JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In July of 1997, the police discovered a remarkable case, a really horrifying case, of virtual slave labor. They raided some apartment complexes in the burrow of Queens, and found 57 deaf Mexican immigrants who were living in horrific conditions, living in some cases 10 to a room, forced to sleep on metal bunk beds in some cases. These were people who had been lured into the United States and then forced to work 18 hours a day, begging on the subways of New York, selling little trinkets, and then forced to turn over at the end of the day all of the money they had taken in to the ring leaders of this operation. This virtual slave labor operation had been going on in Queens for nearly 10 years. And what finally broke it was that four of these deaf Mexican immigrants walked into a Queens Police precinct, and through their sign language, and through writing notes on paper, they told their story to these police officers in Queens. And they also told stories of being beaten. The ring leaders of this operation were also deaf. It was a mother-daughter team, also Mexican immigrants, deaf, who led this operation. There were seven that were indicted. The stiffest sentence was given to the 29-year-old daughter who had run the operation. She was given 14 years in prison.
CNN 20: Immigrant Captors Arrested, July 20, 1997