While sex trafficking cases often get the most attention, New York state has seen a rise in reports of labor trafficking this year, according to Julina Guo, director of human trafficking prevention at the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
WAMC's Maryam Ahmad spoke to Guo about how human trafficking impacts the most vulnerable communities, especially immigrant laborers.
Maryam Ahmad: Can you contextualize what human trafficking actually looks like for people in New York State?
Julina Guo: I think it's really important to think about human trafficking on a concrete level. I think we see a lot of different depictions of what human trafficking could look like. We've seen a lot of high-profile legal cases, for example. We've also seen some depictions in popular media like movies or TV shows, but on a practical level, human trafficking can be somewhat small-scale. It can happen in a neighborhood, in a town, on a block. It does not require crossing any sort of international borders, so it can happen within the same state.
Trafficking really can happen to anybody, not just the people depicted in our movies or TV shows. I think it is also important to realize that although we do say that anyone can be trafficked, there are obviously many factors that might make somebody more particularly vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking, and that can look like lack of immigration status, unfamiliarity with the safety nets in their community, lack of family support, or unfamiliarity with the English language. So, there are definitely factors that can make somebody more vulnerable than others.
You mentioned that certain groups were more vulnerable in some cases to trafficking, and you also mentioned immigration status. What does that actually look like? What exactly makes them more vulnerable, and how does that manifest in then their relationship with the trafficker and the actual happening of it?
It can manifest in a number of different ways, I would say. One way that we've actually seen a lot this year is through the use of visas, specifically for agricultural workers. These are immigrants who come to the United States for a temporary period of time on this agricultural worker visa. It's very seasonal work. They're tied to a specific employer here, and so they come on those visas, go to the employer's farm or agricultural site to work, and before coming here, you know, through the visa interview process and the documentation process, they have a understanding of what their job would look like.
They have an understanding of the tasks that they're expected to do, their living situation, which would be provided by the employer, [and] they have an understanding of the wages and the hours that they're expected to work. But when they come here, what we've seen is that they do come on a farm, but they are quickly led to understand that their living situation is not what was represented during the visa process by the employer. The housing situation can be entirely subpar and oftentimes almost unlivable.
So, they are in pretty dire situations with no other way to find housing, and they're also made to work different types of labor than what they originally agreed upon, and what was originally valid as part of the visa. Instead of doing farm work, maybe they're doing work for the employer's other business on the side, or they're doing construction work for the employer on the side, and all the while the employer or the supervisor here is telling them that their visa is tied to the employer, so they have no choice. They have to do these things.
Are there communities where human trafficking is reported less?
I would say there's definitely still some stigmatization in some communities, and oftentimes, certainly in the immigrant communities themselves as well, because there is a stigma of, “I have been tricked by my employer or my partner or whoever it is that's been exploiting me. I don't really have any rights in the United States, and if I'm a worker, maybe I don't know that I have labor rights.”
There is this sort of distrust of the government and of other people in their community, and oftentimes they're led to believe that by their exploiter. The trafficker tells them the trafficker is the only person that cares about them, that can support them, that can protect them, and to trust nobody else — not the police, not the government. I think in those cases, it probably does have a negative effect on reporting.
I think also we have been seeing reports of human trafficking in boys and men, but I think the numbers are still not quite as large as what we see for women and girls, and the same for the LGBTQIA+ community. I think the numbers are there, but there are definitely some barriers to reporting, especially because of societal expectations and norms at times.
You mentioned that particularly H2A visas have been a problem this year. As immigration regulations are changing and shifting quite a bit, are you seeing that occur more versus previous years?
I think we've always had some number of H2A agricultural visa workers. It's really interesting because I think in some climates, you know, politically speaking, you might think that some immigrants might be less willing to come forward to report trafficking because there's this sentiment or rhetoric of “the government is out to get you” or “you don't have certain rights here in this country.” But actually, we've definitely seen a lot of immigrants come forward through these referrals, and so we hope that we're helping to connect them with the support, including legal support, that they need.
