SAN ANTONIO — Two half-brothers are accused of having employed mainly Mexican migrants at for their San Antonio-based transportation company only to overwork and not pay them.
San Antonio police officials say their investigation into 35-year-old Jose Velazquez and 51-year-old Juan Velasquez started when a victim reported them and their company, VSR Transportation, to the National Trafficking Hotline in 2023. Authorities discovered that the Velasquezes would recruit migrants looking for work and pay to bring them into the U.S. before exploiting them, even allegedly altering logbooks to make it seem like employees weren't being overworked.
In fact, SAPD said, the migrants were driving beyond mandated federal limits, endangering the public because they could have fallen asleep at the wheel.
"There are these laws for a reason," SAPD spokesperson Ricardo Guzman said, adding the migrants dreams' were being exploited. "They were being unjust to these people who were working more than mandated for truck drivers. That's not fair to people who came to the U.S. in search of work; now they're being worked for free, they can't support their families.
Guzman said VSR Transportation is no longer in business after going bankrupt. Some, though not all, of the migrants were undocumented, and the Velasquezes would allegedly threaten to report their immigration status if they didn't do as they were instructed.
SAPD has identified a "handful" of victims but the department believes there are more. Officials are asking anyone who may have been victimized to contact SAPD at (210) 207-7273.
"They’re getting taken advantage of because of where they are or where they came from," Guzman said.
It's not clear how much money in total the suspects kept from their victims. They face felony charges of continuous trafficking of persons.
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