Pinoy couple in white slavery deported

CHICAGO – United States immigration authorities have deported a Filipino couple convicted of slavery in Illinois.

Gail Montenegro, spokesperson of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Jefferson Calimlim Sr., 67, and his wife Elnora, 66, who used to work as doctors in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will be arriving in Manila on July 14.

The investigation leading to the couple’s arrest and conviction was conducted by the ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and partner law enforcement agencies.

On Dec. 7, 2010, a federal immigration judge in Chicago ordered the Calimlims deported after serving their prison term.

On June 1, 2012, the couple was released from the Bureau of Prisons and turned over to ICE prior to their deportation proceedings.

The Calimlims were convicted on May 26, 2006 by the Eastern District Court of Wisconsin in Milwaukee for forcing a woman to work under conditions of servitude for nearly two decades in their Brookfield, Wisonsin home.

They were sentenced to six years in prison on human trafficking charges and ordered to pay more than $900,000 to the victim.

The complainant, Irma Martinez, worked as maid, cook and nanny for the couple. She was granted permanent residence in the US.

US District Court for Eastern Wisconsin Judge Lynn Adelman also ordered the couple to pay Martinez $1 million in damages for human trafficking with respect to peonage, slavery, involuntary servitude, harboring an alien, mail and wire fraud.

The $1 million is on top of the $916,635 in compensation the couple owed Martinez.

The couple has so far paid Martinez $700,000 from a retirement account and another $150,000 from their withdrawal taxes.

In 2008, the Calimlim couple was convicted by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin to four years in prison of the crime of forced labor, harboring an alien for private financial gain. The couple challenged the ruling.

The appellate court in Chicago rejected their appeal.

Chief US District Judge Rudolph Randa increased their sentence from four to six years in jail.

Court records showed that Martinez was 19 years old when she was taken by Jovito Mendoza, father of Elnora, to the US to work as a domestic helper in the Calimlim household.