Houston is American hub of human trafficking trade
United front is forming to fight exploitation of kids
By BOB SANBORN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 25, 2008, 10:28PM

Houston is beginning to realize that we are the American hub for the blight that is international human trafficking, a modern-day slavery; we must also realize that domestic human trafficking affects our city in even more egregious ways and in greater numbers.

The terminology could play a key role in skewing an audience's perspective.

"Trafficking" may conjure images of borders and illegal, seedy smugglers and deals. The term actually means a trade or bartering and is defined by the Texas Penal Code as the transporting, enticing, recruiting, harboring, providing or otherwise obtaining of another person by any means. This does not define the crime as specifically international nor is it singularly sexual exploitation as traffickers may intend to implement forced labor in any manner of services not sexually specific.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, human trafficking is one of the three largest criminal global industries, with an estimated $9 billion in profit. While it feeds off of the economies of developing nations as well as the sexual intent of a consumer-driven market, it is found in most countries around the world, regardless of socioeconomic status, leading religion or governing politics. There are approximately 600,000 to 800,000 victims trafficked across international borders every year. Millions more are estimated to be enslaved within their own countries, and the U.S. is no different.

International trafficking does pose a crime threat to a large multicultural city such as Houston. However, domestic trafficking numbers may be farther reaching. Houston is one of the largest, if not the largest, human-trafficking hubs in the nation, with the Department of Justice designating the Interstate 10 corridor as the leading route utilized by traffickers. Additionally, in the U.S., it is estimated that 450,000 children run away from home every year. The National Runaway Switchboard estimates that one out of every three street kids will be lured into prostitution during their first 48 hours away from home. Given these figures, the rate of Houston's children being trafficked is estimated to be 650 a night. The average age of entry into pornography and prostitution in the U.S. is age 12, with 75 percent of exploited children having a "pimp" or trafficker. The U.S. Department of State defines human trafficking for sex as when a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age. Whether or not a runaway makes the decision to sell sex, the minor, by definition, is being trafficked by their solicitor. Houston's kids are not immune.

In late August of this year, a Katy woman was investigated and arrested for offering sex with three children that she was related to, one being her own, to a man she met on the Internet, even arranging for his travel. The story did not get as much coverage as a story covering the raid of a Houston cantina two weeks later. Both are cases of human trafficking for sexual exploitation, and both involved minors.

Houston's rich cultural influences and huge immigrant population make us a global community. We cannot, however, continue to ignore the domestic issue of children in slavery. We need to have laws that help law enforcement fight both types of trafficking equally; both are devastating the lives of children.

It is reassuring to see a united front forming and strengthening to combat human trafficking. The nonprofit Children at Risk, the state attorney general, several legislators and nongovernment organizations are coming together from across the state to address these issues in the upcoming 81st legislative session.

Senate Bill 89, developed with the help of Houston's legal community, an omnibus bill advocating for trafficking victims, has been prefiled and authored by Sen. Leticia Van de Putte. We are hopeful of these changes and dependent on the awareness it is meant to bring.

Slavery, trafficking and the continued exploitation of children are thriving in Houston. American and undocumented children are in our city today and are being drugged, beaten and raped into submission for profit. Our city should not be known as a center of trafficking but as a center to end trafficking, all trafficking.

Sanborn is the president and CEO of Children at Risk, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to innovative change for children through research, education
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