Fighting the New Slavery

Federal officials step up efforts to rescue migrants from peonage

Every year during the summer, waves of migrants work their way northward from the South and Mexico, harvesting the fruit and vegetables of orchards and farms. Although their often appalling working conditions and meager wages have long been the object of reformers' zeal, some of the migrants are suffering an even greater degradation: slavery.

Officials of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division are cracking down on what they believe is the widespread use of threats and violence to force migrants and other transients to work. Prosecutors have dusted off a set of slavery and peonage laws originally dating from the 19th century to fight this modern-day affront to the 13th Amendment, which forbids slavery. Next week the House Labor Standards subcommittee will convene hearings to evaluate the performance of federal agencies in enforcing current laws. In announcing the hearings, the subcommittee chairman, California Democrat George Miller, said, "The Constitution made slavery illegal over 100 years ago. It's time that the Federal Government finally writes the final chapter on this sorry scene."

The Civil Rights Division's most recent triumph was the conviction last month of four men in federal court in Tampa, Fla., for conspiracy to hold farm workers in involuntary servitude. Willie Warren Sr., an Orlando labor contractor who hired migrant crews for farmers in f Florida and North Carolina, was sentenced to ten years in federal prison. Willie Warren Jr., who worked for his father, was given 15 years. Another son, Richard, and an associate each got five years. A third son, Dennis, got 20 years in a North Carolina slavery case involving a potato-field worker who died.

The Civil Rights Division is pursuing 28 other slavery investigations, two of which will soon come to trial. In Tyler, Texas, three people are charged with forcing a group of twelve Mexican migrants at gunpoint to replant timberland; that case is scheduled for trial on Oct. 3. In Los Angeles, ten members of an Indonesian family have been charged with arranging the illegal entry into the U.S. of 32 other Indonesians, who were allegedly put to work as domestic servants in California for little or no pay.

Civil Rights Division Chief William Bradford Reynolds, who says that slavery is a "high priority" for his unit, has his work cut out for him. The Workers Defense League, a New York City-based group, estimates that as many as 10,000 people may be held in peonage in the eastern U.S. alone. Peonage is a condition akin to slavery in which a laborer is forced to keep working in order to pay off a debt to the employer. Typically, labor-camp operators sell room, board, liquor and cigarettes to workers and then deduct an arbitrary amount from their wages. Workers end up owing money to their boss, who holds them until the debts are paid.

Many of the victims are illegal aliens or Skid Row transients who fear law-enforcement officials and thus do not complain about their plight. "Just to let you know how common all this is," says Rob Williams, an attorney with Florida Rural Legal Services, "there are 5,000 farm-labor contractors in the state of Florida, and about 100 are like Willie Warren."