By John Nguyen

For Miguel, his cage was more than just the tiny spot he shared on the floor with twenty other men in the basement of a crumbling duplex. His cage was much larger. It was bigger than the four walls of the leaky, moldy duplex, where he was forced to stay. It was more massive than the city where he slaved every day over the tall weeds of highway shoulders. His cage was larger even then the state of Missouri, a foreign land whose lawns he tended. Miguel's cage was America. In the Land of Opportunity, Miguel was trapped in the underbelly of American industry: Human Trafficking.

This article contains the story of human trafficking victims as seen through the eyes of three men who were all entrapped by the same landscaping company. First, we will learn how people are drawn into the human trafficking system with Miguel*. Then, Jorge* will share his experiences while living and working under the strenuous and dangerous conditions. Lastly, we will follow Salvador* as he makes his way to freedom.

Part One: Miguel's Story

Having seen an ad in the newspaper, Miguel had high ambitions for the U.S. Employment Meeting. Fellow Mexicans were running the program, which helped relieve some of his anxiety. They told him how to obtain a passport and a valid visa. They guided him through the process of entering America.

It was all quite formal. The company had rented out a conference room at a hotel; they had computers and official documents. They made promises. High pay. Reasonable work load. A nice place to stay.

The opportunity for solid work was a God-send. Miguel had been a banker for twenty years, but was fired for his age. At 40, he was forced to seek a new career. This was a trend in his neighborhood, his city, his country, middle-aged men were being quickly shuffled out of their jobs in exchange for younger employees. Many of these men had wives and families to support, but the options for work were few and far between.

"This is a growing problem in Mexico," said Courtney Prentis, Director of Catholic Charities Community Services - Southside. "At an age when many working Americans are advancing their careers and building upon their job security, their Mexican counterparts are being fired and laid-off for younger, cheaper employees."

Trading in his banker's tie for coveralls and workman's gloves, Miguel signed on to the program. They told him the work would be in landscaping, but Miguel didn't mind because they promised an hourly rate of $7.17. This would be quite a windfall since an average day's work in Mexico would only earn him about $5.00.

"I was so excited to go to work," Miguel said. "It was good money, I would only be gone for seven months, and I would be able to help my sons. I wanted to send them to a good university."

Miguel felt fortunate to be chosen. In April 2004, the company told Miguel to file for a work visa and come to a meeting in San Luis Potosi. When he arrived, there were already about 130 men there, all with visas, but there would only be work for 10-12 of them. Once the company arrived and selected the ten, Miguel felt crestfallen to not be among them. The company reassured him that he would be in the next group. Sure enough, two weeks later, he was on a bus bound for Laredo, Texas.

From there, he landed on another bus which would take him to St. Louis, Missouri, where he would then be transported to a duplex outside of Warrenton, Missouri, 40 miles west of St. Louis. The trip would take almost two days of nonstop movement.

It was 4:30 a.m. when Miguel arrived at the place he would call home for the next seven months. Exhausted from the travel, he looked forward to relaxing before beginning the day's work. But this was not to be.

"When I first saw the house, I knew that something was wrong," he said. "The pictures they showed us were very nice, but instead the place where we arrived was dirty and falling apart. Eighteen of us were staying there. I slept on the carpet because there was no room. At first I thought it might be okay, since I would be out working during the day, but I got very tired of it soon. There were only two bathrooms, and you always had to wait to use it."

There would not be much time for rest anyway. Just four hours after his arrival, a truck came to take Miguel to work. After orientation, where he received a uniform and instructions, Miguel was on I-70 landscaping his way eastward towards St. Louis, as cars sped by without regard.

Miguel's sense that something was wrong grew in the passing days. Men would be suffering from allergies, dehydration, diarrhea, or rashes due to poison ivy, but the supervisors wouldn't listen to their complaints. Once, a friend of his fell off of the back of the pick-up truck while riding home from work and seriously injured his face. The supervisors left him to suffer for eight days before getting him medical attention.

"No matter what the problem was you had to work," Miguel said. "They didn't care."

Miguel found himself struggling to become accustomed to this life, 12 hours a day on the highway, seven days a week-All of the promise of this journey quickly evaporating.

*Names have been changed and images have been simulated to protect the identities of our clients.