BATESBURG-LEESVILLE, S.C. — Prosecutors say a Lexington County father and daughter promised seasonal laborers 40-hour weeks and three meals a day.
But instead, records show the workers were held seemingly captive, having their passports taken, working over twice the hours, and being openly threatened - sometimes with weapons.
The United States Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina announced on Thursday that 37-year-old Enrique Balcazar and his daughter, 21-year-old Elizabeth Balcazar had been sentenced for labor trafficking, fraud in foreign labor contracting, and confiscating passports in connection with labor trafficking.
In a statement, the office said that evidence showed that the two operated Balcazar Nature Harvesting which provided seasonal agricultural labor to farms in the Lexington County area. However, it said that in 2021, after their business obtained permission from the U.S. Department of Labor to recruit foreign agricultural workers, they made promises and assurances they didn't keep.
The statement said the daughter traveled to Mexico and recruited 55 Mexican nationals to work for the company in exchange for promises of specific working conditions. Each worker obtained an H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa and traveled with the daughter by bus to the camp facility in the Batesburg area.
However, upon arrival, prosecutors said that the Balcazars confiscated the workers' passports and visas and later used threats of deportation against them.
Instead of working the 40 hours a week, they were promised, workers were subjected to 80 hours and sometimes as many as 90. The workers, meanwhile, were only paid for 40 hours and prosecutors said that the Balcazars engaged in "illegal cost-shifting" by making workers pay for transportation, visas, food, and equipment.
Prosecutors added the workers were also only fed twice despite being promised three meals. And the meals they got were deducted from their paychecks.
Enrique is also accused of using "force and coercion to keep workers with his company and this included, at times, brandishing and firing guns, not providing medical care, locking workers in their facilities at night, and armed guards at the camp.
In December 2021 a federal search warrant at the operation uncovered 23 guns, ammunition, armor, and at least nine victims' passports.
Enrique was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison and required to pay more than 11,300 in restitution. He then faces three years of court-ordered supervision and will be placed in immigration removal proceedings after that.
Elizabeth was sentenced to time served - two months - and ordered to pay back more than $500,000 in restitution to the 55 workers. She also faces three years of court-ordered supervision, one year of curfew, and 100 hours of community service at an organization that serves the immigrant community.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Balcazar Nature Harvesting, the operation itself, was also ordered to pay more than $500,000 to the victims and forfeited $32,000 in business funds. The business was also sentenced to three years of probation.
