IL Siblings Kidnapped Children, Forced Them To Work: Authorities

CHAMPAIGN, IL — A brother and sister from Guatemala were sentenced to prison this week in Central Illinois after their family forced two children and an adult to work for them for years, according to authorities.

Domingo Francisco-Juan, 44, was sentenced Monday to life in prison for kidnapping, forced labor and conspiracy, authorities said. He was also ordered to pay $50,000 in victim restitution, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Lorenza Domingo-Castaneda, 35, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for forced labor and conspiracy, and was ordered to pay over $80,000 to three victims, authorities said.

The case was investigated in the Champaign area, according to the department.

“Francisco-Juan’s sentence is historic, marking the first life sentence in over a decade in a forced labor case under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a news release.

“These victims, two of them children, were subjected to physical and sexual abuse to compel them to work as domestic servants, hotel maids and factory laborers. We are grateful to the survivors of these crimes for their tremendous courage in coming forward and reporting the violence and abuse they suffered.”

A third sibling, Catarina Domingo-Juan, 41, was sentenced in December to 240 months in prison for forced labor and conspiracy and was ordered to pay more than $80,000 to three victims, authorities said.

The trio conspired to bring a child from Guatemala to the U.S. to work in Domingo-Castaneda’s and Domingo-Juan’s homes between December 2015 and January 2021, according to the department.

Francisco-Juan accompanied the girl to the U.S. after assuring her mother she would get a better education and opportunities if permitted to travel with him, authorities said. Domingo-Juan took custody of the girl after falsely claiming to government officials that she was the child’s relative, according to the department.

The trio cut the girl off from her family, with Domingo-Castaneda and Domingo-Juan taking the money the child earned, and Francisco-Juan receiving the girl’s domestic services, authorities said.

Domingo-Castaneda and Domingo-Juan forced a second child and an adult to work in their homes and in area businesses between December 2018 and March 2021, according to the department.

Similar to the first victim, Domingo-Castaneda used false promises to lure the girl away from her mother and entice her into traveling to the U.S., authorities said. The two women forced the child and the adult to provide domestic services around their homes and give up their earnings from area businesses, according to the department.

Anyone with information about human trafficking is asked to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, authorities said.