Texas: the hub of human trafficking with no long term care shelters for victims

Human trafficking is nothing new in Texas. But, Super Bowl alarms community groups and law enforcement to fight against human trafficking and child sexual exploitation in their home state. Major law enforcementagencies mandated 40 hours training for commissioner officers, while activists and community groups held a meeting to assist victims and to raise awareness of human trafficking.

Few factors about human trafficking in Texas

According to on report by a nonprofit in Texas:

• Texas and the Southwest border continue to serve as the biggest point of illegal entry into the U.S., largely because traffickers are able to get aliens across without documents.
• While the Southwest border is often used as the main portal into the United States, the emerging ports of entry in the region include Atlanta, Houston, Orlando and Washington D.C.
• Three main factors contribute to trafficking in Texas and Houston: proximity, demographics, large migrant labor force. Houston’s proximity to the Mexican border and I-10, along with its port, make it a popular point of entry for international trafficking.
• In the last quarter of 2007, 30% of all tips to the national hotline came from Texas (Polaris Project Washington, DC).
• As of January 2006, of all human trafficking victims certified in the United States, 25% of them were in Texas, the majority of whom were in Houston. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Rescue and Restore Campaign Results, April 2004 thru January 2006). Of the three social service agencies in Houston serving human trafficking victims, YMCA Intl. Houston has served over 105 victims, 2 of whom were under age minors (YMCA Intl., 2007).

Polaris Project further reports that in 2008, 38% of all calls to the national hotline came from Texas, which was up from 30% in 2007 as mentioned above.

Another child forced into prostitution and lack of shelters

Just this morning, another 13 year old child was reportedly forced into prostitution by three men in Dallas, Texas. She had been missing since December 2010 after leaving a middle school basketball game with two 20 year old men. It was only recent that she returned home to her parents after being brutally raped and forced into prostitution by her pimp. This case shows that human trafficking in Texas is not only common but also ongoing issue that the state must deal with. The victim was fortunate enough that she was able to go back to her parents home after the rescue. But, for many trafficking victims, there is nowhere to go even after the rescue as Texas has no shelters available to meet the long term care needs of trafficking victims.