Overworked & Underpaid: Elder Care Immigrant Workers Trafficked in San Diego

Human Rights Research Center
1 minute ago
4 min read

Author: Amy Asubonteng

April 8, 2026

HRRC echoes the stance of the workers at the Rose Garden senior homes, the Pilipino Workers Center, and the San Diego County Prosecutors, including District Attorney Summer Stephan, in declaring that labor trafficking and wage theft are human rights violations. In addition, HRRC calls for public accountability to be held against the senior home’s managers if convicted of trafficking, not just as a consequence, but as a serious condemnation of labor violations committed in plain sight.

Executive director of the Pilipino Workers Center, Aquilina Soriano-Versoza, speaking at a news conference where DA Summer Stephan announces charges. [Image credit: AP Photo/Alex Riggins]

County Prosecutors in San Diego, California, filed felony charges against a husband and wife for the alleged exploitation of workers in two elderly residential care facilities in North County. Furthermore, San Diego County District Attorney (DA) Summer Stephan announced on April 2, 2026, that the Rose Garden senior home managers, Rolando Solancho Corpuz and Maria Elsabel Sio Corpuz, have been charged with three counts each for wage theft and another three each for human trafficking.

The investigation came after one worker reported the former employers to the Pilipino Workers Center, leading the Center to refer the investigation of the complaint to the San Diego County’s Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement. The evidence of criminal acts uncovered during the investigation led the Office to transfer the case to the Workplace Justice team of the San Diego District Attorney’s Office. Officials claim that this one report led to the identification of two additional victims.

At a news conference discussing the investigation, San Diego DA Stephan reported that the defendants “didn't just steal wages, they stripped away the dignity and fundamental rights of vulnerable individuals, leveraging their immigration status as a weapon of exploitation.”

The prosecutors claim the Corpuz couple exploited a Filipino employee’s immigration status by withholding wages under the false premise that they would help the immigrant worker obtain legal status. The victim reportedly worked at Rose Garden Vista and Rose Garden Capo in Escondido from May 2023 to June 2024, earning just $150 a day while working 24 hours a day, six to seven days per week, in addition to being required to live in the facility in the same room as a patient. The worker was also required to administer insulin and medication, despite not having the certification to do so. The other two victims were found to be facing similar working and pay conditions.

Legally speaking, the minimum wage was $15.50 in California beginning January 2023 and $16.00 starting in 2024. The daily wages given to the victims, calculated to be less than $7 per hour, therefore do not comply with California’s wage laws, hence the wage theft. Wage theft can be classified as labor trafficking— a form of human trafficking, or modern-day servitude. According to DA Stephan, Rolando and Maria Corpuz had pocketed over 175,000 USD of the workers’ hard-earned money.

On April 2, the same day of Stephan’s announcement, the couple pleaded not guilty in court after their arrest on March 26. The Corpuz couple will be in court again on May 14, 2026. If found guilty, they can face up to 19 years and four months in prison. While the District Attorney’s Office, in partnership with the County Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement, works to ensure safe, fair conditions for all employees, the Pilipino Workers Center takes a more direct stance in support of the workers:

“They [Filipino home care workers] are showing that it is possible for workers to file wage claims and win, and that the more workers stand up, employers will know there are real consequences to committing wage theft and other labor violations,” stated the center’s Executive Director, Aquilina Soriano-Versoza.

Glossary

Certification: an official document certifying, or legally justifying, somebody’s qualification to perform a duty, task, or job.
Defendants: a person or a group of people being sued or accused of committing a crime.
District Attorney: a lawyer who is the chief prosecutor, or law enforcement officer, representing a district in the United States.
Exploitation: the use of something, via grooming, enforcement, or coercion, for somebody's advantage or gain.
Facility: a place, or building to be specific, where a particular activity takes place.
Human trafficking: the servitude, or utilization of people, under force, fraud, or coercion to provide labor or services, including sexual acts, in which others benefit financially.
Labor trafficking: a form of modern-day slavery or human trafficking in which people work under violent, fraudulent, or coerced conditions without being fairly compensated.
Legal Status: an individual’s relationship or position to the law, including their citizenship or whether they are married.
Leveraging: the utilization of something valuable to achieve a particular result.
Minimum wage: the lowest fixed hourly rate a company or employer can legally pay to workers or employees.
Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement: San Diego’s government department, established in 2021, that assist workers and corporations on employment laws, hiring practices, and wage theft.
Prosecutor: a lawyer in the government who initiates and pursues legal charges against an offender.
Violation: the act of doing something that is not supported by the law or rules.
Wage theft: when an employer does not pay an employee what they earned, whether it be wages or other benefits.

Sources

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Overworked & Underpaid: Elder Care Immigrant Workers Trafficked in San Diego

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