An indictment was unsealed Monday in federal court in the Eastern District of California charging a California husband and wife of forced labor of a Guatemalan woman and her juvenile daughters.
The indictment charges Nery Martinez Vasquez, 50, and Maura Martinez, 50, of Shasta Lake, California with conspiracy, forced labor, and alien harboring for financial gain.
According to the allegations set forth in the indictment, between September 2016 and February 2018, the defendants conspired to bring a Guatemalan woman and her two minor daughters to the United States using temporary visitor visas, harbored them after their visas expired, and forced them to work long hours at a restaurant and cleaning service for minimal to no pay.
The indictment further alleges that the couple imposed a debt on the victims to prevent them from returning to Guatemala, subjected them to physical, psychological, and verbal abuse, threatened them with arrest, and separated the Guatemalan woman from her daughters, all to compel their labor.
If convicted of forced labor and conspiracy to commit forced labor, the defendants face sentences up to 20 years in prison, as well as mandatory restitution. If convicted of alien harboring for financial gain and conspiracy to commit alien harboring, the defendants face up to ten years in prison.
