Category — Tip Tuesday

Since 1945, the United States has maintained a significant military presence in the Republic of Korea (also known as South Korea). Currently, about 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed on military bases throughout the country. Beginning in the 1950s, U.S. Forces in Korea (USFK) identified the need to provide entertainment in order to maintain high levels of morale among U.S. troops stationed there. The USFK and South Korea cooperated to establish centers of “rest and relaxation” for American troops called kijichon near American military bases. What began as a well-meaning effort to keep homesick American troops amused, and Korean citizens employed, resulted in an exploitative network that has spanned international borders and four decades. [Read more →]

The victims were expected to stand and braid hair for eight to 14 hours a day, six to seven days a week for no pay. As many customers walked in and out of these salons in Newark and East Orange, New Jersey, none of them identified these women as victims of human trafficking. In September 2007, federal agents arrested three people for the trafficking of at least 20 young women from Togo who were forced to work without pay in two hair braiding salons. According to authorities, the traffickers were able to smuggle the women into the United States by manipulating a lottery program that makes immigrant visas available to people from countries, such as Togo, with low rates of immigration to the U.S. [Read more →]

Victims of human trafficking rarely see their controllers brought to justice. However, there are cases where justice is served. In one rare, but highly satisfying instance, Maximino Mondragon and eight of his co-conspirators were sentenced to 13 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.7 million in damages to his victims. The group was convicted of bringing dozens of women and girls from Latin America into the U.S. and forcing them to work and engage in commercial sex at Cantina bars throughout Houston, TX. While the outcome of this case is unfortunately unusual, the details of Mondragon’s crime are sadly all too common. [Read more →]

Summer vacation is here and many of us are looking forward to dining out, relaxing on the beach, and going to amusement parks. As you are planning your next getaway, consider that the hospitality industry is not always so hospitable, particularly for the thousands of human trafficking victims forced to work in hotels and motels throughout the United States. [Read more →]

Early each morning two white vans pull up to an ordinary home on a dead-end street and after honking the horn a group of men and women, mostly Latinos or Asians, pile into the vehicles and are taken away, not returning until late that night or early the next morning. Although this behavior would seem suspicious if it occurred in your neighborhood, how many people would actually identify this as human trafficking? [Read more →]

Strip clubs and hostess bars have been described in a variety of ways – some may describe them as ‘seedy’, while others think that they are ‘harmless’ – but they can also be described as locations where human trafficking often occurs. The clubs are the venues where victims are sometimes forced to work, or are places where human traffickers go to look for vulnerable people to recruit in pimp-controlled prostitution. While strip clubs are legal, they are magnets for criminal activity. [Read more →]

Slavery in agriculture has a long history in America.  It was perceived as a vital component of the economy during colonial years and nearly caused the disintegration of the United States during the Civil War.  The first abolitionists worked tirelessly to demonstrate that the economic sustainability of this young country was not dependent on slave labor, and that the people subjected to slavery were not, fundamentally, deserving of that treatment. [Read more →]

In recent weeks, neighborhood watch groups have warned community members to be vigilant for higher incidents of burglary and fraud that occasionally coincide with the seasonal influx of magazine solicitors operating without permits from out of state. But what these watch groups fail to address are the dangers posed not just to consumers, but the solicitors or salespeople themselves and the potential for human trafficking in traveling sales crews. [Read more →]

Human trafficking is a crime that largely goes unnoticed. When it’s reported, there are often news stories about sex trafficking rings in big cities, or police raids where hundreds of migrant workers are discovered being forced to work on farms. There’s not as much news about another type of human trafficking that goes on quietly everyday in regular neighborhoods, just like yours. [Read more →]

At a nail salon in a strip mall located in the suburbs of your city, a customer holds out her hands for a young nail technician. In a matter of minutes, the technician magically transforms drab nails into a bright, polished manicure. While the majority of nail salons function just like this, there are many that serve as fronts for illicit activities such as human trafficking, where women are made to work without getting paid or engage in commercial sex through methods of force, fraud, or coercion. [Read more →]