Two South Texas residents were sentenced on June 24 after pleading guilty to benefiting from forced labor after forcing an illegal immigrant to work at a fireworks stand and as a nanny without pay.
Eduardo Javier Gomez, 32, and his former partner Margarita Alvarez, 40, both of Edinburg, Texas, were sentenced after it was discovered they had been forcing a woman to work without pay from June 24 to July 8, 2021, after her family attempted to illegally smuggle her into the country.
Mr. Gomez was ordered to serve 70 months in prison and Ms. Alvarez to two years of probation, U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani announced Monday.
“Labor traffickers care about only one thing—money,” Mr. Hamdani said in a statement. “Those subjected to domestic servitude are robbed of their dignity and freedom. Thankfully, this victim was rescued quickly thanks to the efforts of law enforcement. Now, this couple will pay the price for their despicable crimes and we can begin to bring some closure to the victim.”
The victim had been attempting to illegally enter the country from Mexico. The New York Police Department first learned of the scheme after being contacted by the victim’s sister, who claimed her family paid the smugglers $4,500 to bring her into the United States.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that “Gomez was holding her against her will” and “was requesting further payment from family members in exchange for the victim being moved further north.”
When the family refused to pay, the couple took the victim’s phone and forced her to work as a housekeeper and nanny in their home to pay off the debt, prosecutors said.
Two days after learning of the botched smuggling plot, authorities were able to locate and rescue the woman.
Mr. Gomez has been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Since March 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has taken a series of actions to combat the influx of illegal immigrants, including sending state troopers to the 1,200-mile-long Texas–Mexico border to apprehend people crossing the Rio Grande.
In May, Mr. Abbott increased the state’s border security measures with the deployment of hundreds of Texas National Guard soldiers to join the thousands already on the ground as part of Operation Lone Star.
