Treated like animals: Chinese workers file lawsuit against inhumane treatment

Posted by Krista Allen | Oct 5, 2023 | News |

TSÉBIGHÁHOODZÁNÍ – A group of Chinese immigrants allege they were tricked by the owners of an illicit cannabis operation in Shiprock with promises they would be cutting flowers or doing farm work for a decent wage, according to a lawsuit in Santa Fe County court.

The 15 immigrants, the plaintiffs, brought the suit on Sept. 27 in the First Judicial District Court, saying they were coerced by guards with firearms who kicked, cursed, and barely fed them, to work 14-hour days sitting on upside-down buckets in stuffy hotel rooms trimming illegally grown marijuana. They claimed they were viewed and treated like machines, not human beings.

Courtesy
Dineh Benally stands in front of a field of cannabis in this photo from one of his company’s websites.

The plaintiffs say the treatment was in furtherance of the owners’ scheme to operate the growing and processing operation on and around the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, leading to their arrest and publicity affecting job prospects.

According to the suit, the defendants leased land from Diné farmers, building thousands of greenhouses to grow marijuana plants – trimmed, packed, and sold for profit – in Shiprock. The defendants relied on exploited Navajo child laborers and defrauded and abused immigrant workers patrolled by the guards.

Navajo activists and forced labor experts identified the activities on the farms as human trafficking. Even after the Navajo courts issued an order restraining the operation, the operation continued out of a Travel Inn to “recover (their) investment” in Farmington.

The defendants then recruited the plaintiffs to pay their way to Farmington, where they took their car keys and phones, forced them to work long hours in the hotel rooms, and refused their requests to quit and go home. The plaintiffs say they were kicked and cursed to work faster.

“Plaintiffs’ subjection by defendants only ended when the Farmington Police raided the hotel and then handcuffed and arrested everyone in the rooms, further traumatizing plaintiffs,” the suit reads. “While the charges were eventually dropped, Chinese media coverage of the arrest, including the mug shots of plaintiffs, has made it impossible for plaintiffs to find work in the Chinese community.”

Read the full story in the Oct. 5 edition of the Navajo Times.