"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States" 13th Amendment, February 1, 1865.

Abraham Lincoln's gem born out of the Civil War was also a result of successfully having his Republican Party include the passage of the 13th Amendment as part of the platform seeking his re-election.

The 13th Amendment also gave Congress the authority "to enforce this article by appropriate legislation," and it did so 135 years later when the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 became Public Law.

"Trafficking in persons is not limited to the sex industry. This growing transnational crime also includes forced labor and involves significant violations of labor, public health, and human rights standards worldwide," was one of the key findings of the 2000 Act.

"Trafficking in persons is often aided by official corruption…" this particular finding by the same Act finds resonance in a current investigation by the Department of Justice on none other than the Immigration and Customs Enforcement –ICE.

In some instances it appears ICE proved to be a willing hangman for the victims of human trafficking rather than for the perpetrators. 

It appears ICE had offered advice to a company repairing oil rigs in the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, Signal International, on how to better punish any unruly individuals among the 500 Indian metalworkers it hired as foreign guest workers.

"Don't give them any advanced notice. Take them all out of the line on the way to work… and send them back to India" were ICE instructions per a sworn testimony of a company official.

After failing in this attempt to carry out a "private deportation" at the behest of ICE, the same agency later offered to go after the workers who had left their jobs, "if for no other reason than to send a message to the remaining workers," ICE was now volunteering to become Signal International's hired gun.

Despite the ongoing litigation, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services granted special visas to 150 Indian metalworkers, a provision for T and U visas made by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. 

"Just granting the visas is an admission by the U.S. government that they were victims of trafficking," opined the director of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice Saket Soni in a statement to AL DIA.

A very large number of "legal" as well as "illegal" immigrants have been forced into exploitative work conditions and have been lured by means of fraud or coercion.

The law provides for all such victims the necessary relief, granting them a visa and making them eligible to become lawful permanent residents; the path to justice in immigration is very clear, a path that must be trod on.