RUBÉN ROSARIO
Pioneer Press
"You got whites, Asians, Latinos, women from Germany, east Europe; you got younger and younger girls, boys, girl pimps …" notes the woman, who was kidnapped, raped, beaten and coerced into a life of drugs and prostitution as a 15-year-old in south Minneapolis. Now a counselor and fearing retribution from former pimps and others, she requested I not use her real name.
"You got neighborhood brothels (called chicken shacks on the streets) — massage parlors, saunas, strip clubs and escort services, which is the really big racket right now."
Six years ago, authorities dismantled the largest juvenile prostitution ring ever prosecuted by the federal government. Based in Minneapolis, it transported women and girls as young as 14 to 24 states and Canada. But whoever thought the so-called Evans family case was the end of such trafficking around here was mistaken. "Sad to say, nothing's really changed that much,'' Minneapolis police Sgt. Andrew Schmidt, who helped bust the ring, told me recently. "It's still out there."
That realization is one key reason federal officials are in town today to raise more awareness and pump more money into local efforts to identify and help victims of domestic and international trafficking.
"What this is, really, is a form of modern-day slavery,'' notes Steve Wagner, director of the Trafficking in Persons program at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. Wagner and others will discuss the agency's ongoing "Rescue and Restore'' campaign, a multimillion-dollar federal effort to help local communities combat the problem.
The campaign recently awarded a $150,000 grant jointly to Breaking Free and Civil Society, two St. Paul-based social service organizations that will use the money to expand legal services and outreach efforts.
"One of the things we have discovered is that these victims, because of fear and threats, do not report their conditions to law enforcement or others," Wagner said. "We have to go out and reach out to them."
Social workers and cops report increasing numbers of Russian women in strip clubs, Korean-run massage parlors and saunas and West African, Hmong, Southeast Asian and Spanish-speaking underground sex industries, mostly in the metro area. In Greater Minnesota, authorities are documenting forced prostitution of Mexican women on migrant farms and of American Indian females in Duluth.
The scenario Wagner and others cite is a telltale sign that the heartland and the Upper Midwest are not immune to a growing worldwide problem.
U.S. authorities estimate that 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders each year. Up to 17,500 of those victims are brought into the United States. After drug dealing, human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms industry as the second-largest criminal industry in the world, according to Health and Human Services Department officials.
Victims are forced by individuals or organized rings into the commercial sex trade, where they face extortion, indentured servitude and other abuses. Some victims come as "mail-order brides'' or through fiance visas, explains Linda Miller, Civil Society's executive director.
"We've had a few cases,'' she said. As for victims, "they don't report because they fear deportation, domestic abuse or worse. It's very hard to gain their trust for them to come forward.''
Miller said the grant would help expand legal services to include filing T-Visas, which allow victims to report abuses and receive services without fear of being jailed or deported.
Vednita Carter, who runs the 9-year-old Breaking Free, says the grant money will beef up the numbers of staffers who frequently visit strip clubs, street corners, treatment programs and other locations in search of potential clients. Last year, Breaking Free provided counseling, referral and transitional housing services to more than 500 clients.
"There is a trafficking problem, but the bulk of it and the victims are still domestic,'' Carter said. "What is happening to our young people in this area is no different than what is happening to people from other countries who are being brought here. It's been in our back yard, and it's always been here.''
"Some is True, but not all of it"-J_M
Pioneer Press
"You got whites, Asians, Latinos, women from Germany, east Europe; you got younger and younger girls, boys, girl pimps …" notes the woman, who was kidnapped, raped, beaten and coerced into a life of drugs and prostitution as a 15-year-old in south Minneapolis. Now a counselor and fearing retribution from former pimps and others, she requested I not use her real name.
"You got neighborhood brothels (called chicken shacks on the streets) — massage parlors, saunas, strip clubs and escort services, which is the really big racket right now."
Six years ago, authorities dismantled the largest juvenile prostitution ring ever prosecuted by the federal government. Based in Minneapolis, it transported women and girls as young as 14 to 24 states and Canada. But whoever thought the so-called Evans family case was the end of such trafficking around here was mistaken. "Sad to say, nothing's really changed that much,'' Minneapolis police Sgt. Andrew Schmidt, who helped bust the ring, told me recently. "It's still out there."
That realization is one key reason federal officials are in town today to raise more awareness and pump more money into local efforts to identify and help victims of domestic and international trafficking.
"What this is, really, is a form of modern-day slavery,'' notes Steve Wagner, director of the Trafficking in Persons program at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. Wagner and others will discuss the agency's ongoing "Rescue and Restore'' campaign, a multimillion-dollar federal effort to help local communities combat the problem.
The campaign recently awarded a $150,000 grant jointly to Breaking Free and Civil Society, two St. Paul-based social service organizations that will use the money to expand legal services and outreach efforts.
"One of the things we have discovered is that these victims, because of fear and threats, do not report their conditions to law enforcement or others," Wagner said. "We have to go out and reach out to them."
Social workers and cops report increasing numbers of Russian women in strip clubs, Korean-run massage parlors and saunas and West African, Hmong, Southeast Asian and Spanish-speaking underground sex industries, mostly in the metro area. In Greater Minnesota, authorities are documenting forced prostitution of Mexican women on migrant farms and of American Indian females in Duluth.
The scenario Wagner and others cite is a telltale sign that the heartland and the Upper Midwest are not immune to a growing worldwide problem.
U.S. authorities estimate that 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders each year. Up to 17,500 of those victims are brought into the United States. After drug dealing, human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms industry as the second-largest criminal industry in the world, according to Health and Human Services Department officials.
Victims are forced by individuals or organized rings into the commercial sex trade, where they face extortion, indentured servitude and other abuses. Some victims come as "mail-order brides'' or through fiance visas, explains Linda Miller, Civil Society's executive director.
"We've had a few cases,'' she said. As for victims, "they don't report because they fear deportation, domestic abuse or worse. It's very hard to gain their trust for them to come forward.''
Miller said the grant would help expand legal services to include filing T-Visas, which allow victims to report abuses and receive services without fear of being jailed or deported.
Vednita Carter, who runs the 9-year-old Breaking Free, says the grant money will beef up the numbers of staffers who frequently visit strip clubs, street corners, treatment programs and other locations in search of potential clients. Last year, Breaking Free provided counseling, referral and transitional housing services to more than 500 clients.
"There is a trafficking problem, but the bulk of it and the victims are still domestic,'' Carter said. "What is happening to our young people in this area is no different than what is happening to people from other countries who are being brought here. It's been in our back yard, and it's always been here.''
"Some is True, but not all of it"-J_M