Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Last updated 12:07 a.m. PT

State's human trafficking law fails to snag a conviction
After five years on books, only one charge filed
By RUTH TEICHROEB
P-I INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER

Five years ago, Washington became the first state to make human trafficking a crime.

But the law has not resulted in a single conviction even though a steady trickle of victims have sought help from advocates.

The lack of prosecutions recently prompted Velma Veloria, the former state representative who sponsored the legislation, to pose the obvious question: "Why?"

"If you don't use the anti-trafficking law, then people will think there's no trafficking," Veloria said.

The only human trafficking charge known to have been filed so far under the law is pending in Spokane County Superior Court, where two defendants were charged in December with second-degree human trafficking in an alleged forced labor case.

Officials from the state Attorney General's Office met earlier this month with county prosecutors, police and social service providers to discuss why the law isn't working.

Under the law, it's a serious felony to recruit, harbor, transport or obtain any person for labor or services using force, fraud or coercion. That includes sex trafficking and other forms of forced labor, from domestic servitude to sweatshop work.

The law hasn't been tested because prosecutors aren't getting referrals from police, said Chris Johnson, the attorney general's policy director.

"They're not getting to first base," Johnson said.

The biggest impediment seems to be that police and prosecutors don't recognize trafficking victims when they encounter them, instead seeing victims of other crimes such as sexual assault.

"We are missing organized crime by treating these cases that way," Veloria said.

Trafficking victims who aren't identified miss out on services such as financial assistance and, in the case of non-U.S. citizens, the opportunity to apply for special immigration visas.

About 50 foreign trafficking victims have received help from the Seattle office of the International Rescue Committee since 2003. To qualify, a person must be certified as a victim by the FBI or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Some of those cases have been prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, said Ye-Ting Woo, a federal prosecutor. About 15 to 20 cases over the past two years have had some aspect of human trafficking, but most did not result in convictions under federal human trafficking statutes, she said. In several cases, defendants were convicted of human smuggling of victims destined for forced labor elsewhere.

That trend is reflected nationally. Justice Department investigations of 555 suspects from 2001-2005 resulted in just 75 convictions under human-trafficking statutes, according to a government report.

Although 33 states have enacted human-trafficking legislation, those laws have resulted in almost no convictions, said John Miller, former congressman from Washington and former State Department ambassador-at-large on modern slavery from 2004-2006. Part of the problem is that the laws require proof that sex traffickers used "force, fraud or coercion," except when the victim is a minor.

"Witnesses are easily intimidated. It's very hard," said Miller, now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Miller believes most prostitutes working for pimps are "modern-day slaves."

The state laws were modeled after the 2000 federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act that is now in the midst of reauthorization -- and the focus of heated debate. On one side is an unlikely coalition of feminists, religious leaders and victim advocates who want to make it easier to prosecute pimps by removing the need to prove force, fraud or coercion. The House voted 405-2 in support of legislation with that provision seven months ago.

But the Justice Department has vigorously opposed the House bill, saying it would overtax resources and intrude on state and local rights. Others critical of the bill include Asian and Pacific Islander groups worried that the focus has shifted away from the almost 50 percent of human trafficking cases that are not sex-related.

"We're really concerned that it would further marginalize other types of forced labor," said Liezl Tomas Rebugio, the Seattle-based anti-trafficking project director for the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum. "It would in effect divert all of the federal resources."

The legislation is stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee and a new bill has been introduced incorporating the concerns of Justice officials.

At the state level, the question remains, "What can be done to spur charges under Washington's trafficking law?" Those attending the meeting agreed more must be done to educate police and prosecutors.

"Law enforcement are not necessarily empathetic with the victims," said John Goldman, a former Spokane County sheriff, who trains officers to recognize human trafficking. "They see it as an immigration problem."

Prosecutors are more likely to pick "low-hanging fruit" and file charges they know how to handle, rather than risk an untested law, Goldman said.

Police and other first responders also need education in how to elicit information from victims, especially those who don't speak English.

"Victims are afraid," said Emma Catague of the Asian and Pacific Island Women & Family Safety Center. Traffickers often threaten to harm a victim's family if the crime is reported. "Victims need to be told that it is OK to call law enforcement."


HOW TO HELP
To report a human trafficking case contact the Washington Anti-Trafficking Response Network's 24-hour hot line at 206-245-0782 or visit warn-trafficking.org.



P-I reporter Ruth Teichroeb can be reached at 206-448-8175 or ruthteichroeb@seattlepi.com.
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