17 More Deaf Mexicans Found; Abuses Feared

Federal immigration agents and local police, acting on a tip from the Mexican government, swooped down on two houses in a small North Carolina town Friday morning and rounded up 17 deaf Mexicans, raising speculation that mysterious bands are exploiting these disabled immigrants throughout the United States.

U.S. and Mexican officials, however, insisted that it is too early to tell whether the latest raid is linked to the shocking discovery in New York earlier this week of two houses crammed with 50 deaf Mexicans held in servitude by other deaf Mexicans and forced to sell trinkets on city subways, buses and streets.

Yet first reports indicated striking similarities. The difference was the locale. The latest group of allegedly exploited immigrants was found not in a teeming metropolis but in unlikely Sanford, N.C., a town of 15,000 people 45 miles southwest of Raleigh.

Mexican officials also reported that six deaf Mexicans had been discovered selling trinkets in Chicago. Although these trinket vendors did not accuse their bosses of harsh treatment, the Mexican Embassy and U.S. immigration officials said the Chicago situation is under investigation.

Neither U.S. nor Mexican officials denied that the New York and North Carolina cases could be linked and that similar cases could emerge in other cities. But they pleaded for more time to evaluate the evidence.

“We do not have the information that would lead us to any conclusions,” Chris Sale, the deputy commissioner of immigration, told a news conference.

“We are still in the process of trying to find links,” said Gustavo Mohar, the Mexican Embassy officer who specializes in immigration problems.

According to Sale, the immigration agents and Sanford police raided two brick houses there after receiving a tip from the Mexican consulate in Detroit that several deaf-mutes had been transported to Sanford illegally from Mexico to sell key chains and tiny U.S. flags.

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The agents and police rounded up 14 adults and three children. The Mexicans, accompanied by a Mexican consul, were taken by bus to a Charlotte hotel. A spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service said that questioning of the Mexicans was proceeding very slowly because of the need for interpretation in Spanish and sign language.

The Sanford Herald, quoting an immigration agent, said Marcos and Guadelupe Moises, also deaf, had transported the deaf workers throughout the area in a van to sell their trinkets. It was not known if they were counted among the 17 rounded up.

The bosses and their alleged victims face an uncertain future. If convicted of smuggling their workers into the United States and then keeping them in virtual slavery, the bosses face jail terms. Since almost all the victims entered the country illegally, they face deportation. Sale said immigration agents would question each deaf Mexican carefully and determine their status.

In New York, police have charged seven Mexicans with smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States and extorting their earnings. But the man regarded as the ringleader has not been apprehended.

Earlier this week, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner announced the formation of a national anti-exploitation task force to “examine the leads and anecdotal information about similar cases of abuse, coercion and extortion of immigrants that we are receiving from other cities.” Sale said the task force will begin its work next week.

The vendors were following a system used by many deaf-mute beggars throughout the world.

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At Los Angeles International Airport, for example, such beggars hand cards to waiting passengers along with a key chain or other trinket. The card proclaims that the vendor is deaf and asks for a contribution for the trinket.

What has shocked Americans and Mexicans in the New York case is the fact that the vendors were forced to work extremely long hours, turn over their earnings to the bosses and live in terribly crowded conditions without the right to return home.