Jeff Jacobsen has
a new article on Scientology's use of religious R-1 visas to bring people from other countries to the U.S. to work at menial labor for $50/week (with billion-year Sea Org contracts). R-1 visas are supposed to be for religious ministers who have been working for the U.S. organization sponsoring them for at least two years, and it appears that Scientology has abused these conditions to get cheap labor. And in the process, they've brought in people like Artur Solomonyan from Armenia, who was subsequently arrested and found guilty of illegal weapons sales after trying to sell weapons including surface-to-air missiles to an FBI informant.
If the appeal to come to the US and start a new life is still strong, where the only path to do so is to get sponsored by the CoS to do (basically unpaid) volunteer work, then we shouldn't be surprised that many will avail themselves of the opportunity.
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