Rising Above the Criminalization of Human Trafficking Survivors

[Music]

i was working as an attorney at one of

san diego’s largest law firms when i

first met sarah

she was a young 20-something woman who

was beautiful and intelligent

and she had been trafficked when she was

just 16 years old by her boyfriend

darren

it’s not what you’re thinking he didn’t

kidnap her and hold her against her will

no it was much more nuanced than that

darren used his charisma

and his charm to get sarah to fall in

love with him

and after a few months he asked her if

she could help him make some extra money

by this time she was madly in love with

darren and she wanted to do whatever she

could

to help out he told her he wanted her to

go on dates with men

now as a naive 16 year old girl sarah

didn’t understand at the time that

those men that she went on dates with

would expect to have sex with her

if she refused darren would beat her

into submission

he took every penny she earned and he

demanded that she had a

thousand dollar a day quota if she

didn’t need it she wouldn’t be allowed

to eat or sleep

this went on for quite a while and sarah

felt trapped she didn’t know how to get

away from him

every time she tried to leave him darren

would threaten to harm her family

until one day she had a date with a man

at a hotel they agreed on a price

and then immediately he identified

himself as an undercover cop

at first sarah thought finally someone’s

going to help me escape from darren

but that’s not what happened the cop

arrested her

for crimes that darren had forced her to

commit

now there’s a lot of misinformation out

there about human trafficking so let’s

just make sure we understand what we’re

talking about human trafficking is the

exploitation of another person

by means of force fraud or coercion

for purposes of commercial sex or labor

human trafficking is also exploiting a

child for sex

in that case there doesn’t need to be

force fraud or coercion because a child

can’t consent to be sold for sex

now what you don’t hear anywhere in this

definition is crossing a border

human trafficking doesn’t involve

crossing a border at all you can be

trafficked in a single city and never

leave

if you illegally bring somebody across

an international border

that’s called human smuggling which is a

completely different crime

now no one is immune from human

trafficking it impacts boys girls men

and women all races all nationalities

can be trafficked but there are some

groups that are more vulnerable to being

trafficked

for example foster kids victims of

poverty and abuse

lgbtq individuals and what most people

don’t know about human trafficking

is that when law enforcement shows up on

the scene of a crime where human

trafficking has been committed

they think that law enforcement helps

the victim

and arrests the perpetrator but

unfortunately that is not the experience

of most human trafficking survivors

a study by the national survivor network

found that 91

of survivors surveyed had been arrested

at least once

over half had been arrested for the

first time as a child

and over 40 percent had been arrested

more than nine times

having an arrest or a criminal record of

any kind

is devastating for anyone it’s hard to

get a job

it’s hard to get a place to live student

loans

or public benefits for a human

trafficking survivor

having a criminal record traps them into

a life of abuse

exploitation and poverty i know it

sounds cliche

but i went to law school to help people

when i started law school

i didn’t know exactly how i was going to

help people but i assumed i would figure

it out along the way

when i graduated from law school i was

fortunate to get a clerkship working for

a federal judge in san diego

and that clerkship opened up the door

for me to work at a big law firm in san

diego

while i knew i wanted to help people as

a lawyer i also knew that i had student

loans

so i figured i’d work at this big law

firm i’d pay off my student loans

get some great legal experience and i

could volunteer

in order to fulfill my desire to help

people

when i first learned about human

trafficking i was appalled at how

prevalent it was in our community

i asked one simple question what can i

do to help

and the answer i got over and over again

was we need lawyers

we need lawyers to help survivors so i

founded the lawyers club of san diego

human trafficking collaborative to

engage the legal community in the fight

against human trafficking

it was around this time that i first met

sarah she was a bright and bubbly young

woman

and she was so resilient meeting sarah

changed my life

she never let anything come in the way

of of her achieving her dreams

and with all she’d overcome and all she

had done

to move past her exploitation she still

had these criminal issues hanging over

her head

survivors like sarah they need a fresh

start and they need a clean criminal

record

at that time there was a number of

states that had laws that helped

survivors

clean up their records called vacator

laws unfortunately california didn’t

have a vacater law

so i worked with lawyers club of san

diego to advocate for vacationer law in

california

and when we passed that law sarah was my

very first vacature client

i knew that there were so many other

survivors out there like sarah

who needed help cleaning up their

records and that’s when i knew exactly

what i was supposed to do with my law

degree

and it was around that time that i

decided to quit my job at the law firm

and start a nonprofit called free to

thrive to help humans trafficking

survivors with their legal needs

when i started free to thrive we had one

year of funding

and i was the only employee but i quit

my job with a hope and a prayer

and after almost four years we have 12

employees

and we’ve helped almost 200 human

trafficking survivors

people often ask me why would you quit a

lucrative law firm job

to go start a non-profit

the honest answer is there was never a

thought in my mind not too

so you may be wondering what ever

happened to sarah well

sarah got her ged while she was in the

residential program when we first met

and then she went off to college where

she got straight a’s and was on the

dean’s honor roll

and with the help of freda thrive sarah

became one of the first human

trafficking survivors in the state of

california

to clear their record using california’s

vacateur law

now with this new law we can help

survivors clean up their records

after the fact but there are so many

survivors who are serving time in prison

who are just like sarah so now we’re

advocating for a new law

to help survivors out of prison

this law would allow judges to reduce

sentences for human trafficking

survivors

and when we pass it we’re going to help

survivors get out of prison

but even this new law doesn’t go far

enough we have to change the paradigm

we have to stop criminalizing human

trafficking survivors

and in this moment of reckoning over the

racial inequality in our society

we have to acknowledge that survivors of

color are criminalized at higher rates

than white survivors

therefore we need to educate our judges

law enforcement and prosecutors

about the racial inequalities in our

criminal justice system

and work to address them

i started this work with one question

what can i do to help

and asking that question i found my

purpose

and my passion so what can you do to

help

well you can help raise awareness simply

by sharing this

talk knowledge is power if you’re a

parent

i hope you’ll take the time to talk to

your kids about internet safety

and protect them and their friends from

human traffickers

anyone can help by getting involved in a

non-profit

anywhere that helps human trafficking

survivors we all have a part to play in

the fight against human trafficking

and i hope you’ll join me thank you

you