The story of 72 Thai workers, held captive in a makeshift garment factory, is considered one of the earliest known cases of modern-day slavery in the U.S.
Maliwan Radomphon Clinton was promised a livable wage, which she could use to help send money back to her family in Thailand. She would work to pay her visa off. She, like many other workers, were promised good working conditions, fair pay and yearly vacations.
Maliwan Radomphon Clinton , and Phitsamai Baothong outside the apartment complex used as a garment sweatshop that they were held captive in 28 years ago as slave laborers. Maliwan Radomphon Clinton , and Phitsamai Baothong outside the apartment complex used as a garment sweatshop that they were held captive in 28 years ago as slave laborers.
Officials recognized how their high-profile case shaped modern labor and immigration laws that protect immigrant workers and victims of trafficking. For Su, recognizing the workers was a personal victory. As a then-lead attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California — known before as the Asian Pacific American Legal Center — Su led the legal representation team that exposed and helped free the workers from their abusive employers in 1995. The successful civil case defined her career, and helped push forward future legislation that would bolster labor laws and protect workers.
The lawsuit win successfully held retailers and manufacturers who used sweatshops accountable — which was unheard of before the El Monte Thai workers’ case, according to Joe. The workers were granted legal residency, andTwenty-eight years later, Clinton, now 54, said she “never imagined” being honored in Washington D.C.
Unidentified Thai workers wait in the Immigration and Naturalization Service offices in the Federal Building in Los Angeles for a meeting with Thai General Consul Suphot Dhirakaosal on Friday, Aug. 4, 1995. Over 60 workers were discovered during a raid on an El Monte, Calif., sweatshop on Wednesday. One of the gatherings of the Thai workers after their freedom. Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said they all try to gather each year to celebrate the anniversary of their freedom.
But knowing no one in the U.S. — and with no way to escape or let their families know what was really going on — many of the victims could do nothing but what they were told. Praphaphon Pongpit, who was held at the townhouses from 1993 to 1995, said the experience was “horrible.” Due in part to their story, nearly three decades later, both U.S. and California governments have passed a number of labor and immigration laws that protect immigrant workers and survivors from becoming trafficked.created visas for trafficked victims and established a federal task force on human trafficking.— which grants legal visas to victims of trafficking, violence and forced labor.
Police Chief Jake Fisher said he and city officials are working on a memorial — and possibly a plaque — to honor the workers. It would be likely planned for 2025 on the 30-year anniversary of the case, Fisher said.
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