[2] It would serve as a wake-up call for the world to the global phenomenon of human trafficking and modern-day slavery and would begin the anti-trafficking movement in the United States with the Thai Community Development Center as its pioneer.
[3] The case would also lead to the passage of California laws to reform the garment industry and end sweatshop abuses through independent monitoring and a code of conduct[4] and then eventually to the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) passed by the United States Congress (later known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA).
They transported the workers to the El Monte complex—a row of two story buildings with boarded up windows and a fence surrounding the entire compound topped with barbed wire and spikes facing inward.
Once at the El Monte complex, the Thai nationals were forced to sew clothing seventeen to twenty-two hours a day.
However, they were forced to buy food and personal supplies such as toothpaste and shampoo at inflated prices from the employers residing at the complex who operated sundries in the garages.
They sewed clothing for many well-known brands such as Anchor Blue, B.U.M., High Sierra, CLEO and Tomato Inc.[17] The workers were forced to wake up at six every morning and worked under the watchful eyes of their Thai national employers who included Suni Manasurangkun and her four sons and two daughters-in-law.
[23] The law enforcement authorities which included the El Monte Police and Sworn California Peace Officers from DLSE secured the site first in the raid of the El Monte compound and the rest of the agencies including Thai CDC followed in to find the workers and separate them from the employers.
They were allowed to board a donated yellow school bus arranged by CHIRLA and head for temporary shelters arranged by Thai CDC including shelters belonging to the Methodist Church in North Hollywood, the Episcopal Church in Tujunga, and the Filipino American Service Group, Inc. (FASGI) in Los Angeles only after UNITE was able to persuade the United States magistrate to allow the workers to be released on “signature bonds” as opposed to cash bonds as a way of securing the workers’ return to court to testify as witnesses in the criminal prosecution of their captors as the workers were now designated by the United States federal court as material witnesses.
[32] Seven of the on-site operators of the sweatshop were taken into federal custody and pleaded guilty to criminal counts of involuntary servitude and conspiracy.
[40] The legal agencies that helped the workers with the civil suit were the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Los Angeles; Asian Law Caucus; ACLU Immigrants Rights Project; the ACLU Foundation of Southern California; and the Law Firm of Dan Stormer and Della Behan.
[42] The families of the workers were reunited with them here in the United States and the workers have since become independent and productive individuals who found steady employment outside the garment industry or became business owners[43] with the help of Thai CDC’s small business program and entrepreneurship training[44] and are now naturalized United States citizens[45] and spokespersons[46] against human trafficking and modern-day slavery.