11 EDT

A people smuggler operating in the US has pleaded guilty to running a scheme where Guatemalan teenage migrants were released into his custody by federal authorities, then forced to work on egg farms in Ohio.

Arodolo Rigoberto Castillo-Serrano pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court in Cleveland to single counts of forced labor conspiracy, forced labor, witness tampering and encouraging illegal entry into the country. Prosecutors say the boys were fraudulently plucked from US custody by conspirators posing as friends or family who forced them to work as virtual slaves.

In 2014, when prosecutors say seven of the teen victims crossed the border from Mexico into Texas, states along the border were dealing with a humanitarian crisis as thousands of unaccompanied children arrived from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Castillo-Serrano, a 33-year-old Guatemalan, has been in the US illegally for much of the past decade, prosecutors say. In some cases he made victims’ family members sign over deeds to their property in Guatemala to pay for transporting the boys, with assurances they would be enrolled in school in the US. This never happened.






Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/25/people-smuggler-forced-teen-migrants-from-guatemala-into-egg-farm-work