ATLANTA – Victims of human trafficking may be eligible for special immigration benefits to stay in the country. But there are also pitfalls.

Many victims of a large-scale human trafficking ring in South Georgia regained their freedom on the same day: November 17th. This Wednesday, law enforcement released 26 migrant workers from the living quarters where they were being held and took them to a victim center in Douglas Founded, a town of 12,000 in rural Coffee County.

There, a team of government officials, paralegals, medical workers and social workers stood by to help the workers just in the early stages of a recovery process that can take years.

For the victims, the aftermath of a human trafficking bankruptcy is a delicate time. They have to rely on immigration authorities or nonprofit advocacy groups to ensure they retain their legal status in that country and have the resources they need to survive. But they also need help in dealing with their trauma.

“What often happens is they take the next job that could be just as abusive as the one they just got out of, where they become victims of wage theft and abuse once again,” said Victoria Mesa-Estrada. a senior attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “And the cycle continues because this is a demographic that is very vulnerable to abuse.”

At Douglas, the first priority for the caseworkers was to assess the physical health of the victims. Rescued farm workers arrived at the victim center with cuts, bruises and infections caused by working conditions that prosecutors would describe as “modern slavery” in an indictment released later in November. The victims were migrants from Latin America who entered Georgia on legal visas before allegedly being abused by their employers.

The workers were “lucky enough to get a meal every day,” said Alia El-Sawi, an Atlanta-based victim assistance specialist with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the agency within the Department of Homeland Security that’s cracking down on the years-long investigation South Georgia ran the smuggling ring, which was also instrumental in setting up the Douglas facility. “A lot of people wouldn’t let their pets live like that.”

At the victim center, workers had access to COVID-19 tests, food, toiletries and clothing. They were able to call families and friends to let them know they were safe. Officials from the Georgia Legal Services Program were also on site to review the legal remedies available to workers. Representatives from Tapestri, a Georgia nonprofit that helps victims of human trafficking find shelter and counseling, among other things, were also on hand.

Authorities are still investigating the criminal enterprise that allegedly exploited the farm workers. As first-hand eyewitnesses, many of those rescued on November 17 will likely be called upon to cooperate with investigators. But El-Sawi said in-depth interviews with workers are being saved for later to avoid victims being “retraumatized” so soon after being rescued.

At the Douglas facility, HSI began work to apply for “continued presence,” a two-year immigration status for victims of human trafficking.

“We try to take a victim-centred, holistic approach and make sure all of their needs are met,” El-Sawi said.

Laura Germino is a co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The Florida-based nonprofit organization’s anti-slavery program has helped prosecute multiple agricultural slavery operations in the southeastern United States since the 1990s and helped free over 1,200 workers.

Farm workers “have a loss of control when they’re in one of these situations and regain control after they’re freed, but it doesn’t just happen,” she said. “It’s not instant because of what people have been through.”

Germino recalls the remarks of a man caught in an abusive job in Florida after his release: “He said it was like coming out of the darkness into the light. He said it was like a rebirth.”

‘Permanent Damage’

Experts say that one of the immediate goals of farm workers freed from forced labor is not to waste time getting back to work. That’s because they’re short on cash and wage theft is a common crime against trafficking victims, including allegedly in the case of “modern slavery” in South Georgia.

“One of the first things workers desperately want is a job when they come out because they haven’t made the money they wanted to make to support their families,” Germino said.

Adding to the urgency, many immigrant farm workers are taking out loans to pay for their travel expenses to enter the United States. Returning home without repaying lenders could put workers at risk.

“You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Solimar Mercado-Spencer, senior counsel for the Georgia Legal Services Program’s Farmworker Rights Division.

The continued presence, temporary probationary status that law enforcement agencies can request for foreign-born victims of human trafficking, allows recipients to obtain work permits, the investigations said.

This also applies to a T-Visa, a more permanent type of immigrant benefit.

T visas give legal status to victims of a “serious form” of human trafficking, a term that Mercado-Spencer says includes forced labor. Migrants who successfully apply for T visa status with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services may apply to have relatives in their home country join them in the United States.

But immigration relief for victims of human trafficking is not immediate. The processing time for T-Visa applications can take longer than a year. And El-Sawi said it could take up to two months for continued presence status to be approved. These waiting times could put victims at risk of losing their legal status in the US, particularly for those who, like the South Georgia victims, entered the country through the H-2A program, a temporary visa for seasonal farm workers. H-2A visas are only valid for months at a time and are tied to the employer that sponsored the workers. That means some victims will be undocumented – and potentially face deportation – in the time needed for continued presence or a T-visa.

“Often they’re just left there and wait,” Mesa-Estrada said. “It’s a very problematic system.”

Rather than attempting to use the services available in the US, some victims may choose to return to their home countries, which local non-profit organizations and consular authorities can help coordinate.

Regardless of the decisions they make, Mercado-Spencer says workers who were once trapped in conditions such as those described by authorities in South Georgia will likely be shaped by those experiences for a long time.

“There is permanent damage. There’s trauma,” she said. “Some of them have been exposed to really terrible things.”