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When a party of four Venezuelans and one Colombian crawled through a hole in a fence at the United States-Mexico border, they knew they were entering the U.S. illegally. But they didn’t know they would become witnesses for the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a human trafficking case against Venezuelan national Cesar David Martinez-Gonzalez of Chester, Pennsylvania.

Gonzalez pled guilty this month to conspiring to illegally bring aliens to the United States and to encourage and induce aliens to enter the United States for private financial gain.

According to the DOJ, Gonzalez helped smuggle “dozens of migrants” from South America to the United States illegally so he could profit from their labor. He faces a maximum of 120 years in prison and will be sentenced March 18.

The five witnesses in the case, whose names and occupations have been sealed by the court at the request of the DOJ, told investigators how they came under Gonzalez’s control.   

In September 2022, two married couples and another person arranged to meet human smugglers, known as coyotes, and prepared to cross the Rio Grande River. While crossing the river, the coyotes pointed them to the hole in the fence to cross into the U.S.

Gonzalez paid the coyotes to escort the five to the border, according to the indictment. The fees are $800 for an adult and $600 for a child.

The five, who were apparently all adults, were told that if they were picked up by immigration authorities once in the US, to give the address of their intended destination, which was a residence Gonzalez and his co-conspirators owned.

Indeed, the five were caught and then released by US Customs and Border Protection in Texas, according to the indictment.

Gonzalez and his co-conspirators booked and paid for airplane flights so the illegal aliens could fly to Philadelphia International Airport, the indictment said.  

Once in Philadelphia, Gonzalez and his co-conspirators picked them up at the airport, and took them to a residence in Chester used to house aliens.

Gonzalez told the five they owed him “substantial debts for his assistance” and that they should remain in one of the homes he owned and work at jobs he arranged to pay off the debts. The debt was much more than the cost of transporting and housing them, although the indictment did not say how much he demanded.

Gonzalez connected them with “temporary staffing agencies, for the aliens to work in low-paying jobs,” and he obtained false identification documents, including permanent resident cards with false U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services numbers and Social Security cards with fake numbers, the indictment said. It is unknown if they voted, but with these documents, they could have.

He charged them for lodging and transportation, taking about half their weekly wages, the indictment said.

From Illegal Entry To Trafficking Victim

The Federalist asked the DOJ what happened to the five people who entered the country illegally. Will they be sent back to their home country? Will there be more charges related to this smuggling operation, such as against the coyotes, employment agency, or workplace? How have they been managing financially since the arrest? Where did they work? 

The DOJ would not give specific details on the case, saying: “While we can’t comment on this case beyond the information in the public filings, every U.S. Attorney’s Office has a Victim/Witness Assistance Program to aid victims of federal crimes. Our office’s victim/witness specialists work to ensure that crime victims and witnesses are afforded their rights, as enumerated in the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, and treated fairly during the prosecution process.”

Art Arthur, the Resident Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, believes the five may have been given immigration protection through a T Visa. Victims of human trafficking who have assisted authorities in an investigation or prosecution of human trafficking cases are eligible for the T Visa.

Holders of a T Visa may remain in the United States for up to four years, and after three years they may apply for permanent resident status, a Green Card. T Visa holders may legally work, and are eligible to bring family members to the United states including their parents, unmarried sibling under 18, and children of any age or marital status related to eligible family members.

In 2000, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which makes trafficking victims eligible for taxpayer funded benefits, including free food from the SNAP card; free health care; job training; free or low cost housing and money from either from Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or the Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) program.

“New Age Slavery’

Most illegal immigrants do not understand they are getting involved in a trafficking scheme, Arthur said.  

“The way to come to the U.S. illegally is, you generally have to pay a coyote — a smuggler — to come to the United States, to make your way through all of that,” said Arthur, a former  immigration judge who heard thousands of related cases. “Most people don’t have all the money to pay the smuggler, so the deal that they cut is that they will pay part of the smuggling fee and then they will work off the rest of it. The problem is, often that working off the rest means debt bondage in the United States, and it can be debt bondage that you can never get your way out of.”

Trafficking — modern day slavery in the United States — is a byproduct of an unchecked open border, and President Joe Biden’s policies have invited more trafficking.  

Biden announced the Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV), program in Jan. 2023, which allows people from those countries who have a sponsor in the U.S. and pass a background check to come to the U.S. for two years.

“This is a program that is amazingly vulnerable to trafficking — forced sex, whatever else, any hell you can imagine, this program is vulnerable to it,” Artur said. “You have to have a sponsor in the United States. You don’t have to be related to that sponsor. You don’t even have to know that sponsor. That sponsor doesn’t even have to be a United States citizen. That sponsor doesn’t even have to be here. I mean, if you … wanted to lure people into being trafficked, this is the best way to do it.”

He said the same is true of Biden’s catch and release policy, where he said more than 88 percent of people apprehended while entering illegally were released into the U.S. Many end up paying a smuggler to get to their destination and get trapped in debt bondage.

“It is just ripe for trafficking.”

“Part of the reason why people who enter illegally aren’t supposed to be released for custody until they’re granted asylum, is because we don’t want to encourage people to hand themselves over to smugglers. Smugglers are bad people. They will rob you. They will beat you. They will rape you. They will do everything bad,” Arthur said. “If they’re traffickers, that doesn’t end on this side of the border. For traffickers, all those hells continue on this side of the border.”   

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated his former Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tom Homan, to lead border enforcement. Arthur says detaining people who have entered the U.S. illegally until it is determined if they should be allowed into the country would be a “gut punch” to trafficking. And although he has not heard Trump or Homan speak to this yet, Arthur recommends ending the CHNV program due to its exploitation by traffickers.

“This is new age slavery; 159 years after the 14th Amendment, we are still faced with this scourge. And unfortunately, the immigration policies of the current administration facilitate trafficking,” Arthur said.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.