What is going on?

More and more social service providers are having to work with Chinese immigrants who have been trafficked to Texas through the Mexican border.  San Antonio Human Trafficking Task Force is gearing up to have more Mandarin interpreters and facilities available to Chinese victims as this group of immigrants seems to rising in Texas. Nail and massage salons seem to be the culprit…..

Men Need Help Too!

The international organization, Men’s Resources International, is affiliated with the Men’s Resource and Support center here in South Texas. It is a great way to begin to change the way men relate to women and a way men can fight against violence against women, and support men on the road to recovery.

Here is their website:

http://www.mensresourcesinternational.org/

The Playground

The Playground, is a documentary by Libby Spears that portrays the issue of human trafficking of domestic minors in the U.S. It  is worth watching, despite being quite depressing. The University of Texas Austin School of Social Work gave a showing of it Tuesday night (3-10-09). Spears has been going to various Universities throughout the country showing the film to raise awareness.

The film portrays the lack of knowledge in our society that human trafficking of domestic minors is occurring. Most people relate human trafficking to foreign born victims, but this film sheds light on what is really happening to the youth of today in this country. Moreover, it shows that the amount of resources we have for helping domestic victims is quite limited. It is nominated for the Tribeca Film Festival and will hopefully raise awareness of human trafficking occurring within the United States. George Clooney is one of the producers of the film!

Article About TRLA in Del Rio, Texas

Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid takes aim at smugglers of enslaved victims

February 25, 2009
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

Human trafficking – one of those ugly “inconvenient truths” from which many avert their gaze – is getting a high profile treatment from a human rights organization that speaks on behalf of indigent residents of the Texas borderlands.Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid (TRLA), headquartered at Weslaco, Texas, focuses attention in the legal system on victims of domestic violence, elderly abuse, migrant farm workers, and displaced workers who cannot afford traditional representation.  But Candice April Lown, TRLA human trafficking outreach coordinator, has taken on a nearly imponderable challenge because her workload cannot be quantified, nor can success rates be verified.  Lown’s task is to educate.

“In Texas, trafficking is so clandestine that no one knows any real numbers of victims.  And internationally, there are only guesses,” Lown lamented, Tuesday (Jan. 13).  She believes there are 18,000 to 20,000 victims of coercion brought into Texas annually.  In 2002, former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft – in a Justice Department (DOJ) press release – estimated that 45,000 to 50,000 immigrants were “trafficked” into the United States where they “are trapped in modern-day slavery-like situations such as forced prostitution.”

Lown said government estimates suggest that a third of all trafficking into the United States comes into Texas, with a rate second only to California, where victims come not only from Mexico, but Asia and the Pacific Rim countries, including China.  Lown calls this form of abuse the second-most-profitable criminal activity in the world, generating about $9.5 billion to the traffickers and people who organize them.  (Number one in profitability is the international drug trade.)

Lown’s TRLA essay on Jan. 11, the Second National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, described the scheme that inflicts danger and abuse on unwitting victims of the international trade: 

Human trafficking is a simple ‘bait and switch’  operation that takes advantage of vulnerable individuals who are seeking new economic opportunities and are willing to believe almost anything to obtain a better life. Shameless opportunists prey on this vulnerability and shower the soon-to-be victims with false promises of high-wage jobs and affluent lifestyles. Then comes the “switch.” The individuals are put to work as domestic laborers with little or no pay, while others are forced to work in the commercial sex industry.  Often workers are told that they must tolerate inhumane conditions until they pay off a “debt” owed to the boss or recruiter.

Sweatshops and prostitution are the destinies of most such victims, each a form of indentured servitude from which there may be no escape, described by DOJ as “a wide variety of exploitative settings, ranging from the sex industry to domestic servitude to forced labor on farms and in factories.”

But Lown said that the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2002 offers relief to the men, women and children who manage to come forward to officials for relief.  Her organization – TRLA – and government law enforcement agencies can guide victims to protection and a special visa announced by Ashcroft after the Trafficking Victims act was passed.

According to Lown, victims must be certified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or district attorneys to have come into the country illegally by dint of force, fraud or coercion.

But Lown explained that finding the courage to report abuses to officials is “a major hurdle in the fight against human trafficking.”  The victims are deceived by traffickers, and then blame themselves for their sorry plight, lacking knowledge about laws and protections available.  Undocumented immigrants apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents occasionally report their victimization.

Asked how they are verified, Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Randy Hill responded, Wednesday (Feb. 25), “Much of that has to do with what the victims themselves tell us … They’re smuggled into the country with the intent of exploiting them in some way …We interview all the participants.  If they say they’re being forced into being taken to a sweat shop or prostitution, then we immediately call ICE, and in most cases they’ll come out and verify [the stories] and take charge of the situation.”

But many victims go undetected until they try to seek help before apprehension.  And that, Lown says, is where the educational thrusts of non-profit organizations such as TRLA come in, as victim-friendly advocates of the abused.  For example, trafficking victims may not know that they are eligible for special visa privileges under critical circumstances.  Ashcroft’s 2002 press release explains that identified victims may receive a “T visa,” particularly those who have sustained “severe forms of trafficking.”

The document permitting the victims to stay in this country comes with a caveat.  “They must comply with the investigation [and prosecution] of their traffickers,” said Lown.  While the visa holders and their immediate families are authorized to remain in the United States,

TRLA helps the victims to understand where they can get help and sustenance.  “While they’re with a T visa, they’re eligible for many resources, including all medical services, psychological care, housing, education, English classes and job-finding assistance,” Lown said. “TRLA also provides training for individuals and agencies that may work with victims, including health care workers, law enforcement officials, social workers, churches and community organizations.”

The January 2002 DOJ press release explained that, after three years in a T visa status, victims may apply for permanent residency in this country.  And – with limitations unspecified in the release – the victims may also apply for “non-immigrant” status for immediate family members, and victims under the age of 21 years may apply for the same privilege for their parents.

What happens to the successfully prosecuted perpetrators?  DOJ reports that under the TVPA provisions, those convicted can expect sentences of up to 20 years and – in some circumstances – life in prison.  “Texas has special laws prohibiting forced labor, too,” said Lown.  “But many of the perpetrators are also apprehended for murder, rape or kidnapping.”

Lown said reports of victimization may be reported easily and effectively to the National Human Trafficking Resources Center, managed by the Polaris Project (funded by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services).  Callers can expect anonymity, access in many languages, and 24-hour, live responses to calls to 1-888-373-7888.

For more information on the Polaris Project, see www.polarisproject.org. For more information about TRLA, see www.trla.org.

Let’s Do A Block Walk!

Block walking has proven to be quite effective in educating the community. It is necessary to go to our vulnerable communities and spread the word and offer help, but it is also important to reach out to the more affluent neighborhoods as well. Domestic workers who may be trafficked into this country are more likely to be found in affluent communities. If people know what labor trafficking is, then they will be able to notice the signs of somebody who is working against their will. Going out to your communities and going door to door will allow help spread the word about human trafficking!!

Student groups and church groups are great at doing this. I am trying to form these types of groups in my community, and I hope to go door to door, as well as go to flea markets and marches to hand out information!

If you would like to sign up, or want more information, call me 210-212-3796, or fill out our form! I want to Volunteer!