Your South Carolina car accident attorneys read an interesting article in yesterday’s Post and Courier that discusses an alleged illegal sex trade in North Charleston. After weeks of alleged force enslavement and months under federal supervision a 20-year-old immigrant from just outside Mexico City will soon be able to return home because authorities no longer her to testify against a North Charleston woman arrested in connection with a suspected human trafficking case. The reason the immigrant woman is longer needed to testify is because the 28-year-old North Charleston woman, also originally from Mexico, plead guilty to one of the four charges against her.
The 28-year-old woman admitted in federal court, on Tuesday, to harboring an illegal immigrant. However, she did not admit to receiving any financial gain from concealing the 20-year-old. She faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,00 fine, and three years of supervised release. If she had admitted to receiving financial gain from the illegal immigrant, she could have faced twice the amount of time in prison. Her sentencing hearing has yet to be determined.
For admitting to the harboring an illegal immigrant charge, prosecutors will dismiss the charges of importing an alien for an immoral purpose, bringing in and harboring aliens, transporting for prostitution, and failing to file a factual statement about an alien. Each of these charges carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, 3 years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.
According to the Assistant U.S. Attorney, the 20-year-old immigrant entered the United States through Arizona this past October and made her way to North Charleston in November under the promise of gaining employment as a housekeeper. She was staying on Ginger Lane with the 28-year-old woman and her family (husband, brother-in-law, and children). She was there for more than two weeks when police found her wandering around the Pepperhill Subdivision off Ashley Phosphate Road, according to police she was seemingly disoriented at the time she was picked up.
After her detainment she informed investigators that she was never employed as a housekeeper, but learned on her arrival that she would have to work as a prostitute to pay off her smuggling debt. Additionally, she told police she subjected to sexual abuse by her captors and was able to escape the North Charleston home by sneaking out of the children’s bedroom window while the 28-year-old woman was sleeping.
Your Charleston workers’ compensation lawyers read in the Post and Courier’s article, the young immigrant was sobbing in the back of the federal courtroom as her attorney requested her client be allowed to return to Mexico. The U.S. District Court Judge met the request with some skepticism, saying, “She came into the country illegally. What Makes you think she’s going to leave legally.” But the immigrant’s attorney assured the Judge that she would leave the U.S. and would book a flight to Mexico City by week’s end. In fact, she had already tried to leave the country once before, but was detained by authorities before making it into Mexico. In the end, the Judge granted the request.