Investigation, Raid, and Trial

In the early 1990's, rumors of a Thai run slave shop in the Los Angeles garment community circulated among law enforcement. In 1992 the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) received a tip about the El Monte operation but they could not obtain enough information to establish probable cause and secure a search warrant on the federal charges of smuggling and slavery.

Three years later Tongkun Kim, an investigator for the California Department of Industrial Relations, started asking community members about the rumored shop. Kim talked to two informants; one (the boyfriend of an escaped worker) told him the shop was in El Monte with about 70 workers. The other informant gave him some names in the downtown LA garment district. Acting on the tip, Kim staked out the apartment complex and gathered enough information to obtain a search warrant for the misdemeanor charge of illegal homework.

The raid was led by the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) with the assistance of local police, translators, and others. INS agents, waiting in a nearby location, came half an hour after being called by the DLSE State officers.

At this point the federal officers were able to enter the site and arrest the eight operators of clandestine garment shop. They also took the 72 Thai workers into INS custody. A ninth operator escaped from the downtown shop and a tenth member of the business remained at large in Thailand. The case received much media coverage and raised public concern. The Los Angeles Thai community worked to secure bonds and housing so the workers could be released. After holding them for nine days in detention, INS released the workers and granted them temporary permission to remain in the U.S. as material witnesses to the case against the sweatshop operators. Later the workers were allowed to apply for permanent residency.

The case was prosecuted by U.S. Attorneys from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. In February 1996, the eight operators of the El Monte sweatshop pled guilty in federal court to conspiracy, involuntary servitude (slavery), and the smuggling and harboring of illegal immigrants. The sentences ranged from two to seven years and a $250,000 fine.

During the raid officers seized documents that showed a number of manufacturers and retailers were directly contracting with the El Monte sweatshop. By 1999, 11 companies—Mervyn’s, Montgomery Ward, Tomato, B.U.M. International, Lf Sportswear, Miller’s Outpost, Balmara, Beniko, F-40 California, Ms. Tops, and Topson Downs—had agreed to pay more than $3.7 million dollars in back wages to the 150 workers who had labored in the El Monte sweatshop and its front operation. These companies made no admission of wrongdoing.