Jul 3rd, 2009. Filed under Headline, US News.
ICE Puts Pinoy Doctors’ Mug Shots On Web
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MILWAUKEE - The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has made Filipino Doctors Jefferson and Elnora Calimlim examples of what happens to anyone who engages in human trafficking.
The Ice website prominently displays the mug shots of the two doctors who were recently re-sentenced to six years in jail with the title below: “Prison sentences for doctors who kept a slave.”
ICE claims credit for bringing the Calimlims to justice and displays the telephone number which a Filipino American informant used to tell of the abuses on Erma Martinez, a Filipina maid from Bicol.
The re-sentencing that gave them a higher jail term was the result of their appeal of the May 26, 2006 District Court decision which sentenced them to four years in jail, payment of almost a million dollars in back wages and possible deportation after service of their sentences. They both have green cards.
Instead of getting a lower sentence, the appeals court found legal errors in the initial sentencing and remanded it back to the lower court for re-sentencing. On June 9, US District Judge Rudolph T. Randa re-sentenced them to six years in prison.
No one knows the whereabouts of Ms Martinez now. But when the decision was rendered in 2006, she became, under US law, entitled as an abused person to apply for a green card and possible citizenship.
ICE said the case of the Calimlims started through a call in 2004 to its hotline, 1-866 347 2423. The call gave rise to a joint investigation by ICE and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the Brookfield, Wisconsin doctors which later resulted in their convictions.
“Today’s sentence is a testament to our solemn commitment to protect those who cannot protect themselves,” said James Gibbons, acting special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Chicago. “Many people are unaware that this form of modern day slavery still occurs in the United States. The victims can be domestic servants, sweat shop employees, sex workers or fruit pickers who are lured here by the promise of prosperity and forced to work as indentured servants. ICE is committed to giving them the help they need to come forward as we work to end human trafficking with vigorous enforcement and tough penalties.”
“Our Constitution promises freedom to all,” said Loretta King, acting assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. “The defendants denied the victim the basic right to her freedom. DOJ is committed to prosecuting those who prey on vulnerable members of our society and hold them in modern-day slavery.”
The case against the Calimlims was initiated by a call to ICE’s national hotline - 1-866-DHS-2ICE (1-866-347-2423). ICE law enforcement personnel staff the hotline around-the-clock to take leads from the public about suspicious activity or reports of crimes. Leads generated from hotline calls have resulted in the arrests of a wide range of criminals, including aggravated felons, smugglers, fugitives, sexual predators, and aliens who have re-entered the country after being deported.
The Jan. 14, 2007 issue of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran the complete story of the Calimlims. Written by Vikki Ortiz, the story detailed how the case was started by a tip to the hotline from the divorced wife of one of the Calimlim’s children.
Excerpts:
In 1985, 19-year-old Erma Martinez (pictured in 2004) was brought over illegally from the Philippines to work for Jefferson N. and Elnora Calimlim of Brookfield. She stayed until 2004, when federal agents removed her. The couple were convicted for harboring an illegal immigrant and forced labor.
In this 1986 photo, Erma Martinez (left front) stands with Elnora Calimlim (back right) and her son Jefferson Jr. (striped sweater) and other unidentified people. The family often told visitors - when they allowed them to see her - that Martinez was a distant relative from Chicago.
Federal Clerk of Courts
Erma Martinez’s home in the Philippines is seen in this undated photo. Martinez’s earnings - $150 a month for the first 10 years, $400 a month thereafter - helped pay for her younger siblings’ educations, as well as medical procedures and plots of land for her parents. Martinez often wrote to her family, telling them she hoped to come home soon.
Kenneth Yoo
The Calimlims’ Brookfield house - an 8,600-square-foot spread valued at $1.2 million - is where Erma Martinez worked as a live-in maid for 19 years. She spent much of that time in her basement bedroom, hidden from the outside world and threatened by her employers with deportation. At the same time, they also promised to help her get a green card.
Related Information
The Journal Sentinel relied mostly on court records and interviews for the story, including 174 letters between Erma Martinez and her family in the Philippines.
Much of the description came from the trial and sentencing in addition to court documents and interviews with attorneys and law enforcement officials. Data on human trafficking came from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Statistics on Filipino unemployment and foreign workers came from Domestic Workers United.
Ortiz described how Elnora Calimlim had hoped during the trial that Martinez would not reveal the secret that together they hid for almost 20 years. But on the stand, Martinez simply told the truth and the rest was history.
The Journal reporter said that during her two decades of servitude, Martinez surrendered “the freedom to talk on the phone, to learn to drive, to date, to fall in love.” But during their jury trial in May, 2006, everything changed. “The two were about to trade positions: Martinez to start her own life and Mrs. Calimlim was about to lose everything.”
The Journal reporter said Calimlim told her lawyers at that time she believed Martinez would spare the family and testify that their arrangement was mutual and that it was part of Filipino culture. The prosecutors, on the other hand, pictured Martinez as a woman from a poor family in Camarines Sur in the Philippines who was exploited by the doctors in the United States.
Ortiz then cited the emotional letters that Erma wrote her parents in the Philippines through the years. “Her emotional letters home over the years, however, portray a woman who was conflicted and confused, torn between a desire for freedom and loyalty to captors who paid her paltry wages, yet bought her Christmas presents and took her along on family vacations.
“The letters between Martinez and her mother in Camarines Sur, a rural province in the Philippines, also show she was just as manipulated by her own family back home.”
The Journal story said Martinez as a dutiful eldest daughter became the provider for her parents and siblings. “Over the years, her family grew more and more dependent on her to emerge from poverty.”
Ortiz said the case divided the Filipino American community in the Milwaukee area with many sympathizing with the Calimlims and condemning Martinez. They argued that in the Philippines, maids were treated the same way that the Calimlims did to her.
But the jury thought otherwise. They found the Calimlims’ crimes so severe that their case became the nation’s first forced labor conviction not involving use of violence.
The Journal story detailed how Martinez was brought to the US by the doctor-father of Mrs. Calimlim in 1985 to help her raise their three young kids.
Ortiz said Elnora’s father posed as Martinez’s doctor bringing her for treatment in the US. Martinez agreed to work for an initial period of five years and the doctors promised to get her a green card. Calimlim’s father handed Martinez’s passport to his daughter for safekeeping.
Ortiz then recited how the Calimlims tried to hide her from their guests or introduced her as a distant relative. During parties she hid in her basement bedroom with the door closed as guests dined on meals she helped prepare.
The story continued:
“At church, Martinez sat in a pew far from the family. At home, she let the phone ring. She could pick up only after 10 rings - code that one of the Calimlims was calling.
“Even her letters were handled in a clandestine way. Her parents wrote to a post office box registered to the Calimlims. Martinez sent her letters in a double envelope, addressed with her name on the inside, without a name on the outside.
“The Calimlims kept her in line with threats of deportation. They told her if people found out she was an illegal immigrant, she would be sent back to the Philippines. The Calimlim family would be in trouble as well, they told her.
“Yet despite the restrictions, Martinez remained upbeat. She accepted her place in the world and, in heartfelt letters to her family, repeated one line again and again:
“’If you’re wondering about me, I’m fine. Even if I’m lonely.’”
“Martinez earned $150 a month for the first 10 years and $400 a month thereafter. She believed most of that money was sent to the Philippines, but no one can be sure.
“It was a complicated process. First, the Calimlims told Elnora’s parents in the Philippines - the Mendozas - how much Martinez earned. The Mendozas would front the money for the Calimlims, and someone from the Martinez family would travel 10 hours to pick up the earnings.
“If someone from the extended Calimlim family traveled from the U.S. to the Philippines, they could also deliver some of Martinez’s earnings.
But the system was irregular, and not every transaction was documented, investigators later found.
“Money did make it home. And for the next decade, her earnings gave her family a lifestyle they could never have had.
“Her salary paid for the education of all her younger siblings, from costumes in the Christmas pageants to college computer programs. The dutiful daughter paid for her father’s blood pressure medicine and her mother’s tumor operation and for plots of land.
“She paid for a water buffalo to pull a plow on the farm, and later a Honda tractor.
“In letters, Martinez’s mother gave her choices about where her money went: Did she want her brothers studying to be police officers or nurses? Did she want to buy dresses for her nieces for Christmas?”
In the end, there was no more money left for her dream to build a house near the basilica in her hometown of Sampaloc.
But Martinez continued to plod on year after year without any hope of going home to visit her family. And she pleaded with her mother not to tell her anymore sad stories like the death of her brother.
For the next ten years, the three young kids she was caring for had grown into adults, gone to college and had fulltime jobs.
Mrs. Calimlim said Martinez’s duty was to prepare breakfast, cook dinner and weekend brunches, vacuuming the Calimlims’ six-bedroom, $1.2 million home, and did the laundry.
But Martinez told the court she also had several additional jobs, from waxing the car and changing its oil to painting the house and polishing medical equipment at Jefferson Calimlim Sr.’s medical practice.
“She said the Calimlims, who were ear, nose and throat doctors, refused to take her to the dentist when she had a toothache. And when she was doubled over in pain from menstrual problems, Elnora Calimlim told her she would never have children.
“After the Calimlim children grew, they helped to keep Martinez hidden.
“When she needed to go to church or to the mall, one of the children - Jefferson Jr., Jack or Tina - drove. When Martinez made a grocery list, one of the children went to the store.
“The Calimlim children followed their parents’ rules when it came to Martinez. They called her “Tita” -”Auntie” in the Filipino language of Tagalog. They never told anyone, not even their best friends, that their family had a maid.
“By the late 1990s the Calimlims’ younger son, Jack, had a serious girlfriend. Sherry Bantug was a beautiful Filipina-American who grew up in the Milwaukee area.
“She modeled for local clothing boutiques and fashion sections while studying at Marquette University. She performed Filipino dances at the Asian Moon Festival and in 1998 wore the crown of Miss Philippine Centennial Wisconsin.
“In time, Jack Calimlim brought Bantug home to meet the family. And Martinez.
“At first he told Bantug that the woman in the kitchen was a relative from Chicago. But after a while, the explanation didn’t make sense, Bantug testified.
“She questioned why ”Tita” seemed to be visiting all the time. She didn’t understand why Martinez didn’t sit with the family during dinner.
“Bantug again confronted her fiancé. This time he told the truth.
“After Jack Calimlim and Bantug became engaged, Bantug reached out to Martinez and was saddened by what she found.
“Martinez told Bantug she had a boyfriend in the Philippines but hadn’t seen him since she left. She said she longed for her own children but feared she’d missed her chance.
“When Bantug and Jack Calimlim planned the seating chart for their wedding, the elder Calimlims objected to Martinez being invited. After Bantug persisted, Elnora Calimlim said Martinez could be seated on the other side of the hall.
“The marriage between Jack Calimlim and Bantug lasted seven months.
“Nearly three years after Bantug first met Martinez in the Calimlim home, the couple filed for divorce. And Bantug made an anonymous call to the U.S. Department of Immigration and Naturalization Services.”
In Sept. 2004, the federal agents, armed with a search warrant, raided the house and rescued Martinez.
