UTB-TSC Center for Civic Engagement shines a light on human trafficking

 When two Brownsville residents were charged in May with importing and harboring unauthorized immigrants for prostitution, UTB-TSC student Yadira Gonzalez started to wonder how she could bring awareness to the presence of human trafficking in the Rio Grande Valley.

On Saturday, Gonzalez presented a community discussion about human trafficking and slavery, sponsored by the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College Center for Civic Engagement and the International Christian Center.

"We can learn the signs of human trafficking," Gonzalez said. "We can let victims know their rights so they can escape the situations they're in and improve their lives."

Concerned participants listened to speeches by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Program Manager Mark Lippa and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Outreach Coordinator Candice Lown about the phenomenon of human trafficking. Shared Hope International and Love146.org also contributed to the event.

"My job is to liaison with law enforcement, health care providers and social service providers to create a better network of assistance for trafficking victims," Lown said. "We think that many victims are living in rural areas where they're easier to hide."

The Valley, Lown said, generally serves as a transitional area for traffickers. Victims are brought here from Mexico and other parts of Latin America and then are taken north.

Although Saturday's discussion focused on trafficking in the U.S., human trafficking occurs worldwide. It is estimated that 27 million people are slaves globally, and about 14,500 people are annually trafficked into the United States and forced into slavery each year.

Lown and Lippa described two classic human slavery scenarios. In the first, a trafficker lures in a potential victim in their home country with promises of work and a better life. Once the victim is in the trafficker's clutches, he or she then becomes a work or sex slave. In the second scenario, it is not foreigners who are brought into the country but U.S. citizens who become enslaved to an abuser. Most often the victims are runaway teenagers who initially are given help by their aggressors, but are later forced to do work or become prostitutes.

"The victims in these cases suffer from physical and psychological trauma," said Lippa, who noted that ICE investigated 432 cases of human trafficking in fiscal year 2008. Lippa said that many domestic slavery victims have trouble leaving the aggressor because they have been psychologically manipulated with a combination of caring and abuse for so long.

Lippa also described a story that might be familiar to South Texans - in 2004, Juan Carlos Soto was sentenced to 23 years in prison for leading a sex-slave ring, raping and forcing four Central American women to work against their will, according to Associated Press archives.

Lown invites the community to contact Texas RioGrande Legal Aid for more information about human trafficking. Her email address is calown@trla.org.

Victims of domestic slavery or human trafficking can call 1-888-373-7888 for help.

ltillman@brownsvilleherald.com