20th-century slavery was hiding in plain sight

When federal agents raided a Los Angeles-area garment factory in 1995, they had no idea what they’d find inside. Twenty-five years later, I look back at the El Monte sweatshop case, which exposed the enslavement of more than 70 Thai nationals. In interviews with a survivor, the prosecutor who organized the raid and a curator preserving its remnants at Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, I uncover how the factory’s discovery changed the life of its workers and helped inspire the local and federal human trafficking laws and labor reforms.