Trafficking victims spurn help
Advocates use a $450,000 grant to raise awareness of the problem.
By JOSE CARDENAS
Published April 15, 2007
Two years ago, immigration officers asked Ida Lopez to help a woman rescued from a forced-prostitution operation in Tampa.
Lopez, a worker with the New Port Richey arm of the nonprofit group World Relief, found social services for the 25-year-old woman from Mexico.
Human traffickers had brought her to Tampa with the promise of a job in a factory.
"She said she couldn't sleep at night waiting for them to say, 'There's a client waiting,' " said Lopez, 29, a political refugee from Cuba. "I cried with her."
But local investigators are finding that victims of human trafficking don't surface easily.
In the six months since World Relief got a $450,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to help survivors in the region, none have been found.
Still, the grant is part of a new awareness of human trafficking taking shape in Tampa Bay.
Last fall, the Clearwater Police Department also received a $450,000 grant from the Justice Department.
Clearwater Detective James McBride is the only law enforcement officer in Tampa Bay dedicated entirely to investigating human trafficking, said Deputy Police Chief Dewey Williams.
Trafficking in people is not the same as smuggling them.
Smugglers typically are paid to take people illegally across international borders, leaving them alone once they arrive.
But while traffickers may take people across borders, they exploit their victims, making money by forcing them into slavery, involuntary servitude or the commercial sex industry.
After drug dealing, human trafficking is tied with illegal arms sales as the second-largest criminal industry in the world, according to the Health and Human Services Department.
Following the lead of Collier and Lee counties, Clearwater police has formed the Clearwater Area Task Force on Human Trafficking.
It's made up of law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and social services on both sides of the bay.
The Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking based in Lee County also received a $2-million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services late last year.
That grant will establish a "Rescue and Restore" campaign in Tampa and other Florida cities.
The goal is to show health-care providers, social service organizations and law enforcement agencies how to identify victims of human trafficking.
Much of that grant is also to be disbursed among grass roots social service agencies to provide to care for survivors.
"In Tampa we have gotten the most response out of anywhere in Florida as far as volunteers," said Ashley Wilson of the Florida Coalition.
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In Clearwater, creating community awareness will be key, Dewey said.
Victims are unlikely to come forward on their own because often they are undocumented immigrants who fear both the traffickers and law enforcement.
"As we go through the community we run into people who just don't understand what this is and can't fathom that it happens here," said Williams.
Clearwater officers first suspected human trafficking after they raided a brothel in 2001, but they did not prove that human trafficking had taken place.
Still, the case may have convinced federal officials that Clearwater is a good place to investigate, said Terry Coonan, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University.
"Clearwater and all these cities are getting the grants so they can find out where are all the cases," Coonan said.
The extent of human trafficking nationally is unknown.
But the issue is pressing enough that Florida is one of two dozen states that have added anti-human trafficking laws recently. All new police officers in this state must take a course on the topic.
The Justice Department says it has prosecuted 386 traffickers since federal statutes were instituted in 2001.
Investigations and prosecutions are not rare in Florida, where immigrants work in areas such as construction, agriculture and tourism.
Dewey said the Clearwater department has at least four open investigations.
Doug Molloy, chief assistant U.S. Attorney in Fort Myers, said he has 11 open investigations.
"The Clearwater project I think ultimately will be very successful," Molloy said. "The more you make the community aware, the more they are able to recognize what they may not have known as human trafficking before."
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But finding victims in Clearwater and elsewhere remains a formidable challenge.
One of the main goals of the Clearwater task force is to help victims obtain T-Visas.
The visas were first made available in 2000. They give victims of human trafficking legal status if they help law enforcement prosecute perpetrators.
But although 5,000 visas are available each year, only 886 have been approved nationwide since 2002.
To get the visas, victims must show they were subjected to a "severe form" of human trafficking and would face "extreme hardship" if they returned to their country.
Those are tough standards to meet, said Gulf Coast Legal Services attorney Kathlyn Mackovjak, who works with Clearwater police on the human trafficking issue.
Also, Mackovjak said, the Department of Homeland Security is years late in drafting guidelines for how T-Visa holders can receive permanent residency.
Consequently, the lawyer said, immigrants are left uncertain as to whether they will be legalized permanently.
"It's unclear if they are going to extend that status once it runs out," Mackovjak said.
The visa limitations not withstanding, Dewey said community awareness is already paying off.
"The level of awareness in the Tampa Bay Area is a lot higher than when we started in October" he said.
Jose Cardenas can be reached at jcardenas@sptimes.com or 727 445-4224.
Fast Facts:
Signs of human trafficking- Someone whose communication is restricted.- Someone who is rarely seen outside the residence.- Someone who lacks travel documents, identification, a birth certificate, passport, visa or Social Security card.To learn more, visit the Clearwater Area Task Force on Human Trafficking at www.catfht.org or call World Relief in New Port Richey: (727) 849-7900. Call in tips to (727) 562-4917