Human Trafficking a Growing Problem

Summary: This website has a series of columns and talks about sex trafficking going on throughout the Mexican/American border. It points out how easy it is to get captured girls across the border to be sold to sex-hungry tourists. It notes ways that men smuggle the girls across the border and where they ship the girls off to and how many have been shipped.

Reflection: This article has plenty of information. It's sad when it talks about all the girls who have been shipped. How could anyone do this? They're defenseless people. It's terrifying when it mentions of the abused dead girls in New Mexico.

Evidence:

• "In the nearby neighborhood of Carlsbad, New Mexico, the tortured bodies of young Mexican girls have begun to appear."
• "The third largest crime scheme after drug and weapons trafficking, sex traffickers transport at least 18,000 captives into the United States each year."

Questions:

• What can I do to help?

Source:
http://www.thesilverbraid.org/sex%20trafficking.htm

Sex Trafficking Obliteration Petition Campaign

Summary: This is a petition to help eliminate the spread of human sex traffick in the state of California. It's purpose is to help the victims of sex trafficking to not be charged and to fine the landlords of sex trafficking and even put them in jail.

Reflection: When I found this I was really excited. Finally! Someone's doing something about it! It's not like no one was doing something about it before, but it doesn't seem popular among people to make a petition against sex trafficking. Plus, it even seems fair when it mentions not charging the victims. After all, they were forced to do it. I am really happy about this petition and I encourage people to sign it. (I hope it isn't too late...)

Evidence:

• "Sex-trafficking victims should not be criminally charged if they have been forced into sex work."
• "In February 2007, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced his plan to fine and possibly jail landlords who let massage parlors operate as brothels in their buildings."

Questions:

• Are there any other petitions?
• How can I get this petition around my neighborhood?

Sources:
http://www.petitiononline.com/stop3807/petition.html

Sex Slave Operations Thrive in Migrant Strawberry Fields

Summary:

This article is telling of the sex scandals here in San Diego. Hundreds of little girls and young teenage girls are exposed to at least 20-35 men per day. This place is known as the "reed beds" or "fields of love" among the migrant workers. This happened in San Diego but it took an investigative report by the El Universal to bring it into light. This sex scandal doesn't just stop here in San Diego, it goes all the way to New York. Girls who are kidnapped must work by selling their bodies in order to pay off the money that it took to get them across the border. Punishment for girls who have tried to escape is harsh; a girl was beaten with hooks in front of others as an example.

Reflection:

This is just horrible! How can this go on with no one doing anything about it?! Of course officials are trying to help these girls and to free them, but they can't help all of them. How sad. Imagine how helpless the officials feel. Now with that in mind imagine how these girls must feel. To know that someone is trying to help you but they can't for a number of reasons. How horrible.


Evidence:

• "All the girls are aware of the punishment for trying to escape; most have seen attempted escapees punished. Julia, a 17-year-old, was beaten with a hook until the flesh of her arms, legs and back was ripped off."
• "The young girls who are held in the sex rings are told that they have to work off the $1500 transporting costs for getting across the border from Mexico into the United States."

Questions:

What can I do to raise awareness in my neighborhood?

Works Cited:

http://www.beverlylahayeinstitute.org/articledisplay.asp?id=3898&department=BLI&categoryid=dotcommentary

Captive Daughters

Summary:

This article tells of a young girl, Paola, who was "dragged there from Morelos" by the Salazar brothers of the Mexican state Oaxaca. "There" meaning a house of prostitution. She was rescued from this house of prostitution by Officer Rick Castro who was "moved by her beauty" and "moved even more by the look of terror in her eyes". The Salazar brothers control the largest network of sexual exploitation of Mexican girls. They held their business in San Diego. They haven't just stopped in San Diego; they stretched their human traffic from San Diego to Fresno, Nevada, and New York. As they ship people across the border, they kidnap young girls and ship them as well. No one is able to stop all of them.

Reflection:

This article is really striking. How sad that these young girls' lives have been taken away from them. They are sent into these houses of prostitution to let men have sex with them. But this article does give hope. There are people who are taking this to heart and trying to do something to stop these evil people from kidnapping these young girls and selling their bodies for sex. Not many people can relate to this, so I don't see the point in telling people that don't feel too bad that they need to see a therapist. All I can do is ask you to imagine. Imagine if you were a young girl who just got kidnapped, not sure whether you're going to see your family or friends again. Imagine if you were thrown into a house with other girls such as yourself, forced to wear revealing clothing. Imagine if you then learned that your body is going to be sold to men you don't know for sex. Gruesome isn't it?

Evidence:

• "The first thing that he saw was the destitute brown eyes of a slight girl no older than fourteen, whose hair hung until the middle of her back dressed in a short black mini skirt and a white tee shirt."
• “Julio, Tomás y Luciano Salazar-Juárez are the dons of the largest local network trafficking and sexual exploiting Mexican girls and adolescents, who have operated for over ten years in the agricultural camps and suburbs of San Diego.”
• “In their path, they kidnap, extort, corrupt and violate our national laws and those of the United States, with nobody to stop them.”

Questions:

What can I do to help?
What can I do to protect my daughters and other girls?

Works Sited:

http://www.captivedaughters.org/sandiego-english.htm

There is Human Sex Trafficking in San Diego

Summary: When you think of San Diego you tend to think of Sea World and happy people, but if you look a little deeper, you'll see that San Diego is a hot spot for human sex trafficking (the act of selling people (centered mainly around young girls to teenage girls) for sex). Why is this so? Well San Diego is a tourist town, a border town, and a military town, allowing people from all over the world to come to San Diego. For pimps (a man who sells the people for sex), this means that San Diego is the ideal location for selling their victims to people (mainly men) looking for sex.

Reflection: When I read about this I was absolutely shocked; How could this be happening in San Diego? It's truly horrifying what happens to these young girls. It's sad at how unknown this is. People need to put more effort into stopping this horrible act of crime.

Significance: Why is this important to know? This is important to know because pimps are scouting for runaway teenagers and young vulnerable girls. Once they get a hold on these girls, they send them into Rape Camps where men pay to have sex with these girls. In the following website, Patricia had counted that in one hour a little girl had been raped by thirty-five men. Follow this link for more information: libertadlatina.org