Texas Human Trafficking

Excerpt

"Human trafficking is a pressing public health concern which transcends all races, social classes, demographics, and gender. No population is exempt from the ever-present threat of traffickers. Human traffickers are motivated by greed, driven by quota, devoid of respect for human rights, preying upon the vulnerable, and damaging the psychological and physical well-being of their victims. The extent of the economic and social impacts on society are unknown and require further research to define and guide community-based care, protocols, and formal curriculum changes."

Texas House Bill 2059 requires healthcare providers and any Texas Medical Board licensee who has direct patient contact to complete a prevention course on human trafficking. This course must be approved by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). Human trafficking is a crime defined by the United States Department of Justice as "The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery."

Financial and Global Statistics

Human trafficking is a $150 billion industry globally. The International Labor Organization's (ILO) 2016 estimates that 40.3 million people were victimized worldwide through modern-day slavery, with 5.4 victims per every thousand people in the world. Of these 40.3 million victims in 2016, 29 million were women and girls (72% of the total amount). Almost 5 million in 2016 were victims of forced sexual exploitation globally, with children making up more than 20% of that number. Data for the 2016 global estimates were collected by the ILO and the Walk Free Foundation (WFF) in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as part of their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This data finds that close to 25 million persons have been subjected to forced labor worldwide, and 15.4 million are in forced marriages. The common thread that binds forced labor and forced marriage together is the loss of freedom. However, the exact numbers of trafficking victims may be hard to determine due to the concealed nature of the rapidly progressing disease and public health emergency.

Trafficking Versus Smuggling

Distinguishing between human trafficking and human smuggling is essential. According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), an anti-trafficking federal law established in 2000, "human trafficking" is defined as the exploitation of a person or persons for sex or labor using "force, fraud, or coercion."

Smuggling differs from trafficking because it involves the illegal crossing of borders and is usually consensual. Typically, the relationship between the smuggler and the person being trafficked terminates upon arrival to the destination country. Smuggling indebtedness can lead to trafficking as a means to resolve a fee owed to the smuggling entity.

Trafficking in persons (TIP) is a crime in all 50 states under federal and international laws and does not require the physical transport of a person. However, it can and often does occur in local communities near schools and sporting venues.

Legislative Victories: The 3P's Approach

Over the past 18 years, the US Congress has passed several comprehensive bills addressing domestic and international trafficking. This legislation finds its basis in the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution. The 13th Amendment, passed in 1885, banned involuntary servitude and slavery. One such law, adopted in 2000, was the TVPA, which combats TIPs using the "3 Ps" approach: protection, prosecution, and prevention.

Protection

The TVPA established several necessary protective measures for trafficking victims located in the United States. Regardless of immigration status, foreign persons who are trafficked are eligible for federally funded benefits such as healthcare and immigration assistance. The T visa is a protective measure that prohibits deportation or removal of a victim of trafficking and sometimes offers an opportunity for a path to permanent residency. Human trafficking victims are especially vulnerable to re-trafficking within two years of first being trafficked and upon return to an originating country due to debt bondage or psychological, emotional, and economic conditions. Reintegration into society, coupled with functioning within societal pre-determined norms, can be traumatic for an already traumatized person who has been exploited by traffickers. Re-victimization must be avoided by enacting protective measures.

Prosecution

Under the TVPA act, federal prosecutors were armed with additional tools to bring traffickers to justice. The TVPA explored the existing statutes and broadened their conservative approach. This new legislation mandated that traffickers pay financial restitution to their victims and offered stronger penalties for those convicted of trafficking crimes. Revisions of the TVPA and subsequent enactments further defined human trafficking as “severe forms of trafficking in persons,” including both sex trafficking and labor trafficking.

Prevention

The third "P," prevention, is perhaps the most important of all. The TVPA strengthens prevention efforts on behalf of the US government. International incentives were enacted to improve economic conditions around the world to deter TIPs. The TVPA created the "Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Person" within the State Department. Annual TIP reporting by the US Department of State was mandated. This report rates countries according to their efforts to reduce TIPs.

The TVPA also required the creation of an Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking. TVPA reauthorizations were enacted in 2003, 2005, 2008, and 2013. In 2015, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act adoption allowed for additional tools to address this human rights issue and directed the Attorney General to create a National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking and ensure its ongoing maintenance.

These legislative directives, ensured by the passage of the TVPA and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), bring human trafficking to the forefront of the conversation internationally. Therefore, prevention through education is paramount to curb the growth of this $150 billion industry, which is thought by some to surpass the drug trade in the market value of criminal enterprises.

Healthcare providers are on the frontline of these efforts as the first point of contact for most victims.

The US Department of State also assists in prosecuting human trafficking and smuggling cases. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) agents and analysts often support foreign law enforcement agencies in an attempt to combat the global epidemic of TIP. The US Department of State has a working relationship with federal, state, local, and tribal leaders to investigate potential cases of "modern-day slavery" for sex or labor exploitation."

Texas Human Trafficking Issues

Human trafficking is a public health concern and leads to many negative health outcomes for its victims. This crime can affect any group of people. There is no validated screening tool to help determine the breadth of its patient population. However, recent studies have shown that a majority of human trafficking victims come into contact with healthcare providers at some point during their trafficking. This makes it important for providers to be able to identify potential victims.

In 2019, Texas had the second-highest reported cases of human trafficking, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline (Hotline Statistics | National Human Trafficking Hotline). For the past several years, Texas has been one of the leading states in the number of reported human trafficking cases.

Texas-specific initiatives combatting human trafficking involve the Human Trafficking and Transnational/Organized Crime Section (HTTOC), formed in 2016 to fight human trafficking across the state of Texas. Texas Senate Bill 72 (2019) requires the Office of the Attorney General to create the Human Trafficking Prevention Coordinating Council to formulate and implement a plan to end and prevent human trafficking in Texas.