six Texas bills target sex slavery

[Pony]

"They're brought to locations in Houston and San Antonio and all across the I-10 corridor where they're raped, they're beaten and they're drugged into submission," he said."



Six bills target sex slavery and indentured servitude
HoustonChronicle

March 28, 2007, 9:56PM
By POLLY ROSS HUGHES
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN

At least one out of every five men, women and children trapped in sexual slavery or indentured servitude in the United States has passed through Texas, say lawmakers wanting to help law enforcement target the problem.

"The I-10 corridor, which goes from El Paso, San Antonioand then to Houston has been designated by the Department of Justice as one of the main
trafficking routes in the country," Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, said Wednesday at a Capitol news conference with social activists and clergy from Houston and San Antonio.

"We can put an end to this wretched underground world of sex slavery and indentured slavery," she added.

Van de Putte and Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, are sponsoring a package of six bills designed to help state law enforcement better address
the slave trade that one expert says is reaching "epidemic proportions."

New legislation is intended to strengthen the state's anti-trafficking law of 2003, in which the definition of a victim was too narrowly applied, Van
De Putte said.

For instance, police may think they are responding to a single case of domestic abuse, prostitution or unpaid wages, when in fact that is just part of a broader crime, she said.

"How many prosecutions do you think have happened under that bill?" said Stephanie Weber of Houston Rescue & Restore Coalition. "Zip, nada, none. We
need the cooperation of state prosecutors. Victims don't self-identify."

Along with expanding the definition of victims, the proposed legislation:

?Makes it a first-degree felony to compel people 18 or younger into prostitution.

?Increases training for local police officers in how to identify slave-trade rings and use trafficking laws to make arrests.

?Creates grants to help district attorneys train and hire investigators and prosecutors who are experts in human trafficking.

"Trafficking isn't just about immigrants in this country," Van de Putte said. "It's also about children and adults who are American citizens who
are forced into the sex slave trade or labor industry."

U.S.citizens victimized by traffickers are most often girls between the ages of 12 and 14, sometimes runaways who are having troubles at home, said
Diana Velardo from the Universityof Houston Immigration Law Clinic.

Velardo said others are imported from South America or El Salvador, Guatemalaand Mexico.

Others, especially in the illegal spa industry, are sent here from Vietnam, China, Eastern Europe and Africa, she said.

"They fall into the hands of some of these guys who pretend to be their boyfriends and then sell them," Velardo said.

Children at Risk in Houston hears estimates of 15,000 to 30,000 people, mostly women and young girls, who have been transported across Texas borders, said Robert Sanborn, president of the group.

"They're brought to locations in Houstonand San Antonioand all across the I-10 corridor where they're raped, they're beaten and they're drugged into
submission," he said.

polly.hughes@chron.com

[Andrew]

Gosh, how can we help?
Its great to see some action from states, Arizona, etc. but this also needs to be addressed nationally, Congress using its 13th Amendment powers. yeah,Congress using....