Object Details
- Description
- This Thai passport was seized in the well-publicized 1995 El Monte, Calif., sweatshop raid. The passport is part of a larger Smithsonian collection of artifacts documenting apparel industry sweatshops, focusing on the El Monte operation (72 workers were discovered working as slaves). With a legitimate U.S. visa, the passport looks official. In fact, the El Monte operators doctored a real passport, inserting a new photo into someone else's document, in order to smuggle workers into the country.
- Recruited from Thailand, the El Monte workers were tricked into accepting employment by misrepresentations of their future working and living conditions. They were told they would sew in a clean factory, receive good pay, and have the weekends off. They were even shown photographs of company parties and outings to Disneyland. After signing contracts (indenture agreements) committing themselves to repay 120,000 baht (about $5,000 in 1997 dollars), they were smuggled into the United States on fraudulent passports.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- U.S. Department of Justice. Immigration and Naturalization Service
- 1994
- ID Number
- 1997.0268.04
- accession number
- 1997.0268
- catalog number
- 1997.0268.04
- Object Name
- Passport, Thai
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 5.625 x 3.75;
- place issued
- United States: California, Los Angeles
- Associated Place
- United States: California, Los Angeles
- United States: California, Los Angeles
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_880940
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a6-e4c9-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
