Human trafficking continues to claim victims in Oregon

Human trafficking continues to claim victims in Oregon
By Ed Langlois

Portland has emerged as a hot market in the modern slave trade, or human trafficking as it is now called.

The slaves of today are mostly young girls, coerced from poorer nations or homes. They are forced to work as maids, field hands, prostitutes or exotic dancers. Some pose for pornography.

Slick-talkers have bamboozled them in bars in their home countries, when they applied for jobs or when they signed on naively as mail-order brides. Now, they’re controlled by handlers, who keep all the money.

“We have a deep dark world right here in our back yard,” says Multnomah County Sheriff’s Deputy Keith Bickford, who directs the area’s human trafficking task force.
Statistics are hard to come by in this secretive crime. By federal estimates, 20,000 women and children are sold into the U.S. each year, with numbers increasing. Others claim the count is about 50,000. In Oregon, police say they are encountering three to five people per week who are victims of trafficking. About 80 percent are women and half are children.

The Washington State Office of Crime Victims Advocacy names Portland as one of the main hubs in human trafficking between Seattle and California, places with large trafficking problems because of their ports and location on national borders.

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Human Trafficking Even Happens in Bend, Oregon

A coalition of federal and local law enforcement agencies in Oregon targeted those who sexually exploit children through human trafficking as part of a nationwide crackdown this past weekend. During an overnight sting operation Thursday, February 19, 2009, dozens of agents, officers and deputies worked to rescue child victims of sex crimes while identifying the adults involved in the trafficking. Both enforcement actions are aimed at disrupting the cycle of victimization by getting the children off the streets and at developing sufficient evidence to bring charges against the adults who are profiting from the sale of children this way.

All totaled, the law enforcement partners picked up seven underage girls and six adult “pimps” at four sites throughout the metro area. The location of the sites will not be disclosed due to on-going investigative efforts. The Oregon Department of Human Services started protective service assessments and is working to provide each child with necessary services. Officers and deputies from various local agencies took custody of the pimps, charging them with a variety of crimes. They also cited 14 adult female prostitutes and arrested three “johns” or other adult associates caught in the sting.

“It is difficult to imagine a crime more depraved than selling our children on the street for sex,” said David Ian Miller, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Oregon. “By working together with other law enforcement and social service agencies throughout the region, we have a chance to make a difference in these girls’ lives and in the quality of the community in which we live.”

This enforcement action was coordinated with other such efforts at FBI offices throughout the United States as part of Operation Cross Country III starting on Thursday and going through the weekend. Operation Cross Country I and II, both of which happened in 2008, led to hundreds of arrests and the rescue of dozens of children throughout the nation. This is the first time that the Portland-metropolitan area has taken part in an Operation Cross Country initiative.

As in the previous cases, these operations were the result of work by the Innocence Lost Initiative, a program now located in more than 30 FBI offices nationwide. The Portland FBI just received its approval to join the Innocence Lost National Initiative. The Innocence Lost Initiative is designed to target criminal enterprises involved in the domestic sex trafficking of children. This program brings state and federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and social services providers together with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to address the problem.

Law enforcement agencies taking part in Operation Cross Country III in the Portland-metro area include: the FBI, Portland Division; Portland Police Bureau; Hillsboro Police Department; Beaverton Police Department; Tualatin Police Department; Tigard Police Department; Eugene Police Department; Corvallis Police Department; the Washington County Sheriff’s Office; the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office; the Lane County Parole and Probation Office; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Victim assistance professionals, therapists, and/or child protective service caseworkers from the following agencies provided services to the children: FBI; Portland Police Bureau; Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office; the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office; the Sexual Assault Resource Center; Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas Counties; Lifeworks Northwest; Multnomah County Department of Community Justice (Juvenile Services Division); and Janus Youth Programs. This effort was coordinated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in conjunction with the Oregon Human Trafficking Task Force.

The New Reality - Human Trafficking

What is Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking is the second largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world. Victims experience a loss of freedom and exploitation at the hands of their traffickers who buy and sell them in pursuit of profit. As a result, human trafficking is commonly known as modern-day slavery.In human trafficking situations, traffickers gain complete control over victims and force them into the labor, services, or commercial sex industry in order to generate profit from their labor and commercial sex acts. Some of the forms of violence traffickers use to control their victims include brutal beatings, rape, lies and deception, threats of serious harm or familial harm, and psychological abuse.

Although human trafficking often involves transportation and physical abuse, it is essential to remember that under U.S. federal law:

• Trafficking is not smuggling or forced movement.
• Trafficking does not require transportation or movement across borders.
• Trafficking does not require physical abuse, force, or restraint. Often, traffickers use psychological manipulation or abuse to control their victims.

Read about the legal definitions of Human Trafficking.

Who Are the Victims?

Anyone can be a victim of human trafficking. Victims can be:

• U.S. citizens or foreign nationals
• Any race
• Male or female
• Child or adult of any age
• Rich or poor
• Educated or uneducated

It is essential to remember that education, wealth, age, or social standing does not guarantee invulnerability to becoming a victim of human trafficking. Traffickers often prey on people who are hoping for a better life, lack employment opportunities, have an unstable home life, or have a history of sexual abuse - conditions present in all portions of society.

The U.S. State Department estimates that 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the U.S. annually. The National Runaway Switchboard estimates that every year thousands of American children are lured into the trafficking industry.

Both foreign national and U.S. citizen victims have been identified in cities, suburbs, and rural areas in all 50 states and in Washington, DC. They are forced to work or provide commercial sex against their will in legal and legitimate business settings as well as underground markets. Some victims are hidden behind locked doors in brothels and factories. In other cases, victims are in plain view, but the widespread lack of awareness of trafficking leads to low levels of victim identification by the people who come into contact with them. For example, women and girls in sex trafficking situations, especially U.S. citizens, are often misidentified as being voluntarily in the sex industry. Read more...

Who Are the Traffickers?

Traffickers lure and ensnare individuals into labor and sex trafficking situations by using force, fraud, or coercion. Examples of potential traffickers include:

• Pimps
• Brothel owners
• People who have servants in their homes
• Small businesses
• Criminal networks

Read more...

What Fuels Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking is a market-driven criminal industry that is fueled by the demand for the labor, services, and commercial sex acts of human trafficking victims. Traffickers, who are motivated primarily by the goal of making money, force victims into the labor, services, or commercial sex industry because they can generate large profits. Read more...

Who Are the Facilitators?

Facilitators include a wide range of individuals, organizations, businesses and corporations, internet sites and practices. What all facilitators have in common is that they enable or support the trafficking industry. Facilitators may include:

• Landlords
• Hotels and motels
• Transportation companies
• Advertisers
• Banks and financial services corporations

In some cases, facilitators are aware of their involvement in human trafficking, and the profits they generate outweigh reservations they may have about their role. In other cases, facilitators are unaware and find it difficult to know when they are enabling trafficking to occur.