FROM:           New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice

803 Baronne St.
New Orleans, LA 70113

CONTACT:  Colette Tippy – 504-881-6550

African-Americans attempt conduct citizens’ arrest of Louisiana employer

over slave labor conditions for post-Katrina guest workers

Ask Justice Department, FBI, local officials to intervene in felony crimes of trafficking, forced labor against Mexican farmworkers

AMITE, Louisiana – On Thursday, February 14, African American labor activists attempted a citizen’s arrest of prominent Louisiana grower Charles “Bimbo” Relan of Bimbo’s Best Produce to interrupt slave-labor conditions he had imposed on Mexican guest workers an hour and a half away from New Orleans.

The African American citizens – descendants of slaves – charged the Louisiana grower with felony violations of federal laws that protect workers from trafficking, peonage, indentured servitude, and modern-day slavery. They demanded he return the passports he seized illegally from the workers in order to hold them in his fields. They also asked for the immediate intervention of the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Labor in the slave-like conditions in the strawberry fields.

The FBI has since opened an investigation into the case.

Clearly stunned by the attempted citizen’s arrest, Bimbo claimed several workers had asked him to hold their passports, then handed over a stack of dozens of passports and fled by car. (See dramatic coverage by WWLTV News – http://www.wwltv.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=218183&she=1)

The workers obtained visas to work in the United States via the H2A guest worker program.  Workers started to arrive in Louisiana last September. Israel Ramirez, a worker who escaped on February 13 from Relan’s company, said: “The boss said he was holding our passports to control our movements, and keep us working for him. He forced us to work for hours: If we rested for a minute, he threatened to deport us. He paid us $2 an hour. We were treated like animals.”

“These guest workers are describing slavery, pure and simple,” said Ted Quant, an African American New Orleanian. “The only thing missing is the whip.” 

Gerald Lenoir, Director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration, added: “While African Americans across the US are excluded by US economic policy, immigrants are brought in to be exploited.  We want action, not just outrage, from the US Government on behalf of these workers.”

“We believe the employer is violating federal laws that protect human beings against trafficking, forced labor, and slavery in this country,” said Saket Soni, Director of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. “Stories like these reveal that the guest worker program that the Bush administration seeks to expand is corporate-driven, state-sponsored exploitation. The Department of Labor is signing off on it, and companies like Relan’s are profiting from it.”

The citizen’s arrest was attempted by three African Americans citizens: Ted Quant of New Orleans; Damien Ramos, a member of the homeless community in New Orleans; and Gerald Lenoir, Director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration and a national spokesperson on black and immigrant issues.

“My ancestors fought long and hard to end slavery in this country and to create the laws that protect these Mexican workers,” said Damien Ramos. “Today I used my citizenship rights as an African American on behalf of Mexicans in the plantation.  The old slaves came to the defense of the new slaves.”