Servitude often difficult to detect, escape
By Robert Salonga
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 11/23/2008
WALNUT CREEK — They are trapped by fear.
Fear of deportation. Fear of violence. Fear of law enforcement. Fear that because of language barriers, no one will be able to help.
It is fear, social advocates say, that keeps domestic servants living in the country illegally in abusive and often unpaid conditions long after the promise of healthy wages and educational opportunities fade away.
The issue drew East Bay attention after news last week that a Walnut Creek woman was charged in federal court with smuggling a Peruvian nanny into the United States and for the past two years forcing her to work in indentured servitude. The charge followed an investigation by immigration agents, who were notified by an immigrant advocacy group that was initially contacted by a friend of the nanny.
The defendant, Mabelle Dann, has been ordered back to court Dec. 3 after appearing briefly last week. Neither she nor the attorneys involved in the case could be reached for a comment.
An attorney representing the nanny for La Raza Centro Legal, the group that helped bring the accusations to light, declined to comment on the case because prosecution is ongoing. But Jill Shenker, an advocate who heads the group's Women's Collective, said the circumstances in which the nanny is suspected to have lived — lacking privacy, contact with the outside world, and promised wages — occur far more frequently than the stories that reach the public.
"They are told lies about what awaits them outside the doors," Shenker said. "They have no knowledge of the surrounding areas. They're told going out on the street is dangerous and that (immigration agents) will pick you up immediately."
In the Walnut Creek case, an immigration agent's affidavit accuses that the nanny was held in virtual captivity in a Walnut Creek apartment with threats of deportation and accusations that she had committed a crime.
Minimal to nonexistent English skills, Shenker said, further limit a victim's ability to report a situation, and media coverage of events like a recent series of Bay Area immigration raids can increase reluctance to turn to law enforcement.
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_11051486
