Contractor Gets Prison for Forced Labor From Immigrants

An unlicensed contractor who locked workers in a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse was sentenced to more than 8-1/2 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $1 million in restitution for harboring workers who are in the country illegally and forced labor.

Job Torres Hernandez of Hayward, Calif., has been in custody since a jury found him guilty March 18 of allegations that he recruited workers from Mexico and paid them little or nothing to work on various Bay Area construction projects. The workers, who were threatened with physical violence against them and their families back home, were housed ...