The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America

In this revelatory debut, Soni, founder of the labor rights nonprofit Resilience Force, recounts the civil rights crusade of 500 workers from India who were recruited to work for Signal International, an American oil rig builder, under the false promise of a green card. In 2006, the workers arrived at the Mississippi “man camp facility,” which consisted of “sardine-can” housing trailers, inedible food, and broken-down bathrooms. The next year, Soni helped hundreds of the workers organize an escape from the camp, only for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to try to deport them. Taking a page from the civil rights movement, Soni and 60 workers marched in protest from Mississippi to Washington, D.C., where they staged a 31-day hunger strike. The workers also filed a class action lawsuit against Signal that concluded in 2015 when a federal jury found Signal guilty of committing labor fraud and trafficking, among other charges. Soni writes with empathy (“Jacob was carrying the burdens of his coworkers, and now I was carrying his”) and conviction (“Our march would be a traveling act of civil disobedience”). This is a searing account of the harrowing road to justice. Agent: David Larabell, CAA. (Jan.)