Although human trafficking is a $236 billion industry, it remains a largely hidden and underreported crime that ensnares an estimated 49.6 million people, or 1 in 150 people, in modern-day slavery, according to Katrina Brittain Gober, regional director at A21.

Statistics peppered each speaker’s address at the Human Trafficking Awareness Conference held Wednesday at Farmington Civic Center, highlighting the prevalence of human trafficking and the need for increased awareness and reporting. The conference, presented by The Human Trafficking Awareness Task Force and sponsored by Family Crisis Center, was funded by the Crime Victims Reparation Commission.

Soberta Bitsui, training and development manager, said in a recent interview with KSJE radio that part of the funding was to go toward human trafficking so the center decided that a conference would be the best way to raise awareness in San Juan County. A variety of community leaders, including those from the hospital and social work fields, formed a committee to organize the event.

Registration for the event was free and reached capacity about a week before the conference. The conference was attended by a wide range of service providers, organizations, health care and social workers, and other community partners.

Sean Tepfer, manager of the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Countering Human Trafficking, opened the conference as the keynote speaker. He focused on dispelling myths about human trafficking and emphasizing that it can take place in any community across the world, but that it is often difficult to recognize because of how the media portray it. He also pointed out that although sex trafficking often receives the most media attention, labor trafficking is just as prevalent.

Cases of trafficking in San Juan County include the 2020 Operational Navajo Gold, a raid on hemp and marijuana operations that were being grown illegally on the Navajo Nation by Dineh Benally and a crew of Chinese workers who were allegedly trafficked into his employment, and an Ohio woman who responded to a job listing for a masseuse and was allegedly force to perform sex acts and threatened with harm to her family if she went to police.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline’s statistics for 2021, the most recent available, reported 59 human trafficking cases in New Mexico involving 267 victims. Of the cases, 41 were sex trafficking, seven were sex and labor trafficking, and six were labor trafficking. The victims included 43 adults and nine children, 44 of whom were females, eight were males, and three were gender minorities. Seven victims were foreign nationals. Since the organization began collecting statistics in 2007, numbers of trafficking cases in New Mexico have increased each year.

San Juan County Sheriff’s Office Captain Kevin Burns was scheduled to speak alongside Sgt. Mitch Goins, but was unable to attend the conference. He told KSJE radio in an interview that the most predominate human trafficking issues in San Juan County are substance abusers who are “leveraged for basic necessities” and labor trafficking. Goins emphasized this point during his presentation, which reviewed the 2017 San Juan County Sheriff’s Office case against Joe Maldonado.

The case started off as an undercover operation to follow drug trafficking, with Goins working undercover. When Maldonado offered to bring women to the next drug buy, the case pivoted to include human sex trafficking. Maldonado was later sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal drug charges and is currently incarcerated in Florida with an expected release date in 2027; however, the Sheriff’s Office was unable to bring sex trafficking charges against Maldonado because the victim involved was unwilling to cooperate and no other victims were identified.

Goins pointed out that the victim in this case had substance abuse issues which had been used by the traffickers to coerce her, as well fear of law enforcement and fear of retaliation against her family should she cooperate.

Tepfer discussed that this is often one of the biggest challenges of prosecuting human trafficking cases. Victims may not even recognize that they are involved in a trafficking situation because coercion tactics have such a strong hold over them. Fear is also a major barrier to cooperation. Victims may be fearful of retaliation from the trafficker or fearful and untrusting of law enforcement. Language barriers and trauma responses may also make it difficult for victims to cooperate with investigations.

Helping survivors of trafficking recover and rebuild their lives is a focus of groups like A21, a private organization founded in 2008. Gober, regional director for A21, said the organization’s goal is to “reach, recover, and restore by championing trafficking survivors in their unique, independent journeys.”

Gober said that a critical factor in helping trafficking survivors is to stop the cycle of exploitation. Most victims are lured into these situations because of vulnerabilities such as wanting a better life, needing work, lacking basic necessities, or susceptibility to emotional manipulation. Gober said that a trafficker made a statement that drugs he could only sell once, but a person he could sell many times over, which she said highlighted the importance of stopping the cycle of exploitation.

According to Gober, worldwide trafficking statistics show that 81% of trafficking situations involve forced labor, 25% of victims are children, and 75% of victims are women and girls. Cases are reported annually in all 50 states and D.C., and throughout the world.

“Romeo pimps” who engage in “love bombing” victims into trusting and loving them is one of the most common recruitment methods A21 sees, but familial trafficking, where a family member gives access to another family member for sex acts or labor, is rising. Trafficking recruitment today often begins online, through various apps, with young children frequently being targeted. A21’s statistics stated that the average age of trafficking victims in 13.9 years.

Gober said the A21 was originally criticized, told that it would fail because human trafficking was too big of a problem to address, but that they have helped over 2,000 survivors. She added that they have also developed educational programs for schools that can be adapted to align to all 50 states’ standards and encouraged educators to request more information.

The conference’s afternoon session features breakouts focused on more specific aspects of human trafficking awareness and survivor support services, with presentations by Heidi Chance, who worked for 13 years as a detective in the Human Exploitation and Trafficking unit in the Phoenix Police department, Lynn Sanchez, co-chair of the New Mexico Human Trafficking Task Force, and others.

Learn more

https://www.dhs.gov/dhs-center-countering-human-trafficking

https://www.a21.org/content/human-trafficking/gqe0rc

https://familycrisiscenternm.org/

https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en/statistics/new-mexico