20 Years Combatting Human Trafficking Part 2
President Bush's speech was a surprise... He showed us how important our work was and that his administration considered this issue a high priority, second only to terrorism.
In 2004, just a few weeks after I was hired to lead the Trafficked Persons Assistance Program for YMCA International in Houston, Texas, about five hundred of us from around the United States were sent to Tampa Florida for the first ever National Conference on Human Trafficking.
The Department of Justice selected us to go in teams. The teams consisted of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, local law enforcement detectives, state level detectives, victims assistance advocates, and some judges. The DoJ paid for all of us to attend for 3 days of training in Tampa, Florida. I remember it rained the first night. I was on the 12th floor of the Marriott. The lightning began and the thunder seemed so loud. It sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. It seemed to me like God was chiming in on the fierce urgency needed to combat this crime. The next morning, I was energized and ready to go!
I met many amazing officials. I kept every business card and sought out every official I thought might be helpful to serving victims. One such person was Assistant Attorney General Alex Acosta. He was one of the three main speakers, the other two being Attorney General John Ashcroft, and President Bush.
Acosta told a powerful story about a minor child being sold for sex. He spoke of her innocence, a teddy bear, and a roll of paper towels. He told a heartbreaking tale of her childhood being extinguished for commercial sex.
We learned about the investigations of the labor case Kil Soo Lee and the sex trafficking case Soto.
The Kil Soo Lee garment factory case recently prosecuted in the District of Hawaii involved more than 250 Vietnamese and Chinese nationals.
The Soto case:
“From August 2002 to March 2003, three brothers … Juan Carlos Soto, Armando Soto, and Hector Soto … and their henchmen smuggled groups of young women from Mexico into the United States. In the Edinburg, Texas area, they would house the women in mobile homes, then sell them into servitude. Sometimes, they kept the women for themselves.” (Taken from Attorney General Ashcroft’s speech)
After hearing these about these crimes from the speakers, one of the Assistant U.S. attorneys from our team complained about being here. He said there were no trafficking victims in Houston, and he was too busy to waste time here.
I remember thinking “Oh my, this is going to be much more difficult than I thought.”
Part of my job was to train officials about identifying victims of Trafficking. I pondered to myself; how do you train someone who thinks they know everything?
President Bush's speech was a surprise. We were not told he was coming. It was such a wonderful way to bless us to move forward. He showed us how important our work was and that his administration considered this issue a high priority, second only to terrorism.
I took what President Bush said and ran with it fully.
20 years later my thoughts are:
Alex Acosta used to be someone I could reach out to or call. I would meet him a few more times at trainings and conferences. He was the go-to guy for human trafficking. Sadly, he became the person who let Jeffrey Epstein write his own slap on the wrist for sex trafficking minors. It first broke my heart and then made me TERRIBLY angry. Acosta and his paper towels story now sounded fake to me; he knew exactly what he agreed to with Epstein.
The Assistant US Attorney on our team, who was "too busy" and thought there were no victims in Houston, became a wonderful part of our task force and an advocate for victims about a year after that conference. We had some great moments as a team. I have learned that often the person who complains the most can become the best advocate. All you must do is find a way to enlighten them in a way they can hear. I spent a lot of time finding his. He made me a better trainer!
That Assistant US Attorney went on to successfully prosecute traffickers, and to train other prosecutors throughout the US to do the same.
20 years later I still see cases like Soto and Kil Soo Lee. I still pray for the day when those cases are rare not common.
While we have rescued many victims since 2003, the demands for commercial sex and cheap labor exist in our society. I pray for the day when stripping, pornography and prostitution are seen as barbaric and cheap, exploited labor is extinguished. Only then, will we not need to rescue so many victims.
The link below is from the conference.
In the photo below I am in the crowd, too short to be seen but I was there!