A Mexican pastor is currently jailed and awaiting sentencing following her conviction this week on forced labor charges. The conviction is tied to a migrant shelter she ran in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.
This week, Pastor Velia Hernandez Gonzalez stood trial before Chihuahua State Judge Jorge Arturo Gutierrez Ortiz, who ultimately convicted her, El Diario de Juarez reported. The conviction came after more than two months in a trial where prosecutors presented evidence and witness testimony about how Hernandez mistreated the various migrants who were in her care, used various threats to keep them in line, forced them to work, and various other cases of abuse including allegations of attempted sexual abuse.
Sentencing for the religious leader is scheduled for next week, when she could receive a sentence of up to 180 years in prison.
Hernandez Gonzalez ran and lived in a shelter called Aposento Alto in Ciudad Juarez, where she and her family were supposed to care for migrants. She would receive support and financial aid from various U.S. ministries. The shelter was part of a network of shelters aimed at helping deal with the migrant crisis that had plagued the border city in recent years.
However, prosecutors claimed that between October 2021 and April 2022, she abused migrants in her shelter, fed them rotten food, and threatened to block their immigration process. Hernandez forced three men, under various threats, to work construction for the shelter while they stayed there.
According to La Jornada, the migrants would be forced to work day and night doing various construction projects for the pastor without receiving any payment.
One migrant testified that the pastor’s son, identified as Nestor R., would offer him meth and other drugs while he stayed there. Other testimony pointed to Nestor approaching other migrant men in a nude state and making various sexual advances toward them.
Three other witnesses refused to attend the hearings, claiming to feel threatened.
The women also collected weekly fees from all migrants and would not allow them to leave for more than one day. Testimony revealed that she would make migrants sign a confidentiality agreement about what went on inside. Any violation of the agreement or her terms would result in the pastor blocking their asylum claim process in the U.S.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at
