re: Federal jury duty.

I was a juror in a federal trial. It was for VISA violations. There was a scheme to bring in nationals from India, get them fake papers and then they disappeared into the country. Indians would fly into Houston, be picked up, taken to a fake documents place and then transported all over the US. On the fed side, for witnesses, they could only find a handful of the many of these people out there. For instance, found a witness in the Nashville area who worked for a relative at a convenience type store. These people essentially worked for shelter, room and board. Sort of indentured servants. No paycheck money. Anyway, the two dudes were found guilty. A third escaped back into Mexico. This all was coordinated with a group down in Brownsville or along the southern border along with people in India who got big bucks from the "immigrants". It was about a two week trial. There were experts from various federal agencies including a computer forensics expert from the FBI.

I remember now. It was H2B VISA violations. That's the 30 day unskilled labor VISA for farm workers, etc. The Indians got the illegal H2B VISA with the help of the criminals and rather than go home to India, disappeared into this country.

I might add another thing that was interesting is that the jurors for the federal court district are pulled from a larger area than a state/county trial. I served in Houston and lived in Cypress. But there were potential jurors brought in as far out as the College Station area and perhaps a little farther. If one was chosen from one of these outlying areas, the court had to provide transportation in and back home.

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another thing that was interesting is that the jurors for the federal court district are pulled from a larger area than a state/county trial.

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Correct. For example, the state court in Alexandria will pull jurors only from Rapides Parish. The federal court in Alexandria can have jurors called from Avoyelles, Catahoula, Concordia, Grant, LaSalle, Natchitoches, Rapides, & Winn. The federal court in Lafayette draws jurors from St. Martin, Acadia, Evangeline, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Mary, St. Landry, & Vermilion.

If they call you in, don't be afraid to shout out racial slurs.