Two Batesburg residents have been sentenced for labor trafficking.

Enrique Balcazar, 37, and Elizabeth Balcazar, 21, along with Balcazar Harvesting LLC, which they operated, have been sentenced in federal court for labor trafficking, confiscating passports in connection to labor trafficking, and fraud in foreign labor trafficking, according to a release.

“Human trafficking is among the most heinous crimes against workers, especially when employers prey on our society’s most vulnerable members,” U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division District Director Jamie Benefiel is quoted. “These victim workers traveled far from home to provide for their families and found themselves stripped of their dignity, freedom, and basic human rights.”

The business that the father and daughter provided seasonal agricultural labor to farms in the Lexington County area. The release states that the pair received permission from the U.S. Department of Labor in early 2021 to recruit foreign national agricultural workers by promising to provide particular work conditions.

According to the release, Elizabeth traveled to Mexico and recruited 55 Mexican nationals to work for the company. All obtained a H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa which allowed them to lawfully work in the U.S. Once here,. the workers were taken to a camp facility in Batesburg where they would live, and the Balcazars confiscated the workers’ passports and visas.

The release states that from April through December 2021 the company subjected the workers to forced and exploitative labor.

The workers were promised 40-hour work weeks, but the company had them nearly double that, with some weeks reaching 90 hours. The release says the workers were only being paid for 40 hour weeks when the company failed to pay the promised wages. They also conducted illegal cost-shifting by requiring workers to pay for transportation, visas, food and work equipment. 

According to the release, the business also made workers work at other locations, some days waking them up around 3 or 4 a.m. to travel to a site and then return between 10 and 11 p.m. The father and daughter promised these workers that they would be fed three meals a day, but instead they only provided two meals and deducted the cost from the workers’ paychecks.

The release state that Enrique used force and coercion to keep workers at the company, threatening them with “deportation, confiscating passports and visas, brandishing and discharging firearms, failing to provide medical care, placing locks on the outside of the facility where workers slept, and by posting armed guards at the camp facility.”

Despite Enrique’s efforts, workers began to escape and seek help from victim service providers, the state Law Enforcement Division and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“Victims of labor trafficking deserve justice. Our communities are safe when we show that labor trafficking will not be tolerated in South Carolina,” SLED Chief Mark Keel is quoted. “SLED will continue to work together with local, state and federal law enforcement, as well as prosecutors and other community partners, so the people and businesses that look to harm and exploit these individuals will face consequences.”

According to the release, in December 2021 a federal warrant was executed at the business, where agents seized 23 firearms, ammunition, body armor and at least nine victim passports.

Following the search, service providers provided the workers with victims assistance and the Department of Labor investigated the workplace conditions, according to the release.

When the business and its operators had federal charges brought against them, all parties pleaded guilty.

Enrique was convicted of labor trafficking and passport confiscation and was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison, $11,332 in restitution and three years of court-ordered supervision to follow his term of imprisonment, and he will be placed in immigration removal proceedings following imprisonment. Additionally 23 firearms, ammunition, body armor and more than $32,000 in funds were ordered to be forfeited. Since he will be in a federal prison Enrique will have no chance of parole.

Elizabeth was convicted of fraud in foreign labor contracting and sentenced to time served (two months) and was ordered to pay $508,125 in restitution to 55 victim workers largely related to unpaid wages, plus 3 years of Court-ordered supervision, 1 year of a curfew, and 100 hours of community service at an organization that serves the immigrant community, the release states.

The business was convicted of the same fraud charge and hit with three years probation in addition to the levied fines.

““Our office will not tolerate forced labor or the exploitation of foreign national workers in South Carolina,” U.S. Attorney Adair F. Boroughs is quoted  “Human trafficking violates people’s most basic human rights, and the Department will continue to bring every resource we have to combat it. We thank our law enforcement and service provider partners for their critical work in this case.”