Are today's guest workers really indentured servants?

• Author: Herbert, Bob
• Position: OPINION - Brief article

A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center details the widespread abuse of "guest workers" in the U.S. Workers recruited from Mexico, South America, Asia, and elsewhere to work in American hotels and in such Labor-intensive industries as forestry, seafood processing, and construction are often ruthlessly exploited and cheated out of their wages. They are bound like indentured servants to the middlemen and employers who arrange their work. And they are virtual hostages of the companies that employ them. Many of them take on heavy debt to participate in the program. Worried about their families back...