Human Trafficking

While you aren't likely to see tied hands on human-trafficking victims you encounter in modern Houston, that doesn't mean they aren't being enslaved. In this story, you can learn how to identify and help them. (Photo: istockphoto.com/chameleonseye)

Houston has the biggest human-trafficking problem in the country,” said Kristin Rehler, an FBI supervisory special agent stationed here.

Rehler said the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline receives more calls from Houston than from any other U.S. city – even though many of us don’t really know what human trafficking is.

Edwin Chapuseaux, an investigator for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, thinks “human trafficking” is a confusing term. “It’s modern slavery, and that’s what they should have called it, period,” he said.

Chapuseaux and Rehler are both members of the Houston Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance, a coalition of government agencies and social-service organizations.

Human trafficking isn’t illegal immigration. And it isn’t the service “coyotes” provide to illegal immigrants, getting them across the border. That’s human smuggling.

Human trafficking is making people do some kind of labor against their will, using force, fraud or coercion. There are two types: sex trafficking, when victims are forced to perform commercial sex acts, and labor trafficking, when victims are forced to do other kinds of work.

“No movement is necessary for it to be trafficking,” said Rehler.

Victims don’t have to be from another country. In fact, most sex-trafficked victims in the U.S. are American citizens, according to the Houston-based organization Children at Risk. And most are children. According to Children at Risk, the average age at which a victim is first sex-trafficked is 12 to 13.

There are a lot of reasons why Houston is a hub. It is a large city near the border. It’s also on the I-10 corridor, which, according the Department of Justice, is the No. 1 route for human trafficking in the U.S. One estimate is that one out of every five trafficking victims in the country has at some point been transported on I-10 through Texas. Not only are international victims brought in using I-10, but many victims, domestic and international, end up being moved often by traffickers looking to avoid detection.

Houston is also, according to the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, the most diverse and fastest-growing U.S. city, a place where traffickers and their victims won’t stand out. And its lack of zoning means businesses that use trafficked victims can be anywhere. “We usually do geo-spatial mapping,” said the FBI’s Rehler, “but we can’t do that in Houston for human trafficking. The entire city is one big red dot. It’s all over: River Oaks, Conroe, Galveston. It’s everywhere.”

When it comes to American sex-trafficking victims, “a lot of people believe these girls are your daughter or my daughter, snatched off the street,” said Robert Sanborn, president and CEO of Children at Risk, “but that’s rare. By and large, most are American kids who run away from foster care or abusive homes.” One commonly cited statistic: One-third of all American runaways are approached by a trafficker within 48 hours of leaving home. “Traffickers know where to find them, at places like bus stations,” said Sanborn.

While sex-trafficking victims usually are U.S.-born, 95 percent of labor-trafficking victims are foreigners, according to Crime Stoppers of Houston. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, while almost 40 percent of all international victims brought to the U.S. come from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, 13 percent come from the Philippines, and 12 percent come from Thailand. Sometimes they are physically locked up and beaten, but they are also controlled by threats to their families back home, by having their documents taken, by being told they will be arrested and abused by law enforcement if they try to leave.

Labor trafficking, according to Chapuseaux of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, is harder for law enforcement to detect than sex trafficking. “It could be in any restaurant, any construction company, any factory,” he said. “It could be any type of labor in any type of business.”

According to NHTRC statistics, one common venue for labor trafficking is domestic servitude, often taking the form of live-in nannies and housekeepers. “I can think of three cases inside The Loop,” said Olivia Mathias, a lawyer five months into a fellowship working with human-trafficking victims at the Catholic Charities’ St. Frances Cabrini Center for Immigration Legal Assistance. Also, according to the NHTRC, those kids in the crews selling magazines door to door could be being trafficked, as could a dishwasher in a local restaurant or a manicurist at a local salon. Sometimes even panhandlers are forced to turn over the money they collect.

It’s not easy to tell if someone is being trafficked, according to Darrell Johnson, director of development for United Against Human Trafficking, another Houston-based nonprofit organization. Many will deny being victimized, out of fear or psychological trauma. Possible signs: being unwilling to speak, always being accompanied by someone, not holding onto their own IDs, and having no money and few possessions. “At a location, are there bars on the windows and excessive locks? Are those keeping people out or in?” said the FBI’s Rehler. “Are there rooms in the back where people might be living?”

Victims of trafficking often don’t know where they are or what’s around them. “Do they, for instance, know where the nearest fast-food restaurant is?” said Rehler.

If you suspect trafficking, talking to the possible victim could yield information to pass onto law enforcement. However, extreme care should be taken. “If the pimp or trafficker finds out that the victim talked to you, that could mean a beating for them,” said Chapuseaux. He remembers one trafficked girl who was cooperating with authorities. Against their instructions, she revealed to her trafficker where she was staying. She disappeared.

Because victims are considered assets by their “owners,” they are often brought to doctors and hospitals for medical care, according to Doctors for Change, a Houston group that holds one-hour education sessions for healthcare professionals on recognizing human trafficking. One sign, attendees learn, is that victims might be tattooed with their trafficker’s name. So far, five Houston doctors who have attended the sessions have identified victims.

“Mother Nature gave us a sixth sense,” said J.D. Sanders, chief of police for Memorial Villages. “If something doesn’t seem right, if the hair on the back of your neck rises, don’t be afraid to let someone know.”

If you suspect trafficking, you can report your suspicions, anonymously if you prefer, to the NHTRC hotline by phone (888-373-7888) or by texting HELP or INFO to BEFREE (233733) or with the center’s online form at http://live-nhtrc.radcampaign.com/report-trafficking. Anonymous tips can also be reported to Crime Stoppers of Houston by phone (713-222-TIPS) or by texting TIP610, plus your tip, to CRIMES (274637) or by using the Crime Stoppers phone app, available from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and Blackberry App World.

Want to help trafficking victims?

“I am very lucky to work in a city that already has a thriving community of anti-trafficking advocates,” Olivia Mathias, a young attorney working with Catholic Charities to assist human-trafficking victims, recently told the Texas Bar Journal.

Many non-profit organizations in Houston are looking for volunteers and donors to help them with their missions to help the victims of human trafficking.

The organizations mentioned in the article can be reached through their websites: Catholic Charities, Children at Risk, Crime Stoppers, Doctors for Change and United Against Human Trafficking.