93-3-3-WMR Audio on Demand presents the Preston and Steve show podcast.

And now, Preston and Steve's news updates with Kathy Romano.

And it is May the 12th day, Wednesday. Good morning, Kathy.

Good morning in the news this morning. FBI agents were at a large Hindu temple in New Jersey on Tuesday as a new lawsuit claimed it was built by workers from marginalized communities in India who were lowered to the United States and forced to work long hours for just a few dollars per day. This story is crazy. The lawsuit accuses the leaders of the Hindu organization known as BAPS of human trafficking and wage law violations.

An FBI spokesperson confirmed that agents were at the temple on court-authorized law enforcement

activity but wouldn't elaborate. One of the attorneys who filed the suit said some workers had been

removed from the site on Tuesday. The lawsuit says that more than 200 workers, many of them whom

don't speak English, were coerced into signing employment agreements in India.

They traveled to New Jersey under R1 visas, which are meant for those who minister or work in religious vocations or occupations, according to the lawsuit.

When they arrived, the lawsuit says their passports were taken and they were forced to work at the temple from 6.30 a.m. until 7.30 p.m. with few days off for about $450 per month, a rate that the suit said came out to about $1.20 per hour.

Kathy, do you know when the bulk of these workers arrived? Was it prior to the pandemic? Oh, yeah. It was like two, three years ago. Okay, all right. Yeah, some of them have been here for years.

Of that, the workers allegedly only received $50 in cash per month with the rest deposited into their accounts in India.

According to the lawsuit, they exploited workers from Dalits members, which is the lowest step of the South Asia caste hierarchy, an attorney representing

several workers, Daniel Werner, called it shocking that this happens in our backyard.

It is even more disturbing that it's gone on for years in New Jersey behind the temple's walls.

Yeah, so I didn't see this yet, but there's a documentary called Sea Spiracy on Netflix right now.

I haven't seen it, but it looks good.

Well, so there's a lot of different things that are apparently in that documentary.

And one of these things is how these people are forced into essentially slave labor.

And they are basically duped into thinking that they're getting these great jobs on these sea vessels. and they're usually younger. And they put them, and they're not allowed off the boat. And, you know, so this is crazy. It's even more disturbing. They're saying that, you know, it's been happening here for years. So he said some of the workers were on the site for a year, two years, or even longer, and were not allowed to leave unless

accompanied by somebody from BAPS.

BAPS CEO, Canoe Patel, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, told the New York Times,

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