Human trafficking in Houston, Texas: Part One | FSRN - Free Speech Radio News

Special Series
Human trafficking in Houston, Texas: Part One
Mon, 12/28/2009 - 13:23

In the first of a two-part series on human trafficking, FSRN's Shannon Young files this report on transnational slavery in Houston.

* Length: 6:51 minutes (6.27 MB)
* Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)
[TRAFFICKING-MONITOR: GO TO THE FOLLOWING URL TO LISTEN TO THE AUDIO FILE]
http://www.fsrn.org/audio/human-trafficking-houston-texas-part-one/5959


The modern-day slave trade - known as human trafficking - rivals weapons smuggling as the most lucrative illegal business after drug trafficking. One of the largest hubs for modern-day slavery in the United States is Houston, Texas. The southern city is home to a large seaport, a sprawling international airport, and is a major destination along Interstate 10 - identified by the Department of Justice as one of the main human trafficking routes in the United States. In the first of a two-part series on human trafficking, FSRN's Shannon Young files this report on transnational slavery in Houston.

[TRANSCRIPT]

In Houston's Montrose neighborhood, more than 30 people board a chartered bus on their way to seeing familiar streets in a new light.

STEVEN GOFF: "So on behalf of Houston Rescue and Restore and all the partners that made this event possible, we would like to welcome you and ask that you not get too comfortable because what you will see and hear today just might disturb you.”
Organized by the Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition, the tour aims to raise awareness about the city's human trafficking problem.

Although largely a hidden crime, it is possible to detect the red flags of human trafficking from a distance. Traveling down main roads, Houston Rescue and Restore staffers point out street prostitution tracks, parks frequented by teenage runaways, and a day labor site where workers have been tricked out of their pay. But most of the sites flagged on the tour advertise as “spas” or “modeling studios” and have blacked-out windows, barred doors, security cameras, and neon signs stating they're open 24 hours a day. Many are concentrated in one area.

STEVEN GOFF: "Slow down - that one right there...and then this one right here. Huge places where women from typically Korea, Thailand, Vietnam are brought here. Either they live there, they actually live there for weeks at a time and then are just rotated from city to city...This one is particularly alarming for me - the walls, the gates."

Houston's size, proximity to the border, and extensive transportation infrastructure are all factors that make the city attractive for organized crime networks – including human traffickers.

The National Drug Intelligence Center identifies Houston as “one of the most significant cocaine distribution centers” in the country. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has traced more weapons from Mexican crime scenes to Houston than any other US city.

The same organizations that use Houston to traffic drugs and smuggle weapons have branched into the business of transporting immigrants. Ed Gallagher is the co-chair of the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance, a multi-agency task force covering the southern district of Texas.

ED GALLAGHER: "We experience a large influx of immigrants coming across our border illegally into the United States trying to look for work and most of these cases are NOT human trafficking, but many of them become human trafficking. And we have to distinguish between someone who is being smuggled into the United States just to find work and someone who's being smuggled into the United States, promised a job, and they end up being turned into a prostitute or they're forced to work to pay off a smuggling debt; that's when we get into trafficking.”

By its legal definition, human trafficking involves the elements of force, fraud, or coercion. A textbook example is that of a trafficker promising a job to an immigrant who, upon arrival in the US, finds him or herself trapped in a forced labor situation with a debt that's never meant to be paid off. Traffickers often physically hold their victims captive or threaten their families back home.

Constance Rossiter is the director of the YMCA International's Trafficked Persons Assistance Program, which provides direct aid to foreign adult victims of human trafficking.

CONSTANCE ROSSITER: "Victims are everywhere. They are in massage parlors, nail salons, construction workers, or the construction contractors that come in, the lawn service people that you have. A lot of them are domestic servants, farm workers...basically anywhere."

The level of collaboration between social service providers, non-governmental organizations and law enforcement has earned the Houston-based task force national recognition. Task force co-chair Ed Gallagher likens the early days of the alliance to an uneven bridge that does not meet in the middle.

ED GALLAGHER: "Law enforcement stands on the upper side of the bridge, looking down at the NGOs who are looking up at law enforcement and there's a great degree of mistrust between the two. That's something that is natural when you start a task force. We have overcome that. Our bridge now is smoothly together and we work side by side with our social service partners so that when we have a case coming down the pike, we have them on standby, we have them ready in the event that we have a case like US vs. Mondragon, over 100 women rescued, being forced into labor in a number of these local cantinas and bars in the Houston area following our 2005 raid."

US vs. Mondragon is the largest human trafficking case in the history of the continental United States. Another large Houston-based case, US vs. Salazar, followed shortly thereafter.

Victim testimony is key to prosecuting human trafficking charges, but Gallagher says that newly-rescued victims are often more willing to tell their stories to social workers than to law enforcement. The government can provide special visas and services to witnesses who do testify, but many come out of their experiences too traumatized to take the stand. In those cases, prosecutors often have to pursue lesser charges.

A national hotline has been set up to receive questions and tips about suspected human trafficking cases. The toll-free number is 1-888-3737-888. A third of the calls to the hotline come from the state of Texas. That's a testament both to the awareness efforts of local abolitionists – and to the size of the problem.

Shannon Young, FSRN.

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