El Paso musician hopes to help exploited immigrants

by Ramón RenterÃ*a \ El Paso Times
Posted: 09/19/2011 12:00:00 AM MDT


Christian musician Josh Rivera came up with the idea to organize a... (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)


Josh Rivera wants to shed more light on one of El Paso's dark secrets: human trafficking.

Rivera is the inspiration behind the upcoming "Save the Brave Music Fest," a Christian music concert designed to create awareness and raise money for The Salvation Army's anti-human-trafficking program.

Rivera, 25, a musician and youth minister at St. Paul's Methodist Church, came up with the idea for the Sept. 29 concert after reading what he describes as a disturbing book about a woman exploited for years by her foster parents.

"I had no idea I was being called to a greater need," Rivera said. "I wanted a small benefit concert. It turned into a need to fund an organization that desperately needed help."

Organizers hope to sell out the 6,100-seat El Paso County Coliseum for the concert, which features headliner Natalie Grant, an award-winning Christian singer who has her own anti-human-trafficking campaign.

The Salvation Army helped establish an anti-human trafficking network in El Paso with a U.S. Department of Justice grant that ended more than two years ago. El Paso's anti-human trafficking program is regarded as a model for other programs across the United States because of its success in getting law enforcement agencies at every level and social service agencies to work together.

Salvation Army officials said inadequate funding hinders the ability of various agencies to reach out to more people and help human-trafficking victims once they are identified.
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Officials said it takes about $100,000 a year to effectively run the program.

Human trafficking is defined as using coercion for labor, sexual or other exploitation.

The anti-human-trafficking task force does not have any reliable statistics that illustrate the problem in El Paso.

Salvation Army officials said El Paso is a key source of entry for children trafficked into the United States from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

According to the U.S. State Department, 14,500 to 17,500 victims, many of them women and children, are trafficked into the United States each year from Asia, Central and South America and Eastern Europe.

Some estimates suggest one out of every five trafficking victims in the U.S. usually travel along the Interstate 10 corridor from California to Houston. A Department of Justice report listed El Paso and Houston among the most intense trafficking jurisdictions in the country from 2001 to 2005.

The book "Human Rights Along the U.S.-Mexico Border" suggests that human trafficking cannot be easily documented because it is an underground, illicit phenomenon. Kathleen Staudt, Tony Payan and Z. Anthony Kruszewski, all political science professors at the University of Texas at El Paso, edited the book, published in 2009 by the University of Arizona Press.

"While the full dimensions of human trafficking remain unknown, it is clear that within the United States trafficking is a crime primarily perpetrated against undocumented migrants," the authors wrote in the scholarly book. "By virtue of their immigration status, undocumented persons can be easily intimidated to accept illicit working conditions, work without pay, and other abuses by employers that, under specific conditions, can be classified as 'human trafficking.' "

With that in mind, individuals like Rivera hope to spread the word about the known dimensions of human trafficking. KJ-52, a Christian hip-hop artist in the concert lineup, plans to shoot a video and distribute it on the Internet.

"El Paso is being known throughout the world because of this event, because of the compassion that these artists have for the cause," Rivera said.

Iliana Holguin, executive director of the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services, works closely with The Salvation Army, law enforcement and other agencies that combat human trafficking.

"Because of our location, we're a prime place through which people get trafficked into the United States," Holguin said. "The real challenge tends to be in identifying trafficking victims because they rarely realize that they are victims."

Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services offers legal advice to victims before or after they are officially identified. Many victims usually do not know that they can qualify for various benefits such as gaining legal status to remain in the United States.

"A lot of times, it's not obvious that people are trafficking victims," Holguin said. "We need to keep our eyes open, pay attention and not be afraid to ask questions when we see something that's wrong."

Virginia McCrimmon, a crime victim advocate working with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, is often credited with launching the anti-human-trafficking program and task force in El Paso. She helps train people from across the world who come to El Paso to study the region's anti-human-trafficking program.

"Our aim is to protect these individuals who have been exploited," McCrimmon said. McCrimmon often tells the story of a 14-year-old boy named Carlitos from Central America who sneaked into the United States near Fabens, only to be taken in by a family who offered him work but allegedly never paid him. The teenager was placed in foster care elsewhere in Texas. The couple was not prosecuted because of insufficient evidence.

Last May, a Las Cruces couple was charged with human trafficking, a federal offense, for allegedly bringing two victims from Indonesia and forcing them to work without pay. John Martin, director of The Salvation Army's El Paso chapter, estimates that 3,500 individuals trafficked into the United States pass through El Paso each year.

"Are some of those victims in the sex trade? Yes, but it's not just the sex trade," Martin said. "There is forced servitude or slavery. There are a number of individuals in El Paso that have been forced into working for a family or an individual."

Martin suggests that helping exploited people has been part of The Salvation Army's mission since its origins in 1899. The Salvation Army has a 113-year history in El Paso.

"None of us want this program to die because we recognize the need," he said. "Human trafficking is a huge problem. We need to continue to do outreach with the public and continue to work with law enforcement."

Ramón RenterÃ*a may be reached at rrenteria@elpasotimes.com; 546-6146.

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