Trafficking Monitor is a blog I created and curate. It offers posts highlighting the multifaceted nature of human trafficking and forced/indentured labour. I draw on a diversity of sources for my posts. You are invited to recommend materials for posting.
SAN ANTONIO -- On Friday, a jury in state district court sentenced Juan Moreno, 45, to life in prison after convicting him on human trafficking charges. He held a 13-year-old runaway girl captive and forced her to have sex with several men.
Human trafficking, according to Assistant District Attorney Kirsta Melton, is "when a child is, in some way, obtained and then forced into prostitution or forced to engage in any other kind of forced labor or services."
State laws against human trafficking have been strengthened recently and now carry a maximum punishment of life in prison. The state laws are primarily used in domestic cases.
Federal laws against human trafficking, in most cases, deal with international cases.
"Best estimates suggest that there are over 100,000 children being trafficked here in the United States," Melton said.
"What we do not realize is that there are huge numbers of our very own children who are being trafficked right here."Prosecution at both the federal and state levels is vital, she said.
"We've got to take the resources and expertise that we have and apply it to the crisis," Melton said.
Melton said that there are other cases currently being prepared for prosecution in Bexar County.
Among them are cases against Moreno's younger brother and two other men accused of raping the teenage runaway.
Everything is bigger in Texas — including sex trafficking. Each year, about 10,000 people are trafficked through the state for the purpose of prostitution. One out of every three calls made to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline is from the Lone Star state. And to make matters worse, the Super Bowl, a massive attraction for prostitution, will be held next February in Dallas. Although Texas has done a terrific job of taking preemptive measures to crack down on pimps and sex traffickers — including proposing a new trafficking law — it is still neglecting victims. Urge Texan lawmakers to allot funds for trafficking shelters as part of proposed legislation SB 98.
SB 98, which was proposed by Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio), would increase the minimum jail time for offenders to 25 years in prison, require convicted traffickers to serve at least half their time before being eligible for parole, and register traffickers as sex offenders. The bill would also grant additional legal protection to child trafficking victims. Although these measures are a good start, the bill doesn’t provide sufficient assistance to victims. The legislation should fund specific shelters for victims of sex trafficking, and a campaign to publicize the availability of these safe houses to victims.
A common theme among trafficking victims is that they simply have no place to go. For example, when a Thai woman named Kiki, managed to pay off her “debt” to her pimp, earning him over US$200,000, she was locked out of her massage parlor in the middle of the night. With no alternative shelter, she asked to be let back in. Later, when she was brutally raped by knife point, she called the only phone number she knew — her pimp’s. Trafficking victims need shelters that provide care and security tailored to their predicament, and they need to know about them. One good example of this is the recent poster campaign in Washington state.
Although it may be more politically attractive to support legislation that punishes offenders, victims’ emotional and physical scars don’t go away after their pimps are in jail. Even if Texas’s progressive lawmaking manages to throw every trafficker operating during the Super Bowl in prison, the victims — often non-English speakers lacking identification — won’t have any place to go.
A legislative assistant for Sen. Van de Putte recently toldThe Texas Tribune that SB 98 is a “shell bill,” and will include the parts that people agree on. Let’s agree that shelters for victims of sex trafficking are just as important as law enforcement when it comes to combating this national issue. Tell Texas Senator Van de Putte to fund shelters for human trafficking victims as part of SB 98.
Perry said if re-elected he will ask the Legislature next year to create a new penalty for human trafficking that includes sentences of 25 years to life. The punishment would be for someone convicted of at least two incidents of human trafficking that occur at least 31 days apart.
Under the state's current law, a first-degree trafficking felony is punishable by five to 99 years or a life sentence. Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said the new penalty — a minimum sentence of 25 years and a maximum of life — would be for ongoing trafficking crimes. A convict also must serve more time before being considered for parole.
Human trafficking most often involves the sex trade, with gangs trapping women in lives of prostitution.
Perry's proposal would be directed at gang members who run the prostitution rings rather than the clients.
“Human traffickers prey on the hopes and dreams of their victims, promising better lives, when unfortunately what awaits is a life of confinement, criminal activity, and physical and mental abuse,” Perry said in a statement.
Perry's office cited statistics gathered by the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, where the governor's wife, Anita, works as a fundraiser. The group said federal estimates are that 18,000 to 20,000 victims are trafficked into the United States each year, and that 20 percent of the identified victims have been in Texas.
In addition to those brought in for prostitution, some of the individuals are brought in for hard labor in construction and agriculture. Many of the traffickers are believed to be in transnational gangs.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, last session carried legislation to create the attorney general's task force on prevention of human trafficking.
Katy Bacon, spokeswoman for Perry's Democratic opponent, said former Houston Mayor Bill White already has worked to reduce human trafficking in Texas.
Submitted by Leader Staff on February 27, 2010 - 5:03pm.
On Friday, former NBA All-Star player Alvin Robertson was arrested and charged with child sex trafficking after his alleged involvement in kidnapping a minor for illegal sexual transactions. According to Texas officials, Robertson was a part of a seven-man group involved in kidnapping, human trafficking, and sexual assault of a child.
Robertson, who was born in Barberton, Ohio, is said to be part of a group that kidnapped a 14-year-old girl from San Antonio in 2009, and then forced her to have sex with clients and dance at a Corpus Christi night club. An investigation that led to his arrest was launched when the girl escaped her captors and flagged down a police cruiser. The girl was able to identify her captors, as well as the places she was taken in great detail.
As shocking as the allegations may be, Robertson is no stranger to having trouble with the law. Robertson has a history of off-the-court problems. He was arrested on charges related to domestic violence three times, and was sentenced to three years in prison for a probation violation involving a rape accusation in 2002.
A four-time NBA All-Star, Robertson played for four different teams over the course of his NBA career (San Antonio, Milwaukee, Detroit. and Toronto). In 1986 he won Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved Player. He also holds the record for most steals in a season (301) and is fourth on the all-time steals list.
POSTED: Sunday, November 22, 2009
UPDATED: 8:58 am CST November 23, 2009
SAN ANTONIO -- The impact of local human trafficking shocked San Antonio a few weeks ago when we first introduced the problem of teenager girls, being snatched, drugged and forced into performing sexual acts.
Authorities say it's no longer just a problem overseas, but a problem that's now in our own back yard.
In order to help fight the problem, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office created a Human Trafficking Unit a couple of years ago.
Since then, many local agencies have gotten involved such as Catholic Charities to not only help get young victims of prostitution off the streets but get medical help and education.
Detectives Ochoa and Garza, the county's HT Unit, allowed us to ride along with one evening. We discovered the unit will sometimes work regular shifts during the day, then put in extra hours beginning around midnight into the early morning hours, patrolling the city, looking for young victims of human trafficking.
"We're finding more and more of our own citizens being forced into prostitution, " Ochoa said while driving the streets of San Antonio.
Their goal is to be on the look out for underage prostitutes.
Detective Garza has been part of the unit for several years.
"We don't do this to arrest the girls, we do this because we care about them, because they've been mistreated, sometimes even treated like dogs by their pimps, that they don't realize that people care about them and that's our message to them, we want to help get them off the streets," said Garza.
Members of the unit said they have taken a number of minors off the streets but their work is far from over.
"When you see an 11-year-old girl out on the street who knows how much to charge, the positions types of sex, its just heart wrenching," said Ochoa.
On this particular night, the streets were quiet, perhaps it was because the night air had quickly turned cold but even on cold nights, the detective say prostitutes will work the streets.
"What's going on?", asked Detective Ochoa as he and Garza approached a couple of street people sleeping under a Westside bridge.
It was past midnight and the deputies were familiar with this couple, he a known drug addict and the woman, known for prostitution in the past.
Although they both admitted to leading a clean life, they were asked if they had seen any minors working the streets.
Older prostitutes tend to want to help authorities remove teenagers and younger girls and boys from the streets and avoid a life of crime.
But this time the couple had no new information.
Later, the detectives spotted a woman who appeared to be talking to a john in a pickup truck.
The driver drove off quickly and the Human Trafficking Unit began questioning the woman.
Although she denied working the street, she admitted seeing other woman in the area but had no information on minors working as a prostitute. The detectives warned her of the dangers of working the streets and told her to go home to her little girl.
A never-ending job for the County's Human Trafficking Unit.
Watch Paul Venema's Report
Everything is bigger in Texas — including sex trafficking. Each year, about 10,000 people are trafficked through the state for the purpose of prostitution. One out of every three calls made to the National 
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