Knowledge is Power
No principle is more fundamental than the concept that all people have value, no matter who they are, where they come from, what they have done, or what has been done to them. You matter, and you deserve to live your life free from exploitation and oppression. So does the rest of the world. But human traffickers do not share our view. For them, people are a commodity, something to be bought and sold, trapped and enslaved, while the trafficker lives off the profits generated.
People are enslaved worldwide, including in our own backyards
Additional people in forced marriage
Dollars in profit generated per year from forced labor and forced sex
Edmund Burke
Smuggling and illegal entry are crimes against the border. They occur when people enter a country, but do not have legal permission to do so. Usually the person who wants to enter pays a smuggler to bring them across the border. Both the person who enters illegally and the smuggler are committing a crime, but both are willing parties to that crime. For the crime of smuggling or illegal entry to be complete, the person must cross the border into the destination country.
Human trafficking is a crime against the person. You do not have to be moved to be trafficked. You can be made to engage in forced labor or forced sex in your own home. The trafficker is the party committing a crime. Traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion to make their victims comply. Even if the trafficked person is being made to engage in prostitution, street begging, or another action that violates the law, the trafficked person is not engaging in that conduct voluntarily.
Your immigration status does not determine whether you are trafficked. People from this country, legal immigrants, and those who are here without documentation, can all be made to engage in forced labor and forced sex on American soil.
Trafficking can be divided into four major categories. Adult labor trafficking, adult sex trafficking, child labor trafficking, and child sex trafficking. ICT is dedicated to fighting all types of human trafficking.
Trafficking occurs in both legal and illegal industries. People are sex trafficked into Internet-based and street prostitution, strip clubs, brothels, and massage parlors, as well as bars and cantinas. People can be labor trafficked into any industry: agriculture, food processing, manufacturing, construction, domestic servitude, hotel or restaurant work, and even sales, or teaching. There are trafficked people in your community, living and working where you may encounter them. Many of these victims do not feel that they can turn to the police for help, so they continue to suffer in silence.
Unless you make the call.
Becoming familiar with the crime of human trafficking, looking for red flag behavior, and reporting actionable details to the National Human Trafficking Hotline or law enforcement allows you to stand in the gap for these victims. You become the bridge between a trafficked person and the freedom and future they deserve.
Access human trafficking red flags, ways to report & additional information on How you can get involved
If the situation is an emergency, call 911 and tell them you believe the person is being trafficked. If the situation is not an emergency but you still have concerns for trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Call 1-888-3737-888 or text “Help” or “Info” to 233733.
When the caller provides actionable information, Hotline calls are referred to local and regional law enforcement.
Do not approach traffickers. Traffickers are dangerous criminals and that could put both you and the victim in danger. Instead, call law enforcement and allow them to do their job.
Provide descriptions of people, descriptions of cars, precise location information, and do so in a timely fashion. If you can safely take a picture of the vehicles, the people, and what is happening, then do so.
As soon as you safely can. Current information is critical for the recovery of victims.
The Hotline does not require you to give your name, but if you are willing to do so, law enforcement may follow-up with you for additional information critical for case development.
Yes. Making the call can save a life. Law enforcement will be able to make the appropriate assessment of the situation.
ICT seeks justice for individuals, empowers cities to fight trafficking, and informs national policy with facts, not supposition.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the old cowboy movies when all the shooting is done, and the dust clears, the hero rides off into the sunset alone. He came, stood for the town against the forces of greed, violence, and villainy and now he takes the lonely road to the next community in need of his brand of justice.
The world is hurting. 2020 has brought loss to each one of us, and while it has taken more than its fair share, it has left a gift of its own if we are wise enough to recognize it. It doesn’t come in glitzy paper, a sparkling bow, or designer bag. Think brown paper, corners coming untucked, a tear on the edge, and a smudged return address.