Justice Department targets human trafficking

PHOENIX — A state group has taken over downtown Phoenix billboards in response to Arizona’s dubious distinction for being one of the leading cities in the nation for human trafficking.

The group, called Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking, or ALERT, is backed by funds from the U.S. Department of Justice, which estimates Arizona is one of the top five states in the nation for human trafficking.

As a result, it is putting up 16 new billboards in the area to raise awareness within the community, its law enforcement agencies, and its healthcare workers.

The Spanish-language ads will read, “Stop the Exploitation.”

“It used to be that the three most trafficked items were drugs, guns and humans – in that order,” ALERT program manager Mark Bratman said. “Humans are now second.”

Part of the awareness campaign tries to clear up the public’s confusion between human smuggling and human trafficking.

Although both acts are illegal, smuggling is when a person or group pay another person to help them cross the U.S. border illegally. Experts say it becomes human trafficking when someone is forced into the sex trade without receiving any compensation.

“Trafficking is slavery,” said Kem Ramirez, ALERT’s bilingual outreach coordinator. “It’s a business. If you own a restaurant, and you have free workers, imagine the revenue.”

The profits are so huge and the risk to traffickers is so small that the victims are passed from one trafficker to the next within a vast network, Bratman said. Victims are usually too afraid to press charges or aren’t familiar enough with the legal system to get help.

Arizona is a human trafficking magnet because it is a border state.

“People from poorer countries come here expecting a better life, and they will do anything to get that,” Bratman said. “That makes them vulnerable.”

Other organizations are also at work. The International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit dedicated to aiding refugees, funds anti-trafficking campaigns in Arizona, Washington and Florida.

= = =

>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.