Sold Into Slavery by Egyptian Parents, Beaumont Woman Now U.S. Citizen

She was sold by her parents in Egypt at age 8 for $30 a month, smuggled into the U.S. at age 10, and forced to work in Orange County for a wealthy couple from her homeland, immigration and customs officials say.

Shyima Hall, now 22 and a Beaumont resident, can look back on childhood slavery as a dark chapter in her life that is over. On Thursday in Montebello she became a U.S. citizen, the Los Angeles Times reports.

"It was like closing the circle for her," ICE Agent Mark Abend, who investigated Hall's case beginning nine years ago and attended the ceremony Thursday, told Banning-Beaumont Patch.

"She had overcome all this adversity. She'd been told she was worthless, that she was too dumb to go to school. She'd been held down all her life to that point."

Hall's ordeal in Southern California began in 2001 when a businessman brought her to the U.S. from Egypt, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents said in 2010.

The man told immigration officers at Los Angeles International Airport that Hall was his "adoptive daughter," and he was taking her on a trip to a theme park, ICE agents said in a statement.

"Instead, the man delivered her to a wealthy Egyptian couple who forced her to work seven days a week cleaning their opulent Orange County home and caring for their five children," ICE agents said.

"When she wasn't working, the couple made Shyima sleep on a bare, dirty mattress in the garage and wash her clothes outside in a bucket. She was not allowed to attend school and received no medical or dental care."

Hall's captors told her that authorities would beat her if she was discovered, according to ICE. They also told Hall that her family in Egypt would not receive money they had been promised, according to ICE.

Hall's escape from forced servitude began in 2002 when an anonymous tipster called authorities, and child welfare workers responded, according to ICE.

"Shyima was confused and frightened," Abend said in a prepared statement.

"I was appalled," Abend said, "imagining how I would feel if this had happened to one of my children."

The young girl initially did not trust investigators, Abend told Banning-Beaumont Patch.

"She was told she'd be beaten if she cooperated, that her family would suffer, and she believed all these lies," Abend said in a phone interview Friday. "A couple days later we had her call her father, and he told her to go back to the people she worked for.

"And she said 'No, it's not right. They're not good people. You sold me into slavery.' Here was a child with no family and no one to trust. When she said that it showed me her soul had survived."

Hall spent time with a foster family in San Jose, and within a year and a half she was acting "like a typical teenager," Abend said.

Abend spearheaded the investigation leading to the conviction of Hall's captors, according to ICE.

Abdel Nasser Eid Youssef Ibrahim and his former wife, Amal Ahmed Ewis-abd Motelib, were eventually prosecuted, imprisoned and deported, The Times reported.

Hall is now interested in law enforcement and possibly working for ICE. She is already considered an asset to the agency.

"In October 2009, she spoke to ICE special agents at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, sharing her experience as a human trafficking victim, including the emotional and physical trauma she endured," ICE officials said.

"I want to do everything I can now and in the future to help people understand more about this issue," Hall told ICE officials.

Abend said he will be following Hall's progress.

"Hopefully the next time I see her I'll get to put a badge on her," Abend told Banning-Beaumont Patch. "If she gets sworn in, I'd like to be the one who gets to do that."

Hall's case is not an isolated incident, ICE officials said. Immigration and customs agents conduct hundreds of investigations each year into "this modern-day form of slavery, rescuing numerous victims of commercial sex and forced labor exploitation," ICE officials said.

Immigration and customs officials urge the public to report suspected human trafficiking or anyone who they suspect is held against their will by calling the ICE tip line at 1-866-DHS-2ICE.