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Western Iowa Tech Community College is settling a second federal lawsuit filed by international students alleging the institution participated in human trafficking, The Iowa Capitol Dispatch reported.
The college will pay $2.3 million as part of a settlement with 10 Brazilian students who filed the suit. In April, Western Iowa Tech agreed to pay $3 million to settle a similar lawsuit from 13 Chilean students. The lawsuits allege that the college secured visas for the students to enroll in an international education program, urged them to work in local factories, then used part of their paychecks to recoup the costs of the program. The students said they were promised work experiences in culinary arts and robotics.
The lawsuits claim that Tur-Pak Foods, which runs a nearby food-processing plant, and Royal Canin USA, which operates a dog food factory, paid about $15 per hour for students’ labor, but with an arrangement that roughly half of that would go to the college to offset tuition and other student expenses. The two companies were also named as defendants in the suits, as were some college employees and J&L Staffing and Recruiting, which allegedly helped to place the students at the companies. All defendants denied wrongdoing.
Leonard T. Strand, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, said in his ruling that the students were prohibited “from seeking other employment without permission, making their labor for Tur-Pak or Royal Canin the only way they could provide for themselves.”
The students were also “foreign nationals with varying levels of proficiency in English,” Strand said. “They all made financial sacrifices to be a part of the program, with several of them selling nearly everything they owned prior to enrolling in the program.”
Terry Murrell, president of the college, told local TV station KTIV that the U.S. Department of State did a full investigation of the program and offered suggestions for improvement but no penalties. He denies the human trafficking charges. He also said securing other types of internships for students is a challenge, given the dominance of the food-processing industry in the area. But he acknowledged the program could have been better executed.
