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Increased Human Trafficking in America

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Increased Human Trafficking in America

Human trafficking is one of the most tragic and horrendous forms of human rights violation, that is increasing at a rapid rate all over the world. The United States of America is also not safe from this plague. All over the world, there are more than 50 million people that are victims of sex trafficking. Every year $32 billion is earned through human trafficking. These people are forced into various illegal activities and professions by force, such as forced labor, slavery, servitude and are often forced into the demeaning profession of a sex worker. About 80% of the trafficked victims are forced into sex slavery. These people are also forced to donate their organs. Often young children are kidnapped and trafficked into the other countries or states by the mafia. But this issue of human trafficking has been confused with the illegal immigration in America when these two issues are completely separate. This intersection of human trafficking and immigration is alarming and is posing threat to the innocent victims of human trafficking.

Many of these victims are trafficked to foreign lands through illegal means, using various methods. Some of them are kidnapped others are lured and deceived with the promise of legitimate jobs in foreign countries. A quarter of such cases involve the minors who are abducted from their families. These victims live the life of fear and live their lives as a vulnerable group in the United States due to several reasons. Majority of the victims in the US are from Mexico, central north and South America ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"EeqWPjoc","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Gozdziak and Collett)","plainCitation":"(Gozdziak and Collett)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1710,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/32ULFMP6"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/32ULFMP6"],"itemData":{"id":1710,"type":"article-journal","title":"Research on Human Trafficking in North America: A Review of Literature","container-title":"International Migration","page":"99-128","volume":"43","issue":"1‐2","source":"onlinelibrary.wiley.com (Atypon)","DOI":"10.1111/j.0020-7985.2005.00314.x","ISSN":"0020-7985","shortTitle":"Research on Human Trafficking in North America","journalAbbreviation":"International Migration","author":[{"family":"Gozdziak","given":"Elzbieta M."},{"family":"Collett","given":"Elizabeth A."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2005",1,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Gozdziak and Collett). These victims face severe threats not just from their traffickers but also from the government due to its deportation policies.

Human trafficking is made possible by weak legislation, lax border control, and corruption in the police departments and intelligence agencies. Poverty, warfare, and fraud contribute to the rising rate of illegal migrations. These traffickings are becoming more and more common due to the strict border control and the area expansions for free mobility and the increasing demographic imbalances taking place in the world. Countries that have more close borders become more prone to trafficker and smugglers due to which illegal migrations and organized crimes increase in those areas ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"UrH6nfsQ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Logan et al.)","plainCitation":"(Logan et al.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1709,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/T2T2VRIT"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/T2T2VRIT"],"itemData":{"id":1709,"type":"article-journal","title":"Understanding Human Trafficking in the United States","container-title":"Trauma, Violence, & Abuse","page":"3-30","volume":"10","issue":"1","source":"SAGE Journals","abstract":"The topic of modern-day slavery or human trafficking has received increased media and national attention. However, to date there has been limited research on the nature and scope of human trafficking in the United States. This article describes and synthesizes nine reports that assess the U.S. service organizations' legal representative knowledge of, and experience with, human trafficking cases, as well as information from actual cases and media reports. This article has five main goals: (a) to define what human trafficking is, and is not; (b) to describe factors identified as contributing to vulnerability to being trafficked and keeping a person entrapped in the situation; (c) to examine how the crime of human trafficking differs from other kinds of crimes in the United States; (d) to explore how human trafficking victims are identified; and, (e) to provide recommendations to better address human trafficking in the United States.","DOI":"10.1177/1524838008327262","ISSN":"1524-8380","journalAbbreviation":"Trauma, Violence, & Abuse","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Logan","given":"T.K."},{"family":"Walker","given":"Robert"},{"family":"Hunt","given":"Gretchen"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2009",1,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Logan et al.).

People who are trafficked to America often don't have their passports and many of them live troubled lives as the traffickers often keep their passports and deprive them of their right if living as free citizens. Policies exist regarding the victims in law and legislature, but after the revamping of the Trump administration policy, the victims are facing severe risks. Considering the fact that the illegal undocumented immigrants pose threat to the country, the need for the stricter policies is understandable but all these undocumented individuals are based on illegal immigrants as many of them are the victims of the human trafficking. Since the inauguration of president trump, he has been repeatedly mixing the terms the illegal immigrants with the human trafficking victims. He referred the entire undocumented community as rapists, criminals and traffickers, he is also outing efforts in mobilizing the immigrant enforcements to deport the immigrants without any due process. He has also mentioned some concern for the victims, but till this day all of his efforts are just based on verbal speeches. But the changes in his policies have raised concerns for the victims and they fear deportation and risk of engagement with law enforcement agencies.

Usually the aim of the enforcement agencies is to protect the victims of the trafficking but still, the undocumented status of the victims still put them under serious threat. Due to the changing rhetoric of the government regarding the undocumented population, victims are confused regarding their changing status, as the police and prosecutors might try to provide the protection to the victims through building case but the federal officers can always take charge and deport the individuals without any right to appeal.

These policies of the Trump administration has played a great role in increasing the risk of human trafficking as the victim's rate of reporting the trafficker has reduced significantly, which is becoming a major cause of aiding the traffickers. Now Human traffickers can easily use the card of fear of deportation on victims to abstain hem from reporting them to the higher authorities. Victims can’t think of taking any legal action against the guilty as now they not only fear the danger for the life of their loved ones but they are facing threats from the government.

According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the victims and survivors qualify for the special forms of migration protection, known as T-Visas and U-Visas. There are around 50,000 of such visas available annually for the victims, but these are often underutilized. The United States Citizenship and immigration statistics state the only 5000 to 600 of these visas is utilized annually due to the difficult requirements of the Visa and requires the victims to testify against the trafficker, which is not possible for all the victims. These Visas are also temporary for a period of four years.

Underutilized visas and changing immigration process and policies of the trump government are protecting the traffickers and is causing an increase in the human trafficking events in the United States. These are also causing serious threats to the victims and hey fear reporting the incidents due to their lack of trust on the governmental policies regarding the human trafficking, its confusion with the illegal immigrants and the policies regarding the victims and survivors of the trafficking ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"574fRiiR","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Bistricer)","plainCitation":"(Bistricer)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1712,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/D7ZK78BF"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/D7ZK78BF"],"itemData":{"id":1712,"type":"article-journal","title":"U Stands for Underutilization: The U Visa's Vulnerability for Underuse in the Sex Trafficking Context","container-title":"Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender","page":"449","volume":"18","shortTitle":"U Stands for Underutilization","journalAbbreviation":"Cardozo J.L. & Gender","author":[{"family":"Bistricer","given":"Erin"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011"]],"season":"2012"}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Bistricer).

Trump administration needs to formulate the separate policies for the victims of human trafficking and the illegal immigrants that are circumstances friendly. The government also needs to control the other factors that are creating a huge demand in the America black markets for the sex workers that are usually based on trafficked individuals. Government needs to take a clear stance regarding its policies so that the rate of human trafficking can be reduced.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Bistricer, Erin. “U Stands for Underutilization: The U Visa’s Vulnerability for Underuse in the Sex Trafficking Context.” Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender, vol. 18, 2012 2011, p. 449.

Gozdziak, Elzbieta M., and Elizabeth A. Collett. “Research on Human Trafficking in North America: A Review of Literature.” International Migration, vol. 43, no. 1‐2, Jan. 2005, pp. 99–128. onlinelibrary.wiley.com (Atypon), doi:10.1111/j.0020-7985.2005.00314.x.

Logan, T. K., et al. “Understanding Human Trafficking in the United States.” Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, vol. 10, no. 1, Jan. 2009, pp. 3–30. SAGE Journals, doi:10.1177/1524838008327262.