Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor...

And the Northern Marianas--a U.S. possession--will put them to hard labor

The young Chinese woman believed she had come to America. But how could this be the American Dream? Li Li, 26, found herself working 18-hour days in a factory cutting textiles. At night she and 700 other workers were locked up in company barracks infested with rats and equipped with just one outside toilet for every 50 people. The residents were allowed out only on Sundays for a maximum of one hour. When she complained about conditions, according to her account, she and another female worker were beaten by factory foremen wielding heavy dressmaking scissors.

Welcome to Saipan, the largest of...

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