The INS and the Criminalization of Immigrant Workers

Abstract

On August 2, 1995, the discovery of seventy-one garment workers from Thailand forced to work eighteen-hour days in a barbed wire-enclosed apartment compound in a Los Angeles suburb called El Monte sent shock waves across the United States and around the world. The existence of workers hunched over sewing machines in slave-like conditions—where armed guards stood watch; razor wire and inward-pointing iron guard rails helped enforce discipline; and boards, bars, and locks kept the doors and windows inaccessible—exposed in graphic detail the wretched conditions in “Made in the U.S A.” sweatshops. It revealed the extreme exploitation that immigrant workers too often confront in the United States.