Cell block in the McHenry County Jail where ICE detainees are kept. The shifts were changing when this photo was taken.

A couple of years ago I had to go to the McHenry County Health Department for a flu shot.

Standing the long line in front of me was the Sheriff’s Department employee who ran the jail. We got to talking.

He told me how the Chinese men and women pay to get flown into O’Hare, but aren’t told that they need a passport to get out of the international terminal.

Imagine their surprise when they leave the airport in a bus headed to the McHenry County Jail in Woodstock.

I learned that the men work off the cost of their trip by working in Chinese restaurants across the country. They live in their basements, he said.

The women?

They are forced to become prostitutes.

Why do they do it?

The safety of relatives back home.

He didn’t tell me how they get out of jail.