Daniella Landers, a partner in Sutherland Asbill & Brennan in Houston, is working pro bono with a group of guest workers from India who filed a civil rights lawsuit on May 21 against their former employer and others over working conditions at a plant in Orange and how they were recruited.
The plaintiffs allege in their complaint that they took on as much as $25,000 in debt for "mandatory recruitment, immigration processing, and travel fees" to come to the United States to work at a Signal International plant in Orange, where Signal "required them to live in a guarded, overcrowded, and isolated labor camp." They further allege they were threatened with loss of immigration status and deportation.
