A south suburban woman and her two daughters have received lengthy terms in federal prison after being convicted of conspiring to bring undocumented children into the U.S. to work at their homes and a hair salon, according to federal authorities.
Nawomi Awoga, 75, of Hazel Crest, was sentenced Friday to 8½ years while one of her daughters, Marina Oke, 38, of Country Club Hills, was sentenced to 7 years and 10 months, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Another daughter of Awoga, Assiba Lea Fandohan, 35, of Hazel Crest, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey to 6 years and 8 months.
Two undocumented West African girls, ages 12 and 14 at the time, left their families in Benin in June 2014 to come to the United States, according to July 2020 indictments charging the three women. Awoga is a citizen of Benin, and lived at various times with her daughters in the south suburbs, according to the indictment.
The girls were forced to do cleaning, cooking and wash laundry by hand, and were verbally and physically abused by the women, prosecutors said.
In asking for possible sentencing ranges for the women, prosecutors said that the three “robbed two young children of their innocence.”
Prosecutors said Awoga coached the victims in Benin to lie to U.S. immigration authorities about their family relationships in order to obtain tourist visas.
The defendants used violence against the victims to force them to work both inside the residences and at a nearby hair salon, prosecutors said.
In an Aug. 1 filing on possible sentences, prosecutors said the two girls’ days “started very early in the morning and did not end until late, when the work was done.”
Along with household chores, the girls served as caretakers for the women’s children and had no physical contact with their families in Benin but were permitted supervised phone calls, prosecutors said.
The girls were instructed to wash all laundry by hand, prosecutors said, and were also yelled at and hit if they did not wake up in the morning on time or if certain chores were not completed to specific standards, prosecutors said.
“The serious nature of labor trafficking cannot be overstated; it is a form of modern-day slavery,” prosecutors said.
They had asked the judge to sentence Awoga to a term of between a little more than 7 years to as much as 9 years, and sought the same potential sentence for Fandohan.
Regarding Oke, prosecutors asked for a sentence ranging from 9 years to a little more than 11 years.
In an Aug. 1 filing, attorneys for Awoga asked the court for leniency in imposing a sentence and that the woman “is profoundly humbled and deeply ashamed of herself.”
Awoga “understands that she can never truly make the victims whole after what she put them through” her lawyers said.
Following a two-week trial, they were each found guilty this past January of one count of conspiracy to conceal, harbor and shield from detection two children from the West African country of Benin; one count of concealment of an undocumented immigrant; and one count of forcing labor through threats of serious harm to a victim or another person, according to a news release from the office.
Oke, 34, forced the older girl to work from September 2014 to August 2017 by telling her that if she did not perform labor and services she or another person would suffer serious harm, prosecutors said.
Awoga and Fandohan, 31, are accused of making similar threats to induce the younger child to work between October 2014 and Sept. 6, 2016, according to prosecutors.
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