Some of us already know this.
Posted on 09/25/2004 7:58:48 AM PDT by FITZ
Victims of human trafficking may be sent to El Paso after they are rescued, thanks to a new federal program.
And those sent to the city will be eligible for an array of government assistance, including medical care, Food Stamps, housing and immigration assistance.
A seminar recently taught nearly 300 law-enforcement and social service workers about the new program, Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking.
Attendees learned that foreigners who dance in adult clubs, work as housekeepers or beg for money on the street could be human-trafficking victims.
"I had no idea until the seminar that human trafficking was such an extensive problem, and that it goes on here as well," said Adriana Jimenez, an outreach advocate for Sexual Trauma and Assault Response Services. She learned to identify and help victims.
"We learned the signs ... that could tip us off on whether someone is a human-trafficking victim. We learned that even people we see selling trinkets on the street could be victims. We were also told that law enforcement was looking into a few cases in El Paso," she said.
Johnny Sutton, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas who testified in July before a Senate committee, said by phone that President Bush has made human-trafficking a priority. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, had the hearing to discuss efforts to battle human trafficking.
"Smuggling is different from trafficking," Sutton said. "Trafficking is a modern form of slavery. Traffickers prey upon the most vulnerable and desperate of victims. During the past three years, we have seen an increase in the number of cases in the Western District of Texas. They are difficult to investigate and prosecute because the victims are reluctant to contact authorities. They have been threatened ... that if they contact the police they will be arrested and deported, and sometimes they threaten them or their families."
Human trafficking is defined as the recruiting, harboring, transporting or obtaining a person through the use of force, fraud or coercion to subject a person to involuntary servitude, debt bondage or slavery. The law covers the sex trafficking of youths younger than 18.
Human smuggling is the illegal and voluntary movement of undocumented immigrants. Some trafficking victims begin as voluntary immigrants and end up being held against their will. Traffickers can come from all walks of life. A trafficking operation can be run by one person or organized crime.
One case Sutton's office prosecuted involved women brought to the United States by a UTEP research assistant and his wife. They lured young women from Uzbekistan with promises of modeling jobs and a chance to bring their families. Once here, officials said, the women were forced to work in local strip clubs.
Soon, the U.S. attorney's office will announce the forming of a local human-trafficking task force.
El Paso may be one city where victims could be sent to live. Under the Torture Victims Relief Authorization Act, organizations that provide medical, psychological, social and legal services can get federal grants.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services experts say victims suffer physical and psychological health problems due to inhumane living conditions, poor nutrition, physical and emotional abuse, dangerous workplace conditions and no health care.
Dr. Wade Horn, assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families in the department, and Steven Wagner, director of the department's human-trafficking program, said a nationwide network of service providers for victims will be created.
Wagner said law enforcement considers El Paso a human-trafficking gateway. Immigrants are taken to places like California, Oregon, Illinois, New York and Florida.
The federal campaign prompted El Paso to create a coalition of law enforcement and social service organizations to deal with immigrant smuggling, said Ouisa Davis, executive director of the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services.
"The way these organizations and law enforcement have come together is historic," she said. "The fact that many trafficking rings are being discovered in other communities, and that many of these people are transported through El Paso, has helped to make this an important issue.
"It's an issue here, too, and it needs a coordinated response. There are areas in El Paso County where people are being held, but we don't know where yet. Some cases we've had in the past involved forced prostitution and young women working as domestics."
Two factors spurred the national campaign, which includes a toll-free hot line and an information kit for groups that want to help, Horn said. Texas had many hot line calls from April through August. Half of the callers spoke Spanish.
"First, we had the new (law) that defined victims as victims as opposed to illegal (immigrants)," Horn said. "Second, when we found that only 240 of the estimated 14,000 to 16,000 people trafficked in the United States each year had been identified, we determined that that wasn't good enough."
Horn said the agency decided to spread information about such immigrants to people they might come in contact with.
Before the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 passed, human-trafficking victims were arrested and deported. Now, eligible victims may qualify for a special T-visa to stay in the United States.
"This international criminal market (generates) an estimated $9.5 billion in profit for criminal organizations worldwide," John P. Torres, deputy assistant director of smuggling and public safety for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told Congress in May. Torres also said traffickers and smugglers can be exploited by terrorists seeking U.S. entry.
Last year, Bush signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003, which enabled trafficking victims to sue traffickers in federal court.
Mosaic Family Services in Dallas-Fort Worth already helps trafficking victims. Program director Irina Nguyen said "human trafficking is a lucrative business, and every case is different. We can't take a cookie-cutter approach."
Mosaic is helping 26 women from Honduras who were taken to Fort Worth in a sex-trafficking scheme, and another group that was trapped in forced labor by a Korean factory operating in American Samoa.
Check this out --- I guess deportation is over. The federal government will make these people a very nice lifestyle on our money -- all the more reason to come on over --- even if prostitution is your only job skill.
Some of us already know this.
These people were victims of fraud. Man, you people are reactionaries.
In that picture he actually looks like he might be hauling a load of smuggled humans. I guess the federal government was running out of welfare recipients --- we need more indigent illiterates who often can only dance in nudie bars to take the government handouts Americans are too arrogant to take.
ping
So we've got to support them for the rest of their lives? I would think anyone getting into a semi trailer with 100 other people knew what they were doing and that what they were doing was illegal. Sure they might be dupes --- just send them home.
The most basic care should be administered then send them back. I don't understand. What is going on in Mexico that a person would get into a truck with no air and in very hot weather to be smuggled?
Past time to return to the former policy, catch and deport!!!!
Where does it say anything about lifetime support or semi-trailers in the article? Did you READ the article? Or did you come upon the headline, start drooling, and quickly paste it for the amusement of your dismal pals?
Tractor trailers and box trucks are the most common means of transporting illegals.
Did YOU read the piece?
Sure -- get them free housing? Free medical care? Immigration assistance? Sure doesn't look like it would be anything less than lifetime support by the US taxpayers. It doesn't say a thing about this being temporary --- and these people come with no skills whatsoever --- no means to support themselves.
The best plan would be to deport them immediately --- get them back to their families and neighborhoods.
Did you read the piece? This article is talking about ANYONE who agreed to be smuggled into the USA --- whether they paid a coyotes big money or found a cheaper way by agreeing to be locked inside an unventilated box car. Anyone smuggled is now eligible for a whole lot of taxpayer money.
Yes I did read it. Why are you being hostile? I'm just trying to explain why someone else brought up trucks. Most of those in human trafficking are illegal aliens looking to come here.
The ones with IQ's over 80 tend to see the problem in doing that and decide to come over a different way. Even illegals who never attended a day of school can usually figure out that is a stupid thing to do --- the types who do --- who agree to standing room only conditions with no air to breathe --- and who know they're going to be locked in like that aren't very bright.
You guys are really on top of things FITZ.
I'm hostile because this act, and the benefits accred throughi it, was passed in 2000 and signed by Clinton. These are kidnapped slaves, cyborg. Many are sex slaves. Bush wants more of them found, liberated, and given a refuge. Cripes.
You are behind the times --- sure Clinton created a new Socialist program --- but Bush is making it even bigger and better --- expanding it to include thousands, or millions instead a few hundred:
http://www.usembassy.it/file2004_07/alia/a4071614.htm
16 July 2004
Bush Administration Takes New Steps to Combat Human Trafficking, July 16, 2004
Read --- and you'll see that it's been expanded to define victims as those working in farming, factories, domestic servants, street beggers --- it's not just for prostitutes and strippers any more.
Powerless little men flailing on the internet.
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