Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.

It is Sunday morning at a Dunkin Donuts on Long Island, NY.  It is 5 a.m. in the early hours of Mothers’ Day, and a woman walks in looking distressed.  The manager of the store, thinking she is homeless and feeling sorry because it is Mothers’ Day, gives the woman coffee and food.  He then offers her his sweater because it is quite cold in the store and all she has on is a pair of pants and a towel.  The employees attempt to communicate with her in Spanish, thinking she may be Hispanic, but the woman does not answer. Rather, she begins slapping herself and muttering what sounds like the word “master.”  Noticing a bruise on her face, the employees decide to call the police.  The woman produces documents that identify her as an Indonesian national. She is brought to the hospital where a translator from the Indonesian consulate comes to assist her.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This story was told to me by Carmen Maquilon and the woman is just one of the thousands of individuals that Catholic Charities of Rockville Centre Immigrant Services/Refugee Resettlement has seen over the years.  Carmen is a fully accredited BIA representative and Catholic Charities of Rockville Centre is a member of CLINIC.

Carmen has been at Catholic Charities of Rockville Centre for 18 years.  She calls the immigration services and refugee resettlement program “Catholic Charities’ best kept secret.”  They have 17 staff members, including 2 staff attorneys, and are all assisted by 3 volunteer attorneys. Her office handles about 10,000-13,000 cases a year including some of the most publicized human trafficking cases in the country (like the one above). 

According to the United Nations, human trafficking is defined as:

The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.   

Carmen’s department also leads outreach efforts, visiting 13 parishes with large immigrant populations on Long Island on a regular basis.  In addition, they travel to parishes that do not have large immigrant populations to spread the message about how vital comprehensive immigration reform is.  They do so by talking about the foundation that Catholic social teaching plays in their work and advocacy.  However, Carmen finds that many Catholics do not have a strong understanding of Catholic social teaching, particularly as it relates to immigration. Immigration is often viewed as a political issue, and as a result Carmen and her team have not always been well received by parishioners.  When this happens, Carmen reminds people of Matthew 25:35, “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.”  She reminds them that their own bishop, Most Reverend William Murphy supports immigration reform as does the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  If they still resist, Carmen says they will have to agree to disagree. 

Catholic Charities of Rockville Centre also serves up to 100 different nationalities a year.  Carmen emphasized that the role of the Catholic Charities program is to help each individual for as long as he or she needs it in order to contribute to society and the rich diversity of Long Island.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upon investigation, the police find that the woman had just escaped from her employer in Muttontown, NY where she and another woman had been kept for five years as housekeepers and where they had been tortured.  Both women had open sores behind their ears from being twisted, had their heads shaved in defiance of their Muslim culture, were underweight because they were only allowed to eat leftovers, and had no teeth from either a lack of dental care or from being knocked out. 

According to the Department of Justice the husband and wife were found guilty of forcing the women to work as domestic servants; confiscating their passports, visas, and other identification documents and keeping the victims in a state of servitude for several years where they were forced to labor up to 20 hours a day.  In June 2008, Varsha Sabhnani was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment and her husband was sentenced to 3 years. 

Catholic Charities of Rockville Centre took the women to be cared for by the Sisters of St. Dominick of Amityville, NY where they were given housing, food, English language classes, and other needed support.  Coincidentally, the worker at Dunkin Donuts where the first woman was found was also a client of Carmen and her team.

For more information on this case, click here. 

James Porter is a Project Assistant at CLINIC.