According to a press release by the Department of Justice on August 8, 2016, Olga Sandra Murra was convicted of four felony counts in Fort Worth Texas. She was convicted of holding two Mexican undocumented women as slaves. Yes, you read that right – slaves. She faces between 10 to 20 years of prison on the felonies. She is expected to be sentenced on November 28, 2016.
Murra was born Olga Sandra Capon in El Paso on January 25, 1952, according to El Paso County birth records. According to various news reports, Olga Murra moved to Mexico soon after her birth where she lived until 1997. In 1997, Murra moved to El Paso where she ran a home cleaning service using an undocumented immigrant as slave labor. In 1998, Olga Murra brought in another undocumented immigrant to also work as a slave in her house cleaning business in El Paso.
Murra also opened up another house cleaning business in Fort Worth where she had moved to after leaving El Paso. In Fort Worth, Murra used the same two undocumented immigrants as slaves in her business. The undocumented women were forced to work up to seven days per week without a paycheck. According to the justice department release, both women were forced to sleep on the floor. They were restricted to bread and water for meals.
One of the undocumented immigrants were forced to work at a McDonald’s in 2001 and at a Walmart in 2003 with falsified documents provided by Olga Murra. The woman was forced to give her paychecks to Murra. The slave worked at McDonald’s for about a year and at Walmart for about six months.
The case was prosecuted in Fort Worth but the crime originally originated in El Paso, Texas. That is where the women were first brought into the US illegally and put to work as slaves.
Both the United Nations and the United States issue human trafficking reports annually, yet the true extent of contemporary slavery is not known. This is especially true in the United States where the focus remains on other countries, instead of internally. Modern-day slavery in the United States is usually centered around undocumented immigrants forced to work for no money, or subpar wages – usually in the agricultural sector and in domestic work. There is strong evidence that many immigrant workers working on H-2 visas for low-skilled wage earners are working slavery conditions. Although some are paid wages, their wages are below mandated minimum wage standards. Others are not paid any wages but are required to work under the threat of being reported to immigration officials.
In the case of Olga Murra, she kept two Mexican undocumented women as slaves exploiting them for her business and for her household needs. Mura exploited the women for almost 19 years, both in El Paso and in Fort Worth. Although a significant part of the crime was committed in El Paso, the criminal elements will not be included in the annual crime reports that the City of El Paso puts out each year. How many other Olga Murra’s keeping slaves in El Paso are there? We may never know because slavery isn’t part of the metric that the City of El Paso uses to track crimes that make it one of the safest cities in the United States.
Good points. Most people never hear or know about border human trafficking. Only recently has law enforcement and organization’s shown any concern about the problem.
El Paso is the gateway into the US for legit and illegal activity. This is another reason why there shouldn’t be porus borders. These victims don’t walk thru the check points and present documents. They are forced or conned into illegal activity to entry into the US. I wouldn’t be surprised that some of our younger people are being trafficked into Mexico and other points. It’s a very lucrative business. Human slavery is a major international issue that doesn’t attract a lot off attention.
Legalized corruption is never reported, a lot winking, self enhancement , greed. If you really believe that there are no victims so not reportable, you are very naive. Just listen or read the news, it’s an everyday occurrence and outsiders are supposed to believe this is a safe city. YOU are the victims !
Maybe, there should be an award for mass corruption and lying. El Paso would without a doubt be awarded the title.
Ever a dog roll their back and pee all over the place out of submission, that’s us 0.
The point you glossed over is that she appears based on the “born here but moved back to Mexico shortly after her birth” to be another convenient birthright citizen thanks to Mexican parents coming over here to give birth to a dual national who gets raised in Mexico and uses her US passport as a convenience. She isn’t really “from” El Paso since her formative years were spent in Mexico. She is another example of the criminal element in Mexico spilling over into the US. If we were less of a sanctuary city perhaps, this crime would have been discovered sooner. If we didn’t allow nonresident birthright citizenship perhaps criminals like this woman would have a harder time getting into the US to operate.
Fine with me, but I challenge you to find a safer city in the United Stated with a similar population size.