Submitted by admin on Thu, 2007-03-29 08:00. ::
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 Antonio and 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.
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."
"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 University of Houston Immigration Law Clinic.
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 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.
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