A Horrifying Path to America for Hotel Workers

Four people in need of work went to the first meeting and gave the man money, but Racida Eslabon was the only one who made it to the United States. She had already worked in a factory in Japan, and when she got back to the Philippines, she wanted to leave again so she could send money home to her mother, who was sick. She had been trying to get a job through a placement agency but with no success, so it seemed like very good luck when she met Alfred Briones in June 2008.

Eslabon’s decision to pursue a job through Briones, made in desperation in the Philippines 10 years ago, began a chain of events that left her trapped in fear and debt. She was eventually able to escape and obtain a T visa, a type of visa reserved for trafficking victims who have cooperated with law-enforcement investigations and would face extreme hardship if removed from the U.S. An applicant must submit evidence that she meets these requirements, typically including a declaration from federal law enforcement or government officials that she has faced trafficking and been helpful to law enforcement. In Eslabon’s case, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division provided Eslabon with a certification, based on its investigation of her experience and conversations with her. The details in this account are drawn largely from this certification, as well as The Atlantic’s interviews with Eslabon.

Briones worked for a placement agency in the Philippines bringing workers to the United States though a U.S. counterpart, Coastal Ventures, in Destin, Florida. Briones told Eslabon he could get