Human Trafficking in the US
Who's Stealing Little Black Girls?
Published August 13, 2009 @ 08:05AM PT
Across America, young African-American girls are vanishing from homes, schools, and neighborhoods and reappearing in brothels, escort agencies, and strip clubs. But what's happening to them isn't magic- it's slavery. And the insidious part of the trick is that no one seems to be helping them.
Across America, about 800,000 children are reported missing each year, 33% of which are African-American. In New York City last year, half of reported missing children were black and 60% were female. And these aren't 17-and-a-half-year-olds; most of the girls were between 13 and 15. Other urban areas like Atlanta, Washington DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles with large African-American populations also have high instances of young black girls being kidnapped or "running away". But what's happening to these girls? Surely they don't vanish into thin air?
They vanish, in fact, into pimps' pockets; these girls end up as trafficking victims in the commercial sex industry. Some meet pimps on the street and are deceived or coerced into street prostitution. Others are forced into strip clubs or filmed for pornography. Still others are advertised on Craigslist, escort agency websites, and other corners of the Internet. They are just as much human trafficking victims as the Vietnamese women enslaved in brothels in Thailand or the Guatemalan girl held in a home in El Paso.
However, many law enforcement agents still understand human trafficking as an international crime and seek it out primarily among communities of immigrants. According to the AMBER Ready Inc./Foundation,
Law enforcement in general only discusses human trafficking in terms of the Asian and Latino immigrant population while ignoring the threat to young and under-aged indigenous Black and Latino women.
In addition to the lack of attention by law enforcement, significant public outcry has claimed missing black kids are not featured in the national mainstream media as much as missing white kids. In an entirely un-scientific study, I thought about the last few missing kids I remember, and yes, all of them were white. I live in Washington, DC, a majority African-American area, and all I can remember are stories of missing white kids. True, my memory could be faulty, but I think few would argue that missing black and white kids get truly equal time on the national news.
So between a faulty understanding of human trafficking and a racially-biased national media, young black girls are falling through not so much cracks as gaping holes in America's safety nets. And at the bottom of those holes are pimps waiting to make money and johns wanting to "get lucky". At the bottom of those holes is a life of rape and abuse and slavery.
We know who's stealing little black girls, and they aren't magicians or illusionists. They're human traffickers, and it's time we put an end to their act.
Chipotle's Slave-Stuffed Burritos?
Published August 12, 2009 @ 12:07PM PT
The foil on your thick, juicy Chipotle burrito might be hiding a secret ingredient: slavery. That's because Chipotle refuses to pay the farmworkers who pick their produce a living wage and take steps to ensure their suppliers are slave-free. Tell Chipotle executives to end workers exploitation and stand up to their motto: "food with integrity".
The Coalition of Immokolee Workers (CIW), who have won great victories in the past few years in getting the likes of Taco Bell and McDonald's to agree to better wages and non-exploitative working conditions for farmworkers, are now setting their sights on burrito giant Chiptole. This comes on the heels of Chipotle's support for Food Inc., a documentary about "big food". The Chipotle/Food Inc. relationship is a pathetic PR move that lacks any real ability to improve the lives of farmworkers in the U.S. and reduce human trafficking in agriculture. We know Chipotle needs to do something real to address this real problem.
Some of the farm workers are paid sub-poverty wages in gross violations of labor laws. Others have been,
I love a good burrito, but not one that has been tainted by slavery. It's time Chipotle stood up for farmworkers and against human trafficking and exploitation.
Click here to email Chipotle executives and ask them to live their motto "food with integrity." Also, you can call Chipotle as part of CIW's call-in campaign to urge Chipotle to create a formal agreement to give farmworkers better wages.
Together we can stand up for justice, integrity, and delicious burritos!
New Jersey Pimp “Prince” Ruled Women from a Throne
Published August 10, 2009 @ 03:00AM PT
He called himself "Prince," a self-styling that had nothing to do with his heritage and everything to do with the autocratic way he ruled and controlled women. For almost 20 years, real-life pimp Allen Brown Jr. aka "Prince" beat and exploited the women he forced or coerced into prostitution, including ruling them from an actual throne. But despite his pretensions, Brown was nothing special.
As a pimp, Brown sought out vulnerable women for his "stable". He found them at bus stops, train stations, and night clubs. He found women desperate for money, love, stability, or a home. Some of them were already addicted to drugs, and those who were got their first fixes from Brown. Once he became their supplier, his autocratic control tightened.
Once they were addicted and under his control, Brown would send the women out to achieve their nightly quota, which ranged from $500 to $1000. If they failed to reach the quota, the women were beaten and/or locked out onto the street until they returned with the full amount of cash. Brown would also withhold fixes from the women who came home short and let their addiction force them back to serve another set of clients. In this way, he kept many of the women enslaved for years.
Brown was not unique for a pimp, in any way other than his ability to evade capture for 20 years. The ostentatious displays of complete control over women (such as issuing edicts from a living room throne), the quotas, and the punishments for failing to bring home money are all par for the course in the pimping game. Brown is a pimp and a trafficker because he forced or coerced his victims into prostitution before taking their money. And in that he wasn't unique either.
What may surprise some people about this trafficker was that all of the 47 women who Brown recruited were American citizens, and all but a couple were adults. Often we assume that only foreign women and children are forced into prostitution, and American adult women choose it willingly. Brown's case is a great example of how a pimp can use tools like drug addiction to keep adult women in slavery, even when those women are enslaved only a few miles from home. They came to rely on Brown for everything, and his coercion and threats of violence prevented their leaving.
Allen Brown Jr. has been indicted on charges of first-degree racketeering, human trafficking, money laundering, drug possession, theft by extortion, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and failure to pay state and gross income tax. He faces 20 to life on the human trafficking charge alone. In addition, seven other people who worked with Brown, including his mother, have also been charged.
This case is by no means unusual, and its message is as plain as can be: pimping is a crime, not a cool occupation or hobby. The gaudy trappings of the pimp may look royal to some, but his throne is built on rape, exploitation, and slavery. History has shown that true monarchs never stay in power long. Hopefully, that is true of the prince-pimp as well.
And after all, a throne in New Jersey is the definition of ridiculous.
Texas Battles Rep as Human Trafficking Hub
Published August 07, 2009 @ 08:06AM PT
Texas, and especially the border areas of the Rio Grande Valley, have been called a human trafficking hub and the "gateway" of human trafficking into the U.S. Certainly, the Texas-Mexico border is a popular entry point for traffickers smuggling in people from all over Central and South America. But abolitionist Texans are refusing to let their state be further tainted by it's title, and have taken some serious legislative and grassroots action to close the gateway.
Local advocacy group Children At Risk has put forth a number of bills to the state legislature, including:
- HB533 created civil liability for human traffickers by providing victims with an avenue to sue traffickers.
- HB4009 established a victim assistance program, a statewide human trafficking task force and mandated training for law enforcement agencies to help identify victims.
- SB 707 requires sexually-oriented businesses to maintain proper identification records for employees or independent contractors.
- HB960 gives municipalities and counties the right to access the National Crime Information Center, to obtain criminal information on people applying for licenses to operate sexually oriented businesses.
- HB 3094 created civil liability for operating an illegitimate "massage parlor" in a county with a population of 3.3 million or more. The offense is a Class A misdemeanor and carries a fine of $1,000 per violation.
Despite these new tools for law enforcement and social service organizations, the abolitionists of Texas have their work cut out for them. An estimated 17,000 people are brought across the border each year, many of them duped with false promises of jobs that turn into slavery once they reach America. This is one of those cases where the issue of human trafficking does get tied up in the immigration debate and included in the hotly contested policies around border protection and immigration. Trafficking is one peice of a larger issue, but one which deeply affects both the people crossing the border and those who live in Texas and the rest of the U.S.
Immigration aside, however, bravo to Texas for being proactive. It's never easy to admit when you have a problem, especially one as serious as being the gateway to human trafficking into the U.S. But acknowledging the situation has helped Texas take important steps to rectify it.
Hear that traffickers? Don't mess with Texas.
Lindsay Lohan Changes Clothes, World
Published August 05, 2009 @ 12:33PM PT
Yesterday began as an average day for actress Lindsay Lohan. Visit girlfriend. Change outfit. Grab a latte at Starbucks. Change outfit. Pick up sister from airport. Change outfit. With the addition of a couple extra wardrobe changes in there, it's the sort of day any one of us might have.
But as evening fell and Lindsay's Twitter activity increased, it appears she discovered human trafficking and was outraged. She tweets:
I just heard a 14 year old victim of human trafficking was married off to a 45 year old man as her father could not repay the money he had borrowed.
Followed by
This story of the 14 year old being sold is 1 of a million. I am going to use my voice to bring attention to this global crisis.
Go Lindsay! You have just joined the ranks of celebrities who are doing something to end human trafficking. Congratulations. And if you're stuck for ideas on how to get involved, have your people call (or email) my people (which is me), and we'll do lattes, or kefir milkshakes, or whatever green-tea-infused beverage is cool these days.
Or if you prefer, you could start small, like with one Fair Trade purchase. Might I suggest these?
Dreams of America Dashed: Mary's True Story of Slavery
Published August 04, 2009 @ 01:21PM PT
Mary's story was originally collected by The Salvation Army. Human trafficking between the U.S. and Mexico can be especially fluid because of the high demand for cheap labor in the U.S. and the broad border between the two countries. Here's Mary's story:
Mary was born in Mexico. When she was about 17 years old, she was persuaded to go to the USA with the promise that she would have a better life and be provided with a job. A man promised to take her and to look after her.
However, when she arrived in the USA her life got a lot worse. She was given a job at a factory packing vegetables. But she was escorted there and back every day and was never allowed to go anywhere on her own. She was never paid for the work that she did. She was given drugs and was badly abused. She wasn't allowed to go and see a doctor when she was ill or hurt. She wasn't allowed to leave her apartment except when she went to work. The man who took her to the USA threatened her. He said that if she tried to escape she would be deported - sent back to Mexico - or hurt by the immigration authorities.
Eventually Mary managed to escape with her young son. She is now staying in a special center that looks after people who have been trafficked or abused. She is being given shelter, food, clothing and advice about what to do next. She is hoping that she will be able to stay in the United States and start a new life.
Having a child, especially a child the trafficker knows about, changes everything for victims. Most parents would do anything in their power to keep their children safe from harm. Just like victims of domestic violence will stay with an abuser if he threatens to harm the children, so will victims of trafficking stay with a trafficker. In Mary's case, she was able to escape with her child. But many victims' children are back in their home country, and the traffickers threaten to harm them before the victim can get home.
In Recession, Fearful Workers Keep Quiet About Exploitation
Published August 03, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT
Undocumented (or documented) immigrant workers being exploited at work is sadly nothing new. But in today's economy, many of the workers who previously might have spoken up about workplace abuse or exploitation are now keeping their heads down and their lips shut for fear of losing their jobs.
New America Media tells the story of Clemente Rodriguez, a documented immigrant who works 14 hour days in a shoe store in New York City. Despite the fact that New York just raised their minimum wage from $7.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour, Clemente only get $35 a day for his work. He should be making at least $101.50.
Clemente, like many other migrant and immigrant workers, is being exploited by his employer. And now he's got a tough choice to make: file a legal complaint and risk losing a job he can't replace or suck it up and take the exploitation. Clemente's thoughts are,
I know that it is important and it will help us someday. It is good for the government's record, but not for my family. If I don't have a job, what will happen now? I think it's still better to have a small income, overcome my hardships, and make sure that I'll bring food to our table.
Clemente's specific case may not legally rise to the level of human trafficking since he is free to leave his job, though, arguably has no other reasonable options. However, one technique traffickers use to keep workers enslaved is to pay them something small instead of stealing all their wages. Especially in times of recession like this one when employment can be extremely hard to come by, workers like Clemente might decide that $2.50 an hour is better than nothing.
Think about what you would put up with to keep your current job in this economy. Would you take a cut in pay or benefits? Would you put up with your boss grabbing your ass or making lewd comments? Could you handle being paid less than is legal?
Now think about what someone who is truly desperate to keep a job would put up with in order to feed his or her family and stay in the U.S. Wage theft? Sexual assault or rape? Slavery?
It's a tough market for everyone, but even tougher for those who must keep their current job at any cost, no matter how terrible.
Image from outdoors.webshots.com
