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Comment by tristor | Hacker News Reader

I don't think that follows from the article. This company was committing crimes, immigration and wire fraud, human trafficking, and labor violations. I don't think this situation reflects the "reality of legal immigration in America", emphasis on /legal/.

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I don't think you realize that it is the law that enables companies to abuse "legal" hoping-to-be-immigrants. And I emphasize "legal".

Considering that every action taken by these companies was illegal, I don't know what you mean by "the law that enables companies to abuse". I'm actually deeply in favor of immigration reform in the US, but human trafficking is not created by the law, it is blatantly illegal. The illegality doesn't even begin in this case in the article with the US, but with the coyotes in India that charged these men $20k USD for them to come to the US to work, when in fact legally it should be the other way around, the visa sponsoring entity cannot charge you for relocation costs, and may pay for them (but is not required to do so).

The way US immigration law allows abuse is by making it so complicated that coyotes and bad employers thrive.

If the legal immigration process was as simple as applying to the DMV (note, I am talking about the application, not about approvals), then coyotes wouldn't even have a business model.

Its modern-day slavery -- the problem is way worse in the Middle East -- mostly construction workers and laborers -- and its not just labor from India, but other South-asian countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. In America, most unskilled labor comes from Latin American countries -- jobs that really no one wants to do

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