Eagan man’s sentencing shows slavery persists in Twin Cities

Five illegal immigrants, men from Mexico and Guatemala, were living in the basement of a home in Eagan for months. In that basement, they had only bits of carpet  to sleep on, only the blankets they'd brought with them into the country to stay warm, and there was no kitchen, no heat and, except for in the very beginning, no pay. They had been here working in the Twin Cities as siding installers for around four months in modern-day slavery, forced to keep quiet by their employer's threats to call the police and have them deported. Last Wednesday, Joo Ok Kim, 62, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for "harboring and concealing aliens." He pleaded guilty on Aug. 18 in a case that began March 28, 2009, when the police received a call that led to his arrest.What the five men went through is one of the more common forms of human trafficking, now days. In the Twin Cities, several hundred people are estimated to be living in mondern-day slavery.