BY OLGA RODRÍGUEZ
NEW YORK - Fifty-seven immigrant workers from Mexico are being held incommunicado and under house arrest by New York City authorities and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in a Queens motel. The immigrants, including 12 children, were taken into custody in handcuffs following a raid by New York City police of two apartments in the mainly-Latino community of Jackson Heights, Queens. The INS, which has taken over jurisdiction of the case, has threatened to deport the immigrants. According to press reports, the police raid took place in the early hours Saturday, July 19, following a complaint by four of the workers of extreme abuse and being held in virtual bondage by their bosses, crammed into two small apartments.

The workers, all of whom are deaf, said they had been forced to labor up to 18 hours a day selling trinkets on subway cars, and at area airports and malls. The New York Times reported workers saying they had been treated to frequent beatings. Several of the women said they were sexually abused by their bosses. According to these accounts, workers got two days off a month, and could not return home until they had sold their quota of $100 a day in the $1 trinkets. Workers who did not return were hunted down by crew chiefs and brought back. Workers received $400 a month, of which $200 was taken back to pay for the rent at the apartments they were warehoused in.

The Mexican consulate in New York admitted that it had seen possibly up to 10 of the immigrant workers, who had come to the embassy for help in reaching their families. The consulate claimed to have not noticed anything amiss. It has also come to light that at least three city agencies - the police, the City Department of Buildings, and Emergency Medical Services - had visited at least one of the apartments, responding to neighbors' concerns about incidents occurring in the building. Again, no action was taken to remove these workers from the situation they were forced into.

As of July 23, seven people have been arrested and charged with a number of federal and state crimes, including smuggling, transporting and harboring immigrants.

This reporter and the Socialist Workers Party candidate for Manhattan District Attorney, Margrethe Siem, attempted to interview the workers on July 23 at the Westway Motor Inn where they are being held. We were denied access by two city cops, along with other reporters. When asked if the immigrant workers were under arrest, the cops said no, but they could not leave the motel either.

Among those attempting to get in to see the workers was Efraín Galicia, a leading activist of Unimex, a coalition of Mexican organizations and individuals based in East Harlem that represents the interests of mexicanos in the city. Galicia called on immigrant rights groups and civil and human rights organizations to protest the treatment by the city and federal authorities of the Mexican workers. "These workers are being treated like criminals, when in fact they should be considered heroes of society," for bringing to light this situation. He called on the U.S. government to grant amnesty to these workers and to grant them work permits.

The case is a big topic of discussion in the Jackson Heights neighborhood where the Mexican workers lived.

"They're good people," said Juan Carlos, who knew the workers involved. "We all come here to work. We don't have the opportunities in our countries. These people worked over 12 hours a day. If someone doesn't have papers, they can't move up."

Oscar Andrade, a 30-year-old Ecuadorian, said the abusive conditions the workers faced "is not an isolated incident. This is happening nationally."

John López, a student and worker at a local market, commented that the detention of the deaf workers, "is an attack on all immigrants. It is a racist attack." López, originally from Paraguay, came here nine years ago. "Immigrant workers in the United States," he said, "have a right to be here and to full rights."

Olga Rodríguez is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 1445, and the Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of New York.  
 
 
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