Lawyers battle over witnesses, documents in human trafficking lawsuits

A human-trafficking lawsuit against an Iowa community college has survived a round of legal challenges and is proceeding in federal court. (Photo courtesy of Western Iowa Tech Community College)

Two civil lawsuits involving an Iowa community college accused of human trafficking are moving toward trial amid ongoing legal disputes over access to witnesses and information.

The two federal lawsuits against Western Iowa Tech Community College were filed more than three years ago. One lawsuit was filed on behalf of 14 students from Chile and is scheduled for trial in October of this year. The other was filed on behalf of 11 other students who mostly originate from Brazil and is scheduled for trial in May 2025.

Both lawsuits allege the school enticed impoverished foreign students to come to Iowa where they were placed in “debt bondage” working at a food-processing plant and dog-food factory.

The Sioux City college allegedly procured visas for the students to enroll in the school’s international education program, then steered them to work in the processing plants. The college then diverted money from the students’ paychecks to reimburse the school for the cost of the program, the lawsuits claim.

As part of court filings in the case, lawyers for the school note that the plaintiffs are “claiming extraordinarily high damages — damages in the seven-figure range for each plaintiff.”

The defendants in the two cases, all of whom have denied any wrongdoing, include the college; several of its employees; Tur-Pak Foods, which runs a food-processing plant in Sioux City; Royal Canin USA, which runs a dog-food factory in North Sioux City, South Dakota; and J & L Staffing and Recruiting, which allegedly helped place the students in the two plants at the behest of the school.

As with most civil lawsuits, parties on both sides of the two cases have scheduled depositions for witnesses to provide sworn testimony prior to any courtroom trial. They’ve also sought information and documents from the opposing side as part of the discovery process.

In the case involving students from Chile, the depositions of two students have been delayed due to their inability to leave Chile. One of the two was denied a visa because he’s now subject to a 10-year bar from re-entering the United States because of the alleged wrongdoing in the WITCC program, while the other was denied a visa because he lacks sufficient resources in Chile to convince the consular office that he will return after the civil trial.

A mediation hearing in that case was scheduled for April 15, but the available court records give no indication as to whether progress was made in settling the case.

Because the trial is expected to last two to three weeks, the judge said, rescheduling it could prove to be difficult. In March, the court advised all of the parties in that case that they should work toward resolving any conflicts in deposition scheduling without seeking extensions of procedural deadlines that could delay the trial.

In the second case that involves students from Brazil, lawyers for the defendants are currently asking the court to compel the students to answer questions posed by the defense and turn over material related to their social media accounts. The court has yet to rule on that motion.

Attorneys for the school say most of the students involved in the litigation returned to Iowa last year to sit for psychological evaluations related to their claims against the school. They say the social media accounts of one such student shows him visiting Zombie Burger, the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden and 801 Chophouse while in Des Moines – activities that, in theory, could undermine claims of emotional distress.

The two lawsuits have survived a broad array of legal challenges mounted by the defendants. Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa Leonard T. Strand dismissed claims of racketeering and indentured servitude against the defendants in one case, but let stand several counts alleging human trafficking, breach of contract, fraud and, with regard to the school, the intentional infliction of emotional distress.

“WITCC specifically prohibited (the students) from seeking other employment without permission, making their labor for Tur-Pak or Royal Canin the only way they could provide for themselves,” Strand stated in his ruling. “The (students) are foreign nationals with varying levels of proficiency in English. They all made financial sacrifices to be a part of the program, with several of them selling nearly everything they owned prior to enrolling in the program.”

The lawsuits allege that WITCC recruited the students with the promise of an education as well as work in the culinary arts or robotics industries. However, the culinary arts program students signed up for was allegedly rebranded as a “food service diploma program” and the robotics program students signed up for was rebranded as an “electromechanical technician program.”

After arriving in Iowa, the students were put to work on meatpacking production lines to help fill a labor shortage in western Iowa. Some of the students had to work 12-hour overnight shifts and then report to class by 8 a.m., one of the lawsuits alleges.

The school allegedly arranged for J & L to put the students to work at Tur-Pak and Royal Canin. The arrangement allegedly called for the two companies to pay $15 an hour for the students’ labor, with $7.75 an hour of that routed to the college to offset the expense of the students’ housing, tuition and fees.

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