Modern-day Slavery

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Human trafficking could be curtailed in Alabama thanks to new state law

By Christina Crowe

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June 10, 2010

Human trafficking: the phrase brings to mind brothels, massage parlors, prostitutes, and pimps, but it encompasses much more, including forced labor in factories or fields. In nearly record time, one local woman, Sara Jane Camacho, and her many supporters recently helped put new legislation on Alabama's books, taking our state off the list of a very few that had no human trafficking laws.

During the final day of the state legislative session on April 22, both houses of the Alabama state legislature passed House Bill 432, which makes engaging in an act of human trafficking or subjecting someone to indentured servitude a Class A felony punishable by 10 years to life in prison. It also makes obstructing an investigation into human trafficking a Class A felony, and adds 10 years to the sentence if the victim is a minor, according to Rep. Jack Williams (R-Vestavia Hills), who sponsored the bill. "The bill opens the door for federal and state assistance for victims of trafficking, and also provides a mechanism for victims, when there's been a conviction, to be able to bring a civil action against the person convicted," Williams says. "It also provides for training of law enforcement officials throughout the state." Prior to this legislation, Alabama has had to rely on federal authorities for the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking.

Williams says he first became interested in the issue in Alabama in 2006, after reading a news article about the disbanding of a trafficking ring in Marshall County, where a group of Latina women had been brought into the country and "were basically enslaved in a mobile home," Williams says. "Not four or five days later I read a story about a family in New York that U.S. marshals had busted who had two 13- to 14-year-old kids living in their home as indentured servants. I started wondering how this stuff goes on. I called and asked what laws we have in the state related to trafficking or indentured servitude, and found out we don't have any."

A year prior, in 2005, Camacho visited Thailand on a mission trip for her college, Samford University. While there, she was shocked by what she saw: "Western and European men in broad daylight with really young women," she recalls. "I'd heard about it, but it's different when you see it firsthand. I came back a different person."

When Camacho begin talking to her peers and her professors about the issue, "I got a bunch of scrunched eyebrows," she says. Undeterred, Camacho began researching the issue as it pertains to Alabama and the Southeast. "I showed documentaries on campus, and started doing my own research on how big a problem it is domestically." She contacted coalition heads in different states and made trips to Atlanta to learn about the problem and prevalence of sexual exploitation of minors there. "Atlanta is one of the biggest human trafficking hubs in the nation," she says. "They have huge strip club and sex entertainment industries." From those trips, Camacho learned that the route by which the girls are trafficked often "goes straight through Birmingham, with people flying into Atlanta and driving through Birmingham down to Louisiana—Baton Rouge is a huge hub for trafficking, and New Orleans, too."

Camacho points out that domestic minor trafficking may be the Birmingham area's biggest human trafficking problem, with child runaways being coerced into performing sexual acts for older men. "Ultimately it's about financial aid," she says. "These kids run away for a reason, and they don't take lots of money with them when they go. Then someone finds them who promises to take care of them and that's how they get sucked in. If they don't have any support at home it seems like a better option."

There are recent examples of violations in the state. A 25-year-old Louisiana man was arrested on charges of sex trafficking of minors and transporting his minor victims in interstate commerce for the purposes of prostitution. Dmarcus Antwain Ward allegedly transported two minors to Birmingham and back to Atlanta on separate occasions, causing both juveniles to engage in prostitution in both cities, according to the FBI. A lawsuit filed in Birmingham federal court in 2009 claims that a Mississippi man paid inadequate wages to two male Guatemalan guest workers for work in Mississippi and Alabama, forced them into debt, confiscated their visas, and threatened to report them to immigration officials as being in the country illegally. And in December of 2009, a federal grand jury in Birmingham indicted a Florence man for harboring a female minor in Lauderdale County and forcing her to perform sex acts for payment.

According to Williams, his first attempt to introduce a more basic version of the current human trafficking bill in 2008 was met with confusion. "When I first introduced this legislation, people were like, 'why are you doing this, does this happen in Alabama?'" In October of 2009, he says, Camacho called him. "She asked me why I had introduced the bill, and I said because human trafficking is wrong and there were no state laws against it."

By this point, Camacho had founded a nonprofit group tasked with aiding victims of human trafficking in the state. "She said, 'we like what your bill does but there is so much more it could do to be more comprehensive,'" Williams recalls. He and Camacho met later that month, with representatives from the Polaris Project—a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that monitors state and federal human trafficking laws and advocates for better policy—to assist in drafting the bill. "We were able to take from 43 other states the best of what they're doing and put it in our legislation," Williams says. "We would not have a bill this good if it were not for Sara."

According to Dana Gillis, FBI special agent in the Civil Rights Unit, with this legislation the state may be preventing a major human trafficking problem before it grows out of hand.

In January Joyce Vance, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, met with community leaders and service providers that cater to victims of human trafficking to talk about the need to address the issue proactively, before it gets a foothold in the state. "The major concern we see is an increased threat that could come into the region based on a thriving sex trade in the state of Georgia and up through the Florida Panhandle," Gillis says.

"Historically there have been issues regarding human trafficking related to the agricultural labor trades," he continues. "We've seen an influx of individuals from Guatemala and Honduras in Decatur; Albertville and the Huntsville area have individuals involved in the agricultural industry and poultry plants." Gillis points out that many of the victims of this type of human trafficking are illegal immigrants, which makes dealing with victims more complicated. "We work closely with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Service. We have to balance law enforcement with the risk of further victimizing people who have come into the country illegally. They become trapped. Our job is to try to stop the traffickers, and as far as consequences against illegals—that's a very difficult question for us to balance."

On May 16 and 17, state FBI representatives took part in a conference in conjunction with the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, looking at human trafficking as an issue of modern-day slavery. On June 9 and 10, the FBI is hosting a conference to provide training relative to recognizing the signs of human trafficking.

The new legislation has increased the resources available to Camacho and her supporters, but their work is far from complete. In 2009, Camacho formed Freedom to Thrive (FTT), a nonprofit coalition comprised of law enforcement, social-service providers, and individuals committed to eliminating human trafficking in the greater Birmingham area. There is one shelter in the state that can accommodate minor human trafficking victims, Camacho says, and a few in Atlanta, "but long-term care is needed. It would be wonderful to have bed space and trained staff." FTT welcomes volunteers, and Camacho emphasizes that awareness is a big part of the organization's work. It is suspected that social workers and employees with the state's Department of Human Resources, for example, come into contact with human trafficking victims more often than they realize. Part of FTT's aims is to train those individuals, as well as local law enforcement, prosecutors, and the average citizen, to recognize the crime. "It's shocking to me how unaware the general public is of this problem," Camacho states. "People need to keep an eye on their own communities." &

Human Trafficking Resources:

• Freedom to Thrive: www.freedomtothrive.org.
• National Trafficking Hotline: (888) 373-7888.
• Polaris Project: www.polarisproject.org.
• Local Spanish-language victims' hotline, available 24 hours (human trafficking, family violence, sexual assault, and rape): 877-298-3220.
• JustUs, a local nonprofit comprised of young people working to stop human trafficking: www.justustoday.org.
• The FBI's Human Trafficking Division: www.tinyurl.com/kmz2y3.

Modern-day Slavery