Two Batesburg residents have been sentenced for labor trafficking.
Enrique Balcazar, 37, and Elizabeth Balcazar, 21, along with Balcazar Harvesting LLC, which they operated, have been sentenced in federal court for labor trafficking, confiscating passports in connection to labor trafficking, and fraud in foreign labor trafficking, according to a release.
“Human trafficking is among the most heinous crimes against workers, especially when employers prey on our society’s most vulnerable members,” U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division District Director Jamie Benefiel is quoted. “These victim workers traveled far from home to provide for their families and found themselves stripped of their dignity, freedom, and basic human rights.”
The business that the father and daughter provided seasonal agricultural labor to farms in the Lexington County area. The release states that the pair received permission from the U.S. Department of Labor in early 2021 to recruit foreign national agricultural workers by promising to provide particular work conditions.
According to the release, Elizabeth traveled to Mexico and recruited 55 Mexican nationals to work for the company. All obtained a H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa which allowed them to lawfully work in the U.S. Once here,. the workers were taken to a camp facility in Batesburg where they would live, and the Balcazars confiscated the workers’ passports and visas.
The release states that from April through December...
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