Nydia M. Velazquez: “Mr. Chairman, right now there are people who are working 18 to 20 hours a day under threat of beatings and torture. One…”

“Mr. Chairman, right now there are people who are working 18 to 20 hours a day under threat of beatings and torture. One might think I am describing a Third World country, but I am not. Right now these crimes are repeated in virtually every major city in this country. Why? Because the victims of these crimes are undocumented immigrants and their tormentors are using fear to silence them. Last July a group of disabled Mexican immigrants were discovered living in squalor in my district. They had been taken from their villages in Mexico, smuggled into this country, and forced to work to up to 18 hours a day. If they did not earn enough money, they were beaten. In this case, the victims could not bear their terrible treatment any longer. Knowing that they might be separated from their children and that they might be put up in jail, they still went to the police. These are brave people who exposed a terrible crime. Yet how are they treated? For the past 2 months they have been held in a motel in Queens while immigration officials decide their fate. I am offering an amendment today that will bar the Immigration and Naturalization Service from using its funds to deport the victims of these terrible crimes. Let me be perfectly clear: These people were brought to this country, they were tortured and beaten, they were enslaved because their abusers thought their victims would keep silent out of fear of reprisals.”