Couple that kept modern-day slave for 19 years deported

BROOKFIELD -- Two husband-and-wife doctors from Brookfield, who kept a Filipina domestic servant in their home as a virtual slave for nearly 20 years, were deported this week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

67-year-old Jefferson Calimlim Sr. and his wife, 66-year-old Elnora -- both former medical doctors in Milwaukee, were deported June 12th from the United States under ICE escort, arriving in Manila on June 14th.

The Calimlims were convicted May 2006 for forcing a woman to work under conditions of servitude for nearly two decades in their Brookfield home.

The Calimlins were sentenced to six years in federal prison on human trafficking charges, and ordered to pay more than $900,000 in restitution to the victim.

On Dec. 7, 2010, a federal immigration judge in Chicago ordered the Calimlims removed to the Philippines after they complete their prison sentences. On June 1st, the Calimlims were released from the Bureau of Prisons and turned over to ICE to be deported.

During a federal jury trial in Milwaukee, it was determined that the Calimlims recruited and brought the victim from the Philippines to work for them in 1985 when she was 19 years old.

In September 2004, HSI special agents, with assistance from the FBI and the Brookfield police, rescued the then 38-year-old victim from the Calimlim’s residence after receiving a tip that the doctors were keeping a maid in their basement as an indentured servant. The victim was found hiding behind the door in a basement closet.