Slave Next Door

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T H E S L AV E N E X T D O O R

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T H E P U B L I S H E R G R A T E F U L LY A C K N O W L E D G E S

T H E G E N E R O U S S U P P O R T O F T H E G E N E R A L E N D O W M E N T F U N D

O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A P R E S S F O U N D A T I O N .

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THE SLAVE

NEXT DOOR

H U M A N T R A F F I C K I N G A N D

S L AV E R Y I N A M E R I C A T O D AY

Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter

U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A P R E S S

B E R K E L E Y

L O S A N G E L E S

L O N D O N

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University of California Press, one of the most

distinguished university presses in the United States,

enriches lives around the world by advancing

scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and

natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC

Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions

from individuals and institutions. For more

information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

University of California Press

Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press, Ltd.

London, England

© 2009 Ron Soodalter and Kevin Bales

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bales, Kevin.

The slave next door: human trafficking and slavery in

America today / Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter.

p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

isbn 978-0-520-25515-9 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Human trafficking—United States.

2. Slavery—

United States. I. Soodalter, Ron.

HQ314B35 2009

364.15—dc22

20080447130

Manufactured in the United States of America

18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is printed on Cascades Enviro 100, a 100%

post consumer waste, recycled, de-inked fiber. FSC

recycled certified and processed chlorine free. It is acid

free, Ecologo certified, and manufactured by BioGas

energy.

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C O N T E N T S

Acknowledgments

vii

PA R T I S L AV E S I N T H E L A N D

O F T H E F R E E

1

The Old Slavery and the New

3

2

House Slaves

18

3

Slaves in the Pastures of Plenty

43

4

Supply and Demand

78

5

New Business Models

117

6

Eating, Wearing, Walking,

and Talking Slavery

137

PA R T I I T H E F I N A L E M A N C I PAT I O N

7

Slaves in the Neighborhood

163

8

States of Confusion

195

9

The Feds

211

10

A Future without Slavery

251

Appendix: For Further Information

269

Notes

277

Index

301

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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

Ron would like to thank his wife, Jane, for her invaluable insights that

added so much to the clarity of this book. Kevin would especially like to

thank Robert and Jane Hadfield for their wonderful friendship and for

providing a special retreat where part of this book was written. A special

appreciation goes to Humanity United, an independent grant-making organ-

ization committed to building a world where slavery is no longer possi-

ble, for their efforts empowering affected communities and addressing

the root causes of conflict and modern-day slavery to build lasting peace.

Many people added to this book through sharing their experiences,

ideas, and histories with us. Some of our informants wished to remain

anonymous, and we thank them. Others allowed us to quote and recog-

nize them and their work. We want to express our appreciation to Annie

Sovcik, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS); Joy

Zarembka and Melanie Orhant, Break the Chain Campaign; Laura

Germino, Greg Asbed, Lucas Benitez, Melody Gonzalez, Antonio

Martinez, Romeo Ramirez, and others from the Coalition of Immokalee

Workers; Mike Baron, Border Patrol, San Antonio, Texas; Allen Davies,

law enforcement, Orlando, Florida; Doug Molloy, U.S. Attorney’s

Office, Florida; John Norris, U.S. Department of Labor, Ft. Myers,

Florida; Armando Brana, formerly of the U.S. Department of Labor;

Maggie Fleming, Office of Sen. Brownback; Jolene Smith, Peggy

Callahan, Ginny Baumann, Meg Roggensack, Kate Horner, Malauna

Steele, Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, Kumiko Maemura, Raquel Stratton,

Judy Hyde, Vithika Yadav, Helen Armstrong, Aashika Damodar, and

Jessica Leslie of Free the Slaves; Andrew Kline, Department of Justice,

Civil Rights Division; Lisa Butler, Florida Rural Legal Services; Dan

Werner, Workers’ Rights Law Center; Kevin O’Connor, U.S. Attorney’s

Office, Connecticut, and U.S. Department of Justice; Michael Wishnie,

Yale University; Kathleen Kim, Loyola University of Chicago; Mary

Bauer, Southern Poverty Law Center, Immigrant Justice Project; Kate

v i i

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v i i i / A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

Woomer-Deters, Legal Aid of North Carolina; Patricia Medige, Migrant

Farm Worker Division of Colorado Legal Services; James B. Leonard,

volunteer attorney, Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc.; Krishna R. Patel and

Tom Carson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Connecticut; Florrie Burke,

human trafficking consultant; Lou de Baca, counsel, U.S. House of

Representatives Committee on the Judiciary; Jennifer Dreher and

Gabriella Villareal of Safe Horizon; Sandy Shepherd and Given Kachepa;

Jason Van Brunt of the Hillsborough, Florida, Sheriff’s Office; Amy

Farrell, PhD, Institute on Race and Justice, Northeastern University;

Dr. Lois Lee, Children of the Night; Dorchen Leidholdt and Norma Ramos

of the Coalition Against Trafficking Women; Bradley Miles, Polaris

Project; Andrew Oosterbaan and Wendy Waldron of the Department of

Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS); Anna

Rodriguez, Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking; Rachel Lloyd,

Girls Education and Mentoring Services, Inc. (GEMS); Christa Stewart,

The Door; Carole Smolenski, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Child

Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes); Alison

Boak, International Organization for Adolescents (IOFA); Ann Jordan;

Mark Lagon of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat

Trafficking in Persons (TIP); Andrea Powell, Fair Fund; Heather Moore,

Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST); Jim Cross, U.S.

Attorney’s Office, Kansas; Leslie Wolfe, Center for Women Policy

Studies; Anne Milgram, Attorney General, New Jersey; Cathy Albisa,

National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI); Steve Wagner,

Renewal Forum; Vanessa Garza, U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services; Sister Mary Ellen Dougherty, Anastasia Brown, and

Nyssa Mestes of the United States Council of Catholic Bishops; Kathryn

Turman of the FBI’s Office of Victim Assistance; Carlton Peeples of the

FBI’s Civil Rights Unit; Albert Moskowitz, formerly of the Criminal

Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice;

Maria Jose Fletcher, Florida Immigration Advocacy Center (FIAC); Jane

Rodas, International Institute of Connecticut; Juhu Thukral, Urban

Justice Center; Omar Vargas, Pepsico; Ben Skinner; John Bowe; Alison

Friedman and Julia Ormond of the Alliance to Stop Slavery and End

Trafficking (ASSET); and Claude D’Estree, University of Denver. We

also want to thank our excellent editor Reed Malcolm and our copy

editor Elisabeth Magnus at the University of California Press, and Jill

Marsal, our agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

All errors and omissions are, of course, our own.

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PA R T I

S L AV E S I N T H E L A N D O F T H E F R E E

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1

T H E O L D S L AV E R Y A N D T H E N E W

The great thought of captains, owners, consignees,

and others, was to make the most money they could

in the shortest possible time. Human nature is the

same now as then.

Frederick Douglass,
The New National Era,
August 17, 1871,

recalling the Atlantic slave trade

Certain things we know to be true. We know that slavery is a bad thing,

perpetrated by bad people. We also know that slavery not only exists

throughout the world today but flourishes. With approximately twenty-

seven million people in bondage, it is thought to be the third most prof-

itable criminal enterprise of our time, following only drugs and guns. In

fact, more than twice as many people are in bondage in the world today

than were taken from Africa during the entire 350 years of the Atlantic

slave trade. And we know that slavery is alive and more than well in the

United States, thriving in the dark, and practiced in many forms in

places where you’d least expect it.

Meet Sandra Bearden. Sandra was a twenty-seven-year-old home-

maker in a comfortable suburb of Laredo, Texas—a neighborhood of

solid brick homes and manicured lawns. Married, the mother of a four-

year-old son, she lived a perfectly normal middle-class existence. By all

accounts, Sandra was a pleasant woman, the sort you’d chat with at the

mall or the supermarket . . . the sort who might live next door. Yet she

is currently serving a life sentence, convicted of multiple offenses,

including human trafficking and slavery.

It started innocently enough. At first, all Sandra wanted was a maid—

someone to do the housework and help with her small son—but she

didn’t want to pay a lot. So she drove across the border to a small, dirt-

poor village near Vera Cruz, Mexico, where she was introduced to Maria

and her parents. Maria was only twelve when she met Sandra Bearden.

She had very little schooling and dreamed of getting an education—a

dream that her parents encouraged but could do nothing to achieve.

Over coffee in their small kitchen, Bearden offered Maria a job, as well

as the chance to attend school, learn English, and taste the rich life of

“el Norte.” The work, as Bearden described it, was much like what

3

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4 / S L AV E S I N T H E L A N D O F T H E F R E E

Maria was already doing at home, and, with the promise of education

and opportunity, Sandra’s offer made a very enticing package. The fact

that Sandra herself was Mexican born helped Maria’s parents feel they

could trust her, and they gave their permission. Sandra smuggled Maria

across the border in her expensive car and drove her to her home in

Laredo.

On arrival, Maria was dragged into hell. Sandra Bearden used vio-

lence and terror to squeeze work and obedience from the child. From